Archive for August, 2009

All About Golf

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Bright laid back Sun. morning, extended weekends or a holiday, dialogue on none of these is complete without a mention of golfing. What precisely is Golf? Well it is an outside ball game whereby the target is to hit the ball into a chain of holes in the minimum possible strokes. Now the quantity of strokes you want to hit one hole is your Par.

Each hole has a teeing area around it, which has a green, a coarse sideway and a green well-mown area round the hole. Then there are the “not so wanted” barriers like sand traps, water etc that are called the bunkers. It is believed to have originated from a traditional game called chole, apparently meaning, “ball”. The majority of the people believe that Scotland is where Golf was born, possibly out of a banned fifteenth century game called ‘gowf’. However many folklore relate it as a way of saying Gentlemen only Women Prohibited .

The modern Golfing cropped up again in Scotland in the later half the 19th century. Later on over the twentieth century golfing saw a facelift with a range of golfing equipments and methodologies being invented. Golf has woven itself in the social fabric as the game of the elect and top-end businessmen.

Would you accept if we tell you that many US business school add golfing to their management curriculum? It’s a game of social standing. After all one has to shell out enormous sums on latest gear, the right clothing and the green costs of the golfing course. This has still kept golfing away from the reach of common man. Nonetheless , the giant recognition of the game can be judged by the actual fact that there may be more than 32,000 golfing courses in the world.

Players move round the golfing course with their caddies who manage the equipments of the players. The player whose ball is farthest from the hole gets an opportunity to play first when each individual player has had his chance of playing the ball once.

The game is won by the person or the team that scores the maximum holes. It can be played by teams in foursome or by people.

a particularly fascinating term taking rounds in the golf community is “Golf handicap.” This is the score of talent of different players, which affect their net score, so permitting players of different capacities to play against one another. Folk say golfing isn’t played by rules but by etiquettes. The most elementary are “play the ball as it lies”, “play the course as you find it”, and “if you can’t do either, do what’s fair”. A Golfer can play many kinds of shots like tee shot, golf green shot, bunker shot, puts, pitch, flop, chip and a golfing swing. A golfing swing is the most complicated shot that involves perfect coordination of the entire anatomy of the player. Over time golf gear has grown in term of class and system. From golf balls, tees and clubs to golfing carts, bags shoes, etc ; it’s a full massive market out there. In this time and age when pollution is a massive problem, the massive golfing courses turn out to be the respiring lungs of cities and cities where they are found. They nurture the local flora and fauna and supply a welcome relief from the urban jungle.