Golf Fun Facts

 

For all of our golf enthusiasts, we’ve compiled some fun facts about golf:

1. The longest recorded drive was a whopping 515 yards.
2. The first 18-hole golf course was on a sheep farm.
3. Golf was played on the moon – On February 6, 1967 Alan Bartlett “Al” Shepard, Jr. performed a one-handed swing with a six-iron, sending the ball flying through the moon’s low-gravity atmosphere.
4. It is pretty widely accepted that modern day golf was invented during the year 1457 in Scotland. The Chinese, however, claim to have invented a similar game during the Song dynasty as far back as 943 A.D.
5. Tiger Woods made his first hole-in-one at the age of eight.
6. The first round of women’s golf was played in the year 1811 in Musselburgh, Scotland.
7. The first golf balls were made of chicken or goose feathers wrapped in leather. Later, golf balls were made of wood.
8. Golf tees were popularized in the 1920s. Before golf tees, golfers would shape mounds of sand to place the golf balls on.
9. The term “birdie” was coined accidentally by Ab Smith who hit a “bird of a shot” in 1889.
10. A score of three under par is called an “Albatross”.
11. A “condor” is term given to a hole-in-one on a par 5. It is almost as rare as two hole-in-ones in a single game of golf.
12. The French word “cadet” means “youngest child” and is where the word caddy was derived from.
13. Only 20% of golfers have a handicap below 18.
14. The chances of making two holes-in-one in a single round of golf are one in 67 million!
15. A golf ball will travel further on hot days, because the air is less dense, so it takes less velocity to travel.