Golf Compendium

"Cool-season grasses" are those grasses that grow best in cooler climates. In the golf world, that means grasses that maintain their growth rates, healthy root systems and density in cooler temperatures, but suffer in those areas when the weather warms up.

A "barkie" happens when a golfer makes par on a hole after hitting a tree with one of his shots. Your drive hit a tree, yet you recovered to make par? You just scored a barkie.

Tom Kidd was a golfer of the 19th century and one of the lesser-known British Open champs ever. But he did, in fact, win the Open Championship ... and he just might have invented grooves on irons.

The Regions Charity Classic was a golf tournament on the Champions Tour that was played for nearly 20 years starting from the early 1990s.

The Senior British Open (its formal title is Senior Open Championship) is one of the five major championships of senior (over-50) men's golf. Would you like to play where senior major champions have played? Below is the list of golf courses that have hosted this championship.

The Evian Championship is one of the five majors of women's professional golf. It is played annually in France at the Evian Resort Golf Club, and its history dates to 1994.

The Senior Open Championship is one of the majors in senior (over-50) golf. It is also called The Senior Open or, by some golfers, the Senior British Open (to differentiate it from the U.S. Senior Open). This tournament is run by the R&A and has been a senior major in Europe since its founding in 1987.

Al Besselink was a PGA Tour winner in the 1950s and 1960s, but is perhaps best-remembered today for his hijinks and love of gambling — including on himself to win golf tournaments.

Golf fitness (specific exercises and stretches designed for golfers) can help your golf game, and playing golf can help you get or stay fit. But staying healthy during a round of golf is very important, too. Here are some general tips for protecting your health during a round of golf.

The 2019 British Open was 148th time this major was played. It took place in Northern Ireland and an Irish golfer won it.

In the first round of the 2019 British Open , David Duval carded a score so high that it took a while to figure out what he'd actually shot. It wound up as a 91. Where does that rank among the worst scores in British Open history for an 18-hole round? Unfortunately for Duval, it makes the list.

Have you ever heard of a golf game named "Fairways to Heaven"? It's a game that requires a golfer to hit the fairway with his or her drive, and to do so under pressure because there is money at stake.

Michelle Wie burst onto the international golf scene before she was even a teenager: Her first LPGA Tour appearances happened when she was only 12 years old. From age 12 through age 15, before turning pro, Wie played in 24 LPGA tournaments.

The Dunlop-Southport Tournament (sometimes shortened to just Southport Tournament) was played in England from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. Its champions roster includes many of the top British golfers of the era.

Max Faulkner won a British Open title and more than a dozen top tournaments in the pre-European Tour era of British and Continental golf. He also earned a reputation as an eccentric with antics such as walking on his hands during a tournament.

The major championship of men's professional golf that is played every year in Great Britain (and a couple times in Northern Ireland) is called ... what, exactly? Is it the British Open or The Open Championship? Which is correct? The answer, we say, is this: One name is correct , but both names are good.

James Braid was the first golfer in the history of the oldest major, the Open Championship, to record a sub-70 score for an 18-hole round. In the 1904 British Open , played at Royal St. George's Golf Club, Braid carded a 69 in the third round — the first 18-hole round in the 60s ever in the British Open.

The term "Great Triumvirate," when used in a golf context, refers to the three greatest golfers of the late 19th/early 20th century period who dominated golf in Great Britain: Harry Vardon, J.H. Taylor and James Braid.

Since the British Open was the first pro golf tournament and is the oldest extant golf tournament and oldest major, it's had more than 150 years of accumulating firsts. The first sub-70 round, for example, or the first golfer to win it four times. That's what we're talking about here: All those fascinating firsts in the history of the Open Championship that advanced the tournament, and continue to do so.

What is the largest margin of victory ever in the British Open? The answer to that, considering the entire tournament history, is 13 strokes. But since the history of this major dates to the mid-19th century, perhaps it is better to talk about its margin-of-victory record in terms of pre-1900 and 1900-to-present. So let's do that. Largest Pre-20th Century Winning Margin in the British Open In the 1800s, the record for margin of victory in the Open Championship is 13 strokes, set by Old Tom Morris in 1862. And that is the all-time record, as well, making it perhaps the oldest record in golf history still standing. The runner-up to Old Tom in 1862 was Willie Park Sr. The 1862 Open was just the third time the Open was played. It took place at Prestwick, which at the time was a 12-hole links. The golfers played three rounds, so 36 holes total. Old Tom shot 52-55-56, a 163 total. Here's an important point, though, and one that makes the margin-of-victory records from the p...

On the Monday preceding many LPGA Tour events, golfers who are not yet in that week's tournament get the chance to play their way in. These 18-hole "tournaments" are called Monday qualifiers. And the question we are asking now is this: Has any golfer ever played her way into an LPGA Tour tournament through a Monday qualifier, and then won that event? The answer is yes.

Gary Player is one of the greatest golfers of all time, and one of the best-known. As in, avid golf fans really know a lot about Gary. Probably too much given that he once posed semi-nude for ESPN the Magazine . But we bet you didn't know Player once recorded a record album, singing 10 songs, a selection of standards, classics and little-known ditties that were some combination of folk, country and pop.

Sky marks (often spelled as one word, "skymarks") are those scratches and scuff marks in the finish and paint on the top of a driver that result from mishitting the golf ball.

The Lorena Ochoa Invitational was an LPGA Tour tournament played in Mexico and hosted by the retired tour legend, Ochoa. It was played nine times in the early 2000s.

"Silly season" is a term that many golf fans (and many pro golfers) apply to unofficial-money events that are played outside of the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour schedules. Such events typically take place late in the calendar year, in the gap between the end of one tour season and the beginning of the next. Silly season tournaments also sometimes incorporate unorthodox competition formats.

Polly Riley was a lifelong amateur golfer, a practice partner of Babe Zaharias and friend of Ben Hogan, a winner of dozens of top amateur tournaments and the first champion in the history of the LPGA Tour.