Explaining the Golf Score Called the Platypus

If you make a score in golf known as a "platypus," well, you've earned it. A platypus is one of the rarer scores in golf for recreational players.

What is a platypus in golf? The term refers to making par on a golf hole after you hit a ball out of bounds (OB). Hitting a ball out of bounds comes with a penalty stroke. Most recreational golfers don't make a lot of pars to begin with, so making par after you hit a ball OB and have to add a penalty stroke to your score, well, that is a very rare breed of score.

Which is why this achievement got the name "platypus." The animal called the platypus is rare creature, found only in Australia. It is a venomous mammal, and one of only two egg-laying mammals. And it just looks weird, like a duck's bill was fitted onto a beaver.

So, to score a platypus in golf, what has to happen? Aside from the generality of making par after hitting it out of bounds, these are some specifics:

• On a par-3 hole, after a golfer hits her tee shot out of bounds, adds the penalty stroke, she must hole-out her next shot (because she is playing three) to make par and a platypus.

• On a par-4 hole, a golfer who hits a drive out of bounds and adds a penalty stroke is playing his third on his next stroke. The golfer must hole his fourth stroke to make par and a platypus. If the golfer's drive was good but he hits his approach out of bounds, then his next shot is his fourth stroke, and must be holed to make par.

• Platypuses are most likely to happen on par-5 holes. If the drive goes out of bounds, the next shot played is the third stroke. That still leaves two strokes with which the player can — maybe! — knock the ball onto the green and then make a putt for par. If the drive is good but the second strokes goes OB, then the next shot is the fourth stroke. If a golfer's third shot is the one that goes OB, then the next shot played is No. 5, and must be holed to claim a platypus.

Note that while platypuses are very rare for recreational golfers, low-handicappers and, especially, the pros are, obviously, far more likely to pull one off. Of course, those golfers are also much less likely to hit a ball out of bounds in the first place.

Photo credit: Klaus, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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• Explaining the condor golf score
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