Golf Compendium

Even for the best golfers on the planet, bogeys are common. Golf is hard! But in the history of the world's top pro golf tours, there are two remarkable streaks of bogey-free holes that reached 110 holes and more.

"Sunday ball" is a slang term in golf for a do-over shot. In other words, it's another term for a mulligan.

Something funny happened in the first round of the 1989 Masters : Lee Trevino took the lead. Well, it was funny to Trevino, and unexpected to everyone else. The UPI account from April 7, 1989 reads like this:

An elevated green is a putting green that is higher than the surrounding elements of the hole it is part of. A golfer who encounters an elevated green will be playing her approach up to that green, because she will be hitting from an area (whether fairway, rough or tee) that is lower than the elevated green's surface.

A term that used be common in golf but is virtually never heard anymore, outside of historical discussions of the game, is "play club." But the old, archaic golf club whose name was "play club" was, essentially, the original driver.

Jack Simpson is one of the lesser-known British Open champions , winner of the Open in 1884 — virtually his only tournament finish of note. But his family name is still on a Carnoustie landmark today.

Sisters playing together on a Solheim Cup team? That has to be a rarity. After all, how many sets of sisters can you name where two (or more) siblings were playing top-level, winning golf in the same general time frame? They are rare. But, in fact, two sets of sisters so far have been on the same Solheim Cup squads.

The Cannes Open was a golf tournament on the European Tour that was played for most of the 1980s and 1990s in the famous resort city in France.

You might guess that a pigeon is the name of a golf score, since there is an avian theme to the names of golf scores (birdie, eagle). But no, pigeon is something very different. Pigeon is something no golfer wants to be called.

Below is the list of every golfer who has received a captain's pick to play in the Solheim Cup. Which golfers have done the best (and worst) with their opportunities?

The Solheim Cup trophy — the literal Solheim Cup — is an impressive crystal, cut-glass trophy. The team (United States or Europe) that wins the tournament named the Solheim Cup gets to keep that trophy for two years, until the next tournament comes around. How big is the Solheim Cup trophy? This is the tale of the tape

Mary Lena Faulk was an LPGA Tour player of the 1950s and 1960s who won 10 times, including one victory in a major championship.

Every two years, there are 28 points up for grabs by the two teams playing the Solheim Cup. And that presents the possibility the two teams will tie, 14-14. What happens in the event such a tie happens? Who gets the Cup?

The Solheim Cup is one of the biggest events in women's professional golf, played every other year betweens teams representing Europe and the United States. But who is it named after — who put the "Solheim" in Solheim Cup?

The format for the Solheim Cup is two days of doubles match play using foursomes and fourballs, followed by a final day of singles match play. It is a three-day competition between teams of women professional golfers representing the United States and Europe. Twenty-eight points are at stake over the those three days, which break down like this:

The 2019 Solheim Cup was the 16th time the competition was played . With Team Europe's dramatic victory, the overall standings in the event's history was 10 wins for Team USA, six wins for Team Europe.

Harry Weetman was an English golfer who was one of the top players in Britain and Europe during the 1950s and into the early 1960s. He won more than 15 notable tournaments during that time, and also played in numerous Ryder Cups. (He captained a Ryder Cup squad, too.)

The Solheim Cup is the international women's pro team golf tournament in which United States golfers play against a team of European golfers. It was launched in 1990, created by the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour, at the urging of namesake Karsten Solheim and the backing of his company, Ping Golf.

A "blind bogey handicap" is a one-day handicap for a golf tournament that is figured after the golfers have completed play. It allows golfers who don't have official handicaps (which is typically most golfers who play in association events, corporate outings, charity tournaments and the like) to take part in tournaments that use or require handicaps, and to compete for net score prizes.

The Azalea Open was a PGA Tour golf tournament that was played from the mid-1940s into the early 1970s, all but one of those years in North Carolina.

The "scruffy" is a golf bet played within any group of golfers. It involves one of those golfers betting the others that he or she can make par from a less-than-ideal location following the tee shots. In Scruffies, which the game is also called, a golfer whose tee shot misses the fairway (on par-4s and par-5s) or the green (on par-3s holes) can call a scruffy. That puts the bet in place.

"Out" is a very common word in our everyday language. But in a golf context, "out" has two specific meanings that apply to, respectively, golf ball position and golf course layout.

Sandra Spuzich won golf tournaments on the LPGA Tour from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s. While she didn't win a lot of them, Spuzich did win the biggest of all: the U.S. Women's Open.

Bogey or Bust is the name of a golf game that is most often played as a side bet by buddies in a group of four, or as a bonus pool within a tournament. Either way, as the name implies, in Bogey or Bust the object of the game is making no worse than a bogey on each hole.

In the history of professional golf, only six golfers have won three of the pro majors in the same calendar year. Four women have done it and two men. Nobody (yet) has won four majors in the same year.

"21" (or "Twenty-One") is the name of a golf putting game that can help golfers who struggle getting their putts to the hole. Leave it short on a regular basis? Playing 21 might help. Or it might cost you some money if you and your buddies have a wager at stake.