What Is the Golf Score Called a Grouse?

If you make a grouse on a golf hole, well, that's a score you'll probably be grousing about. "Grouse" is a slang term some golfers use for a triple bogey.

When you score a triple bogey, that means you used three strokes more than a hole's par — you were 3-over par on the hole. So 3-over par, triple bogey and grouse all mean the same thing when speaking about a specific golf hole.

What specific number of strokes result in making a grouse? These:

• On a par-3 hole, a score of 6 is a grouse.
• On a par-4 hole, a score of 7 is a grouse.
• On a par-5 hole, a score of 8 is a grouse.
• On a par-6 hole, a score of 9 is a grouse.

So scoring a grouse is something no golfer wants to do. But all golfers make triple bogeys — even the best golfers in the world sometimes stumble their way into a grouse.

Off the golf course, "grouse" is the name of a type of bird. So the use of grouse as a slang term for 3-over or triple bogey is in keeping with the bird-themed names and nicknames of other golf scores. Albatross, eagle, birdie, buzzard, turkey, condor and ostrich are other terms applied to specific golf scores.

Related articles:

• What is a score of 2 on a golf hole called?
• The golf scores that result in a quadruple bogey
• Laying 3, lie 4: What those golf score terms mean