Do You Know What a Shiperio Is In Golf?
A shiperio, like a mulligan, is a do-over: Don't like the shot you just hit? If your group allows shiperios, you can replay that stroke without penalty. So far, the shiperio sounds exactly like the mulligan.
Here's the difference: With shiperios, the golfers all know, in advance, that the golfer who just hit a shiperio ball has the option to play his original shot or play the shiperio shot, whichever is better.
With mulligans, the implication is that when you hit a mulligan, you will play that mulligan. Now, there are plenty of golfers out there who hit a mulligan, watch the mulligan turn out terrible, and then say, "I'll just play the original ball." That's not supposed to be the way mulligans work — if you hit a mulligan, you're supposed to play the mulligan. But, let's be frank: Both mulligan and shiperio are made-up terms, made-up shots and made-up traditions. They are not covered under the rules of the game — in fact, they are never allowed under the rules.
But friendly groups of golf buddies often have their own "rules," which frequently include mulligans.
As noted at the top, shiperio is a term that is far less-commonly used than mulligan, one that even many longtime golfers don't know. But golf has a term for just about everything. And "shiperio" is the term for when golfers allow mulligans but give the golfer hitting the mulligan the option to play the original ball if the mulligan turns out even worse.
Why is it called a "shiperio"? Who knows. (We certainly don't.) But, then, nobody really knows where the term "mulligan" comes from, either.
Note that Shiperio is also the name of a tabletop golf card game. You can find the Shiperio game on Amazon (affiliate link).
Related terms:
