Golf Compendium

The last golfer to shoot his age on the PGA Tour was Arnold Palmer, and it happened in 2001. There is a good reason it's been so long since anyone did it: It is rare these days for golfers old enough to shoot their age to start in a PGA Tour event.

Kevin Sutherland was the first golfer in Champions Tour history to shoot 59 in competition. The senior tour's first sub-60 round happened in 2014, 34 years after the tour was founded — and it was almost a 57.

If you want to become a great putter — or even just improve from bad to average — you'll have to spend time on the practice green, bent over your putter, making strokes. Developing feel and touch in putting requires plenty of practice, but the long hours standing in a bent-over position on the practice green can wreak havoc on your back, hips and neck. Most golfers understand the need to stretch and warm-up before hitting full swings on the practice range. But did you know that it is just as important to warm up and stretch before practicing putting?

A "split fairway" in golf is a fairway that, at some point on its route to the putting green, splits into two distinct fairways, offering the golfer the option to play to one side or the other. It's a way for golf course architects to provide some variety and some extra options for playing strokes off the tee and into greens.

Which golfers have suffered the most match losses in the Ryder Cup? The all-time record-holder is also one of the all-time great golfers, and the guy tied for second-most Ryder Cup defeats is, arguably, the best golfer ever.

The U.S. Senior Women's Open is a golf tournament conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA) for top women golfers of ages 50 and over. It is one of 14 USGA championships.

The tournament called the Home Depot Invitational at its end is perhaps better-remembered as the PaineWebber Invitational, a golf tournament on the Champions Tour. It was played for more than 30 years in North Carolina.

The Evian Championship is one of the five major championships of women's professional golf. It is the most-recently created, too, dating to 1994 — but only being recognized as a major since 2013. Which golfers hold the Evian Championship scoring records?

Bob Rosburg was a longtime PGA Tour golfer, a successful one, and the 1959 PGA Championship winner. He later enjoyed a long career as an on-course analyst on ABC TV's golf broadcasts in the USA. Everyone called him "Rossie." But long before all that, Rosburg was a childhood golfing prodigy. And I just stumbled across the newsreel footage to prove it.

Before there was Gary Player, before there was Bobby Locke, there was Sid Brews. Brews, although English by birth, became the first South African golfer to achieve international notice. He won more than 30 tournaments in South Africa (mostly in the 1920s and '30s, but even into the 1950s), but also won in Europe and the United States.

Have any golfers won the British Open the very first time they played that major championship? Yes, it has happened multiple times — 10 times, in fact, including the very first* and the 2021 Open Championship.

The 2021 British Open was the 149th time this tournament was played. A 24-year-old making just his eighth career start in a major won it.

What is the tournament record for lowest winning score in the British Open? That record was set in 2016, and the golfer who set it claimed not just the lowest stroke total record, but also the record for most strokes under par. In 2022, another golfer tied one of those marks.

Tiger Woods won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club eight times, an amount that ties the PGA Tour record for most wins in the same tournament .

Would you believe a story told by a married couple who claimed that they not only both made holes-in-one, but that they:

The first PGA Tour tournament that Tiger Woods played was the 1992 Nissan Los Angeles Open at Riviera Country Club. Woods was 16 years old at the time, a sophomore in high school, and was given a sponsor's exemption into the field.

The Big Break II was, as you can probably guess from the title, the second season of The Big Break television series that aired on the Golf Channel. Who can have guessed at the time this sequel premiered that the series would continue on for more than 20 more seasons.

Harry Bradshaw was an Irish golfer who played on the British and European circuits in the middle parts of the 20th century. He was best-known in the 1950s, and made multiple Ryder Cup appearances in that decade.

The U.S. Senior Open is the biggest tournament in men's senior golf (where "senior" is defined as 50-and-over). The tournament was founded by the United States Golf Association in 1980, when Roberto De Vicenzo became its first winner . Do you know which golfers have scored lowest in this senior major?

The 2024 British Open was the 152nd time this golf tournament was played. Xander Schauffele emerged as the champion, claiming his second major title of the year.

The British Open has been played since 1860, and below you'll find the full list of golfers who finished as low amateur in each of those Opens. Since 1949, the R&A has recognized the Open Championship low amateur by awarding the Silver Medal. But the list below goes all the way back to the beginning.

The golf game named Tin Whistle is a format appropriate for any number of golfers playing stroke play, which means it can also be used for tournament play. Basically, it is form a Stableford scoring first used at Pinehurst Resort.

William Doleman was a Scottish golfer and one of the earliest amateurs to make an impact in the British Open. He began playing that tournament in the 1860s and still holds a record today relating to amateurs. Doleman might also be, some sources claim, the first person to play golf in Canada.

The 2023 British Open was the 151st time this major championship tournament was played. Brian Harman took a five-stroke lead after scoring 65 in the second round, and was never challenged after that. He won by six strokes.

The Southern Open, called the Buick Challenge over the last few years of its history, was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour that was played for more than 30 years, from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. It was always played in Georgia.

Have you ever heard an announcer on a golf broadcast, or a fellow golfer during a round, say something along the lines of, "this one might be a floater," or "he'll have to be careful with that floater lie"? If you don't know what a "floater" is in golf, you might have been confused. So let us clear it up.

The 2022 British Open was the 150th time this oldest major championship was played. The winner earned his victory by scoring 64 in the final round.