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S-word Ssssssh!
This is a very bad word in golf. A shank is a shot that flies ninety degrees
to the right after the ball has been struck with the club's hosel. So devastating
is this affliction that if you get the shanks, the best thing to do is
leave the course immediately and seek professional help— from your bartender.
Sand Trap -
A deep depression filled with sand filled with golfers in a deep depression.
Sandbagger A
golfer who falsely posts high scores in order to inflate his handicap, thereby
making him more difficult to defeat in matches. This is serious cheating.
Also known as a ringer.
Sandy When
you escape from a bunker to make birdie or par, you've made a sandy. One
of many junk bets golfers make during a match. ,
Scats A
betting game in which all the members of a group play against each other for a
predetermined amount on each hole. Ties carry over to the next hole.
Sclaff -
Onomatopoetic Scottish word for a flubbed shot in which the ground is contacted
before the ball is hit. The game's Celtic inventors had plenty of time to develop
a rich vocabulary for golfing mishaps, such as a ball topped lightly into the
water (firkel), a ball hit a short distance through dense grass (glef f ), straight
into the air (pooth), into the woods (slessgrack), into rocks (lofonnock) and
into other players (yebastard).
Score -
The total number of strokes needed to complete 18 holes or three times the caddy's
tip, whichever is closest to 75.
Scorecard
- A piece of paper on which a player's opening offer is written prior to the commencement
of serious negotiations.
Scrambler A
golfer who plays somewhat erratically but manages to salvage good scores from
inconsistent play. A scramble refers to a golf competition in which each
of four players on a team hits a tee shot and picks a best ball, then plays a
second shot from that spot. The team continues to pick a best ball and play from
that spot until a shot is holed.
Scrape it around
To play spotty or inconsistent golf but still manage to post a good score.
Great pros like Jack Nicklaus stay in tournament contention by scraping it
around on days when they don't have their A game.
Scratch Term
to describe a golfer who has a zero handicap; that is, he is starting from scratch.
Dream on.
Scratch Player
- A player with a handicap of zero; a par golfer; a rat; a louse; a stinker.
Scuff A
lousy shot that results from hitting the ground before hitting the ball. (See
also fat, hit it.}
Senior -
A golfer who attributes poor play to the fact that he or she lacks the physique
of a younger player. See JUNIOR.
Set of Clubs
- A collection of no more than 14 golf clubs, usually consisting of three or four
woods, nine or ten irons, and a putter. The chief distinction among the types
of clubs is that the woods make a sound like "speck" or "frop"
when the ball is improperly hit, whereas the irons emit a sharp "jink,"
"fank" or "whenng" and the putter produces a soft "tilk."
Set them up
What you do when you improve your lie in the fairway. Also what you ask the
bartender to do after you've taken money from your archrival. (See also roll
it.)
Shag - To
retrieve golf balls. Golf is full of odd terms and expressions. After hitting
a 5-iron shot right onto the green, for example, you might answer an opponent's
question about what club you used by saying, "The stick I used was a 7iron";
when citing a nonexistent rule to improve your lie, you might say, "I'm claiming
relief from this lie under the rule covering tassleclots"; and after scoring
a 6 on a hole, the right way to report your tally is to say, "I carded a
five."
Shag hag Any
container used by a golfer to hold practice balls.
Shank -
The most dramatic and unsettling form of misplayed shot, in which, as the clubshaft
vibrates violently, the ball flies off to the right at nearly a 90° angle,
embarrassing the golfer and endangering his or her fellow players. Duffers who
consistently shank their balls are urged to buy and study Shanks-No Thanks by
R. K. Hoffman or, in extreme cases, M. S. Howard's excellent Tennis for Beginners.
Shape it To
curve a shot intentionally to fit the hole. Corey Pavin is the absolute best at
this.
Shooting the
lights out Hitting all the shots and making low scores.
Short Game -
The short shots played around the green (chips, putts, pitches and sand trap blasts)
and the cheap shots taken between the green and the next tee (quips, digs, cracks,
slams and jests).
Short grass
Where you are when you hit the fairway with your drive.
Short hole
Term used to describe any par three.
Short stick
The putter, so named because it's the shortest club in the bag. You
can make up for a lot of bad work with other sticks if you can handle the short
stick.
Shotgun start
Some tournaments station players on each tee to start a round so that they
can all finish at roughly the same time. This is called a shotgun start because
the beginning of play was once signalled by a shotgun blast. Now they use
a horn to signal the beginning of play—it's a lot safer.
Side Each
nine holes—front and back. Also each team in a competition.
Sitter Term
for a ball sitting atop the grass in the rough. Pray for a sitter when
you see your tee shot heading for trouble.
Skull -
To hit the upper part of the ball, causing a fast, low driving shot. You might
try hitting slightly more under the ball with a sweeping movement of the arms.
Sky - To
hit too far under the ball, causing a high, ballooning shot. You might try using
your hands to open up the clubface a bit.
Slam-dunk To
hit the ball into the hole with great force. This usually happens when a putt
or chip that is moving much faster than the ideal speed slams into the back of
the cup, pops into the air, and falls into the hole.
Slice -
To hit the ball with too open a clubface. You might try closing it up a little.
Slice A
shot that curves to the right. The most common fault of amateur golfers, generally
caused by an open club face at impact.
Slick Term
used to describe fast greens.
Slider A
putt that breaks slightly and subtly in either direction. Also a low, hard left-to-right
shot. Fred Couples hits lots of sliders off the tee.
Smile Balls
that are skulled or otherwise mishit often wind up with a cut on their
surface that resembles a smile, though you won't be smiling as you reach
into your bag for another ball.
Smoked Term
for a ball that is hit hard and far.
Smother
- To hit the ball with too closed a clubface. You might try opening it back up
and hitting more on the upper part of the ball.
Smother hook
A hook that flies left and low to the ground, though only for a short
distance; it is struck with a severely closed club face.
Snake A
long putt that breaks in more than one direction. One of the most famous snakes
ever holed was a sixty-footer by Ben Crenshaw on the tenth hole at Augusta
National Golf Club during the 1984 Masters Tournament.
Snap hook See
duck hook and rope hook.
Sniper See
duck hook, rope hook, and snap hook, all names for the same crummy
shot.
Snowman A
score of eight for a hole, so named because the digit resembles a snowman.
Also called lots of unprintable names. (See also Frosty.,)
Sock - To
hit someone under the chin or on the lower part of the face with a closed hand
driven by a fast, upward-sweeping movement of the arm.
Spin - Professional
golfers and other accomplished players can apply a variety of spins to the ball
to make it curve around obstacles, turn into the wind or stop dead where it lands.
These shots take skill and practice, but most beginners have a bag of tricks,
too! For example, even the rankest of amateurs can amaze their playing companions
and themselves by making a ball run right across the centre of the hole without
going in, rise straight up into the air, execute unbelievably sharp left or right
turns, travel sideways or even backwards, or disappear entirely.
Spinach The
roughest of the rough. When you were a kid, you hated spinach for the taste.
Now, as a mature, open-minded adult golfer, you hate spinach because you
can't play a decent shot out of the stuff. (See also cabbage.}
Spraying Term
that means your shot pattern is all over the place and your misses are about as
predictable as the weather.
Stake it To
knock the ball really close to the hole (stake). (See also leaner.)
Stance -
The proper positioning of the feet for the golf stroke may seem a fairly complex
matter, but there are really only a few basics to master: just remember to put
the clubhead behind the ball with your left hand on the grip (some say the right
hand), then step forward with your right foot (some say the left foot), bring
up your left foot (or right) and grasp the grip with your right hand (or left).
Now line up the ball with your left heel, your left toe, the inside of your left
foot, or between your feet, with the left foot slightly forward, the right foot
slightly forward, or both feet parallel. That's all there is to it!
Stand on it
What you do when you swing your hardest, to get maximum distance out of a
club.
Stick Short
for flagstick Also, a shot that hits and stops quickly is said to stick to
the green.
Sticks Your
clubs. When your tee shot lands near the hole, your competitor might ask, "What
stick did you use?" Then you hold up five fingers to identify the
three iron you just hit.
Stiff Term
used to describe a ball hit very close to the hole. Also, when a club shaft has
very little bend, it is a stiff shaft. And when you don't tip your caddie
after the round, you stiff him.
Stoney When
a golfer knocks the ball to within gimme range, it is stone dead,
or stoney.
Stop the bleeding
Finally to make a par or birdie after several less than stellar holes.
Strait Jacket
- Confining garment that some golfers have found to be necessary after long periods
spent attempting to master the stance.
Striped it To
hit a good tee shot.
Stroke -
Any forward movement of the club that is made with the intention of hitting and
moving the ball and is observed by another golfer.
Stymie -
A ball whose path to the hole is blocked by another ball is said to be "stymied,"
and under current rules the impeding ball is marked and moved. At one time, such
shots had to be played by making the ball hop over or curve around the impediment,
but a notorious, deliberately laid stymie during extra holes of the 1951 English
Amateur Championship led to a modification of the rule, first in Britain and then,
a little later, in the U.S. Other important rule changes and the circumstances
under which they were made:
LIMIT SET ON TIME
SPENT SEARCHING FOR LOST BALL: "The Lang, Lang Combing of the Glen,"
14th hole, Loath Links, October 11, 1871-April 8, 1872
UNORTHODOX SWINGS
AND CLUBS DISALLOWED: Lacrosse player Francois Foisette wins the Canadian Open,
1899
"ELIGIBLE
PLAYER" MORE FULLY DEFINED: Kabu, a chimpanzee, wins the Calcutta Open, 1901
PLAY STRICTLY PROHIBITED
FROM LIES BEYOND THE BOUNDARY of A COURSE: "The Mashie Incident," British-Chinese
border skirmish, Hong Kong, 1909
FOURTEEN-CLUB MAXIMUM
ESTABLISHED: "Relatively Bloody Saturday," the Caddy Strike of 1926
DISCONTINUANCE
OF TOURNAMENT PLAY PERMITTED: "The Battle of the Glorious Leg-of-the-Dog
15th," third round of the Spanish Open, Valencia, 1937
BALL REMOVED FROM
COURSE BY DOG DECLARED UNPLAYABLE: A.S.P. C.A. v. U.S.P G.A., 31. U.S. 564, 1948
PENALTY FOR ACCIDENTALLY
KNOCKING BALL OFF TEE Executive Order #l, President Gerald Ford, 1974
Sudden Death
- Term for the situation that exists when a match is tied at the end of 18 holes
and the player who feels the least amount of confidence about beating the opposition
in extra-holes play suddenly remembers the death, earlier in the day, of a beloved
aunt.
Suck back A
ball that hits the green and then reverses direction due to backspin is said to
have sucked back. As far as amateur golfers are concerned, this phrase
is useful only as a spectator, since amateurs rarely generate enough back-spin
to get a ball to suck back.
Sucker pin
A pin that is cut so close to a hazard that only a sucker would fire
right at it.
Swing -
A full golf swing consists of the backswing that carries the clubhead up to the
topswing point, the downswing that brings the clubhead to the point of impact,
and the follow through. If the ball dribbles a few feet forward or hooks or slices
violently into the woods or rough, the follow-through can be extended into the
foresling-a graceful, lateral motion that sends the club spiraling into the underbrush.
Alternatively, the follow-through may be stopped and the club brought up sharply
in a vertical arc until the clubhead is behind the back, pointing at the ground,
then swept smoothly up into the more classic topfling, which combines the power
and accuracy necessary to send even the heaviest club into a distant water hazard.
Swing doctor
A teaching professional. Consult with caution; often the cure is worse than
the disease.
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