Did You Know These Unusual Five Facts About Golf?

There are few sports so popular and yet so misunderstood by the great British public as golf. With a worldwide following of millions, golf is one of the top ten most watched sports on the planet and is popular across much of Asia, as well as in Europe and North America.

Despite its popularity, most non-fans struggle to understand even the basics of the game, and with its fair share of niche lingo, it can seem a bit like a secret society to the uninitiated!

It’s an exciting game that doesn’t require an exceptional level of physical fitness which makes it open to almost anyone – we’ve compiled five fun facts that you might not know about golf. Keep them under your hat to whip out next time you need a funny anecdote for a golfing friend!

Caddy? Cadet.

Golf is renowned as a highbrow sort of sport, with social clubs often attached to golf courses, designer golf-wear available and of course, the ‘caddies’ who follow players around with their clubs. They are far from ubiquitous on golf courses these days but are nonetheless associated by many with the sport.

The term in fact originated in France, where students would often carry clubs to earn a bit of extra cash. The French term for student is ‘cadet’ (pronounced ca-DAY) and in its anglicised form, this became ‘caddy.’

Great balls of… feathers

These days golf balls are made of high-performance materials (mostly resin and rubber) and come with more or less dense cores dependent on the user’s swing. It’s a complicated business, but in the early days of golf, balls were simply carved out of hardwood. These balls didn’t last more than a few rounds before they cracked, and needed to be replaced.

One of the options which replaced these wooden balls was known as a ‘feathery’ and was a spherical leather pouch filled with feathers and painted white – much less dense than those used today.

Golf is one of two sports played on the moon

After expending millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to get there and no insignificant amount of effort, American Alan Bartlett Shepard Jnr is reported to have played golf on the moon. It’s a bit of a stretch, considering that he had no course or holes, but the astronaut did swing a six-iron one handed to send a golf ball flying through the low-gravity atmosphere of the moon.

The other sport which has reportedly been played on the moon is the javelin toss.

It’s a birdie!

As previously mentioned, golf is a sport which has its own language of shorthand terms referring to different shots and items of equipment. One of the most famous terms is a birdie, which is when a player finishes a hole one shot under par.

It is said to have been coined by American player Ab Smith, who remarked during a 1899 round of golf that he had played a ‘bird of a shot’, a phrase which became ‘birdie’ over time. The word ‘bird’ or ‘birdie’ also meant something cool or good in popular slang at the time, which may have helped to cement its place in golfing terminology.

A devilish drive

Professional golfer Michael Hoke Austin is credited with making the longest recorded drive during a game of golf. He hit the ball more than 500 yards during a game which was played in 1974.

His record-breaking drive may have had something to do with the fact that Michael was not only a professional golfer, but also an expert in the field of kinesiology or the mechanics of body movement. In more than 40 years the record has yet to be broken – not bad going!

MN2S

With an estimated 450,000 fans across the globe, golf is a popular sport and booking a personality from the world of golf as a public speaker from a top talent agency could prove to be a real draw. If you’re interested in booking celebrities like Peter Alliss (the ‘Voice of Golf’), contact MN2S talent agency to find out more.

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