Medal, Stableford, honour and burn: a British golf glossary for newcomers

Turn up to your first round at a British club and within ten minutes someone will mention the medal, the honour, a greensome, the stroke index and whether you are playing off the yellows. None of it is difficult, but all of it can make a newcomer feel like an outsider. A short list of words fixes that.

Around thirty terms cover nearly everything you need to play, follow the conversation in the bar and fill in a card. The rest you will absorb in a season.

Scores

Par is the number of strokes a good player is expected to take on a hole, printed on the card for each hole and for the round.

Birdie is one under par, eagle two under, and albatross three under, which you may never see. Bogey is one over par, double bogey two over. Beyond that most people just give the number.

Gross is the score you actually took. Net is the score once handicap strokes are deducted. Scratch means a Handicap Index of zero.

Golfers usually describe a round relative to par, “four over” rather than “75”, and in Stableford competitions in points, which brings us to the formats.

The formats you will be invited to play

Medal is the everyday British name for stroke play: every shot on every hole counts, and the card is signed and handed in. A “monthly medal” is the club’s regular stroke play competition.

Stableford scores points against your net par on each hole: two for a net par, three for a net birdie, one for a net bogey, none for anything worse. Once you cannot score a point, you pick up and move on. The system was devised by Dr Frank Stableford, first tried informally at Glamorganshire Golf Club in Penarth in 1898 and first used in competition at Wallasey Golf Club in 1932. It remains especially popular at club level in the UK.

Match play counts holes, not strokes: you win, lose or halve each hole. “Two up” means you have won two more holes than your opponent. Dormie means you are as many holes up as there are holes left, so you cannot lose the match in regulation play.

Four-ball means each player plays their own ball and the pair counts the better score on each hole. Foursomes means partners share one ball and hit alternate shots, taking turns on the tees. A greensome is a relative of foursomes: both players drive, the pair choose the better tee shot, then alternate from there.

A Texas scramble, or simply scramble, is the society and charity day favourite: everyone hits, the team picks the best shot, and everyone plays from there. It is the kindest format for a beginner.

Parts of the course

The teeing area is where each hole starts, between two tee markers and up to two club-lengths behind them. In Britain the sets of tees are commonly named by colour, so you may hear that someone plays “off the whites” or “off the yellows”. Our guide to choosing your tees explains how to pick the right set.

The fairway is the mown strip, the rough the longer grass beside it, and the green, formally the putting green, the closely mown surface with the hole. The apron or fringe is the collar around it.

A bunker is a prepared area of sand with its own rules. On links courses you will hear about pot bunkers, small, deep and steep-faced.

A penalty area, marked with red or yellow stakes or lines, is usually water. On British courses that often means a burn, the Scottish word for a stream, or a ditch.

Out of bounds is marked by white stakes or a boundary fence. Gorse, also called whin in Scotland, is the prickly yellow-flowered shrub that eats golf balls on heathland and links. A links is a seaside course on sandy ground between the beach and farmland; not every course by the sea is truly a links.

Shots

A drive is the tee shot on a long hole. An approach is the shot intended to reach the green. A lay-up is a deliberate shot short of trouble.

Around the green, a chip flies low and runs, a pitch flies higher and stops sooner, and a bump and run is a low running shot played along firm ground, a staple of links golf. A putt is a stroke along the surface, usually on the green.

For a right-hander, a slice curves sharply right and a hook sharply left. A fade and a draw are the same curves, gentler and intended.

On the first tee

Honour is the right to play first from the tee, usually earned by the best score on the previous hole. Away means furthest from the hole and, in strict order of play, next to play.

Ready golf means playing when you are ready rather than strictly in order. The Rules encourage it in stroke play, provided it is safe. There is more in our guide to pace of play.

Fore! is shouted when a ball is heading towards someone. It is the one word you must know. Hear it and turn away, cover your head and crouch.

A provisional is a second ball played when the first may be lost or out of bounds. You must announce it using the word “provisional” or otherwise make clear that is what it is.

Your handicap

The World Handicap System (WHS) is used across Great Britain and Ireland. Your Handicap Index reflects your demonstrated ability and is based on the average of your best eight score differentials from your most recent twenty scores. For a new handicap, submitting scores covering at least 54 holes is the recommended starting point.

Your Course Handicap is what that Index becomes on a particular course from a particular set of tees, using the Course Rating (what a scratch golfer is expected to score) and Slope Rating (how much harder the course plays for a higher-handicap golfer). Your Playing Handicap then applies the allowance for the competition format.

Net double bogey is the maximum hole score used for handicap purposes, so one disastrous hole does not wreck your record.

On the scorecard

Stroke index (SI) ranks the holes from 1 to 18 by how much a higher-handicap player needs a stroke on them, and decides where your handicap shots fall. A player receiving ten shots gets one on each hole with stroke index 1 to 10.

The card also shows yardages for each set of tees, par, and often the Course Rating and Slope Rating for each set. Your marker records your score and signs the card; you sign it too.

Around the club

A four-ball in casual British usage often simply means a group of four. Buggy is the motorised cart, trolley the push or electric cart for your bag. A society is an organised golfing group, often of friends or colleagues, that visits clubs as guests. Visitors are non-members paying a green fee, and the nineteenth hole is the bar.

Where to check a term

The R&A. The Rules of Golf, including a definitions section that is the authority for every term with a rules meaning, are on The R&A’s website, and the official R&A Rules App puts them on your phone.

Your national association. England Golf, Scottish Golf and Wales Golf all publish handicap guidance. England Golf members can see their scores through its My England Golf service.

Your playing partners. Every golfer learned these words from someone. Asking is normal. Before your first competition, the Rules of Golf club golfers get wrong are worth ten minutes as well.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any organisation named here.

Learn these first

• Scores: par, birdie, bogey, gross, net.
• Formats: medal, Stableford, match play, four-ball, foursomes, scramble.
• Course: teeing area, fairway, rough, green, bunker, penalty area, out of bounds.
• Play: honour, away, ready golf, fore, provisional.
• Handicap: Handicap Index, Course Handicap, stroke index.