Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 THE SCORECARD
Message From the Golf Historian…………………… 2
Club Championship…………………………….......…7
Hole in One…………………………………...………7
Robson Cup……………………………………...……9
Golf Humor……………………………..….…..…......9
The Lengths Some People Will Go To Make a Shot..11
The Board and Committee Chairs………….…….….11
Patronizing Our Sponsors……………………….…..14
Remember Our Sponsors………………………...….14
Mark Your Calendar…………………………….…..14
A Bunch of Old Birds Waiting to Tee Off
1 Saddlebrooke Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 Message From Resident Golf Historian
Steve Ordahl is our resident
Golf Historian and Researcher.
He wrote this very interesting
article about the history of
golf. I think you’ll have a great
deal of fun reading the article. GENTLEMEN ONLY LADIES FORBIDDEN (GOLF)
A brief history of common (and not so common) terms
Golf as we know it today originated from a game played on
the eastern coast of Scotland during the 15th century. Players
would hit a pebble around a natural course of sand dunes,
rabbit runs and tracks using a stick or primitive club.
Obviously much has changed in our world since that time
and golf is certainly no exception. But many of the terms we
use every time we play this frustrating game have their
origins hundreds of years ago. I thought it would be
interesting to explore several of these.
GOLF: A common misconception is that the word GOLF is
an acronym for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. This is
definitely not true. It is now accepted that golf is derived
from an old word meaning club. The first documented
mention of the word golf is in Edinburgh on March 6, 1457,
2 Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 when King James II banned ye golf, in an attempt to
encourage archery practice, which was being neglected.
Since the king feared that Scotland was about to be invaded
by England, he believed that archery practice should take
precedence over golf.
FAIRWAY: The original term used by golfers to refer to the
playing area was the fair green. This was mentioned in the
first rules in 1744. The word fairway did not appear until a
century later. The origin of the word has been associated with
fishermen. Fairway is a nautical term for a navigable channel.
Early golf started on links beside ports and fishing nets were
often laid out to dry on them. This looks the most likely
origin of the term.
FORE: There is a reference in 1857 in a glossary of golfing
terms. Because golf balls were expensive, golfers employed
Forecaddies to stand where the ball might land and reduce
the number of lost balls. It is probable that golfers shouted to
their Forecaddie, who would always be some distance ahead
to draw attention to the fact the ball was coming and, in time,
this was shortened to Fore.
CADDIE: A Caddie was a term used for an errand boy in
Scottish towns in the 18th Century, particularly used for
delivering water in the days before modern utilities. The
Oxford Dictionary records this use in 1730. Caddies are often
mentioned carrying golf clubs. In the early days there were
no bags and the clubs were carried in bundle which can
clearly be seen in paintings of the time.
3 Saddlebrooke Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 TEE: The tee was the area where from which you played as
set out in the first rules of golf, 1744. Golfers at this time
used sand to make a tee within one club length of the
previous hole. For centuries, golfers made tees from sand.
This was messy and towels and water were provided to wash
the golfers' hands as they are today to wash golf balls. Often
caddies would scoop out sand from the bottom of the hole to
make the tee and this caused the hole to deteriorate; clubs
often issued reminders that sand should not be taken from
holes.
BUNKER: Early golf developed on links land, where sand
blew across the course and “burns” (small rivers) ran across
it to the sea. In time these were shaped into the hazards that
they are today, especially the sand, putting it in pits called
bunkers. The sand bunker is incontestably Scottish but the
word bunker in golf does not appear until the 1812 Royal &
Ancient rules of golf.
BOGEY: Bogey was the first stroke system, developed in
England at the end of the 19th Century. In 1890, the
Coventry Golf Club conceived the idea of standardizing the
number of shots at each hole that a good golfer should take,
which was called the ground score. Shortly thereafter, this
style of competition was introduced there for use in match
play. During one competition an excellent player was
referred to as a regular “Bogey man." This was probably a
reference to the subject of a popular music hall song of the
day. Over time the ground score became known as the bogey
score. Later, in the middle of 20th century, bogey was used
as the term for one above par.
4 Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 PAR: Par is derived from the stock exchange term that a
stock may be above or below its normal or par figure. In
1911, the United States Golf Association laid down the
following very modern distances for determining par: Up to
225 yards-Par 3, 225 to 425 yards-Par 4, 426 to 600 yardsPar 5, Over 601 yards-Par 6. As golf developed, and scores
declined, many old British courses did not adjust their
courses or their bogey scores, which meant good golfers were
achieving lower than a bogey score. This meant the US had
an up-to-date national standard of distances for holes, while
the British courses didn’t. Americans began referring to one
over par as a bogey, much to the British chagrin.
BIRDIE: Birdie, meaning a score of one stroke under par,
comes from the early 20th century American slang term
"bird", meaning anything excellent. The Country Club in
Atlantic City lays claim to the first use of the word birdie
itself. A threesome was playing the par-four second hole
there when a golfer’s second shot stopped within inches of
the hole. He called it "a bird of shot," and claimed he should
get double money if he won with one under par, which was
agreed to by members of his group. He holed his putt and
thereafter referred to such a score as a birdie. This
phraseology was adopted by the club and began to be used
commonly.
EAGLE: Eagle, a score of two under par for a given hole,
was the extension of the theme of birdie. It was natural for
American golfers to think of the eagle, our national symbol.
The term developed shortly after the birdie.
5 Saddlebrooke Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 ALBATROSS: Albatross is three under par and is a
continuation of the birdie and eagle theme, but is a British
term. Three under par (often called a double eagle in the
USA) is very rare as is an albatross. The first albatross score
reported in the press is from South Africa when a golfer
named E E Wooler scored a hole-in-one in 1931 on the 18th
hole of the Durban Country Club (par 4-271 yards). It cost
him 40 British pounds (that’s more than $4,550 today) in
drinks, but, had he known that he was making history, he
probably would not have minded!
NIBLICK: Back in the early days of golf history, and even
into the 20th century, golf clubs in a set were not identified
by number (e.g., 5-iron), but by name. There were clubs
called mashies and niblicks (and mashie-niblicks); cleeks and
jiggers; baffies and spoons, among others. Today, we call
such clubs antique or historical golf clubs . Perhaps the better
name, though, would be pre-modern clubs. You can think of
modern golf club sets as those containing mostly clubs
identified by number rather than name, and with steel or
graphite shafts rather than wood (most commonly hickory)
shafts.
The transition to such modern sets was completed in the late
1930s, early 1940s. A complete description of the names and
uses of these antique clubs is too long for this article but if
you are interested in more, try this link.
http://golf.about.com/od/historyofgolf/fl/names-of-old-golfclubs.htm
We all know that golf has a rich and colorful history and is a
fun and frustrating game. So grab your favorite brassie,
6 Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 stride up to the teeing ground, and make a bird of a shot
straight down the fairgreen. See you on the links!
STEVE
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
Steve Thomson
Bob Christianson
This year's Club Championship was a huge success and our
new Club Champion is Steve Thomson who beat out the
defending champion from 2016 in a sudden death playoff
with Bob Christianson. They both shot 77 and 79 (156)
after 36 holes. With a sudden death playoff starting on hole
#1, Steve Thompson parred the first hole winning the club
championship.
7 Saddlebrooke Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 HOLE IN ONE
Congratulations to Bruce Crawford joining the hole in one
club on Monday, April 17. It was the 5th hole, on the
Saddlebrooke Ranch Course and it played 123 yards as he hit
an 9 iron.
8 Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 ROBSON CUP
The Robson Cup was finally played on April 19. Teams from
five of the Robson communities competed. The good news
was it was a great day, their course was in great shape, the
host, Robson Ranch, provided a terrific barbeque lunch. The
bad news was that the fearless squad from Saddlebrooke
Ranch got their butts kicked rather badly. The only happy
camper from Saddlebrooke Ranch was Bruce Deverman who
came home with $10 in prize money.
GOLF HUMOR
An Atlanta lawyer went to play golf in rural Tennessee.
During the round he hooked a shot into a farmer's field on the
other side of a fence. As the lawyer climbed over the fence,
an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what
he was doing. The litigator responded, "I hooked my shot and
it fell in this field, and now I'm going in to retrieve my ball."
The old farmer replied. "This is my property, and you are not
coming over here." The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of
the best trial attorneys in Georgia and, if you don't let me get
my ball, I'll sue you and take everything you own."
The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't
know how we do things in Tennessee. We settle small
9 Saddlebrooke Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 disagreements like this with the Tennessee Three-Kick Rule."
The lawyer asked, "What is the Tennessee Three-Kick
Rule?" The Farmer replied. "Well, first I kick you three times
and then you kick me three times, and so on, back and forth,
until someone gives up."
The big-city attorney quickly thought about the proposed
contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger.
He agreed to abide by the local custom.
The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and
walked up to the city feller. His first kick to the shin had the
lawyer hopping around on one foot when suddenly the farmer
planted the toe of his heavy work boot into the lawyer's groin
and dropped him to his knees. The barrister was flat on his
belly when the farmer's third kick to a kidney nearly caused
him to pass out. The lawyer summoned every bit of his will
and managed to get to his feet and said, "Okay, you old coot
now it's my turn."
The old farmer smiled and said, "Naw, I give up. You can
have your ball back."
10 Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 The Lengths Some People Will Go To Make a Shot
An interesting demonstration submitted by one of our
fellow members Karl Knight. Click on the below link
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-38573364
THE BOARD and COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Pesident: Mark Klicker
Vice President: Sam Rossi
11 Saddlebrooke Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 Secretary: Bruce Deverman
The Scorecard: [email protected]
Membership: Tim McCauley [email protected]
Webmaster: Doug Strueber
Treasurer: Bob Christianson
Weekly Events: Jack Gressingh
12 Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 Special Events Chairman: Harley Schlachter
Handicap and Rules: Rob Nemecek
AGA Delegate: Mark Martin
SPima
Cup: Paul Lapatosky
Sponsorship Chairmen: Guy Shelton
13 Saddlebrooke Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 PATRONIZING OUR SPONSORS
You are probably aware that the various sponsors who have
generously given money to the Saddlebrooke Ranch MGA has
resulted in an increase in the prize money that is available to the
members who play on the various Thursday events. This money is a
form of advertising on the part of the sponsors who believe that the
membership of our MGA will patronize their establishments and
consider using their services. Whenever you can try to show our
appreciation by considering using their services whenever you can
REMEMBER OUR SPONSORS
For 2016, we are pleased to have three Platinum sponsors and ten
Premier sponsors. The Platinum sponsors are Coyote Golf Cars, Golf
Cars of Arizona, and Kim Tucker MD The Premier sponsors are
Gerry Hause Long Realty, Community Church at Saddlebrooke,
Robson Resort Communities, Oracle Ford, Outdoor Creations,
Brakemax, Concierge Cooling’ Sonoran Design Landscape
Bubb’s Grub and DDS Patrick Shaffer
MARK YOUR CALENDER
Pima Cup
May 10
Board Meeting May 17
14 Saddlebrooke Ranch Men’s Golf Association Apr 2017 15