All of these golfing words or phrases are real

A survey of 686 golf enthusiasts has found the words or phrases which most fans of the sport have no idea what they mean.

The term that confuses most people, ahead of phrases like ‘fried egg’, ‘snowman’ and ‘sandbagging’, is ‘Texas wedge’.

The participants were presented with a variety of golf phrases and were asked to state which they felt most and least confident about the definition of.

A substantial 86 per cent of British amateur golfers feel the least confident defining Texas wedge, which is interpreted as ‘the use of a putter any time you are off the green’.

This was closely followed by 81 per cent stating they felt unsure of the correct definition of ‘frog hair’, which refers to the ‘closely mowed fringe surrounding the putting green’.

Ranking in third place is ‘afraid of the dark’ with 80 per cent, which can be defined as ‘a putted ball which refuses to fall into the hole’.

Other phrases which leave British golfers most baffled include: ‘short-sided’ (when a golfer’s ball is positioned relative to the hole where they have less green to work with between the ball and the hole compared to another side of the green), ‘playing the tips’ (playing from the rearmost set of tees) ‘snowman’ (scoring an ‘eight’ on any single golf hole), ‘sandbagging’ (winning a tournament after misrepresenting your playing ability) and ‘mulligan’ (a stroke that is informally allowed to be replayed). 

GolfSupport.com also looked at the top golf terms amateur golfers are the most confident with the definition of, and they were par, bogey, double bogey, birdie, albatross, ‘gimme’, fade, slice, ‘chunk’ (when the golfer’s club hits the ground prior to making contact with the ball), ‘shank’(when a golfer hits the ball with any part of the club other than the face) and ‘dogleg’ (a hole that bends at some point along its length).