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What the words on the card mean, how a handicap is worked out, and what is custom rather than rule.

Short, direct answers to the things golfers actually ask: scoring formats, handicaps, the terms on the card, and the etiquette that keeps a round enjoyable for everyone.

Stableford scoring awards points at each hole based on your score against a fixed target, usually par adjusted for your handicap, with more points meaning a better round, rather than…

Under the World Handicap System, a golfer's handicap index is calculated from their best recent scores, each adjusted for the difficulty of the course and tees played, and updated after…

A single-figure handicap, under ten, is a strong marker of a golfer's game, scratch (zero) is as good as the handicap system goes, and most club golfers play off a higher figure than that.

Par is the number of strokes a scratch golfer is expected to take on a hole or a full round, set hole by hole mainly by yardage, and used as the baseline every other score is measured…

A bogey is a score of one stroke over par on a hole: two over is a double bogey, three over a triple, and so on up the same simple ladder.

An albatross is a score of three strokes under par on a single hole, also called a double eagle, and one of the rarest scores in golf, since it usually means holing out from well off the…

A birdie is a score of one stroke under par on a hole: two under is an eagle, three under the rare albatross, and the most commonly celebrated good score in amateur golf.

A mulligan is an informal do-over, replaying a shot with no penalty added to the score, that has no basis in the official Rules of Golf and exists purely as a casual custom among…

You hold a golf club by placing your lead hand on the grip first, followed by your trailing hand below it, using one of three common grip styles: the overlap, the interlock, or the…

A full golf set covers five categories: a driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges and a putter: and the Rules of Golf cap the total at fourteen clubs in the bag for any round that counts.

Golf etiquette is the conduct Rule 1.2a of the Rules of Golf asks for, enforced by the group you are playing with rather than by the card, because the Rules attach no penalty to it:…

The 70/30 rule in golf is a commonly-cited practice guideline, not an official rule, suggesting golfers spend roughly 70% of practice time on the short game and 30% on full swing, since…

The one place a golfer keeps going back to, and what can honestly be made from a photograph of it.

A golfer's home course is the one subject nobody sells them, because it is different for every golfer. This is what happens between a photograph of that ground and a framed picture on a…

A golfer with every gadget still owns nothing about the place they play. That is the gap, and it is the only one left once you accept that you are not going to out-buy their bag. They…

Who it is for, and when. A retiring club captain and a dad who plays twice a year want different things.

Every golfer has received one, and almost none of them still own it. That is not snobbery about novelty gifts. It is a pattern with a cause: a joke aimed at golf cannot be about the…

Retirement is the moment a keen golfer gets their weekdays back. Quiet Tuesday tee times, the midweek fourball, the trip away that work always squeezed. So the gift marks an opening…

The twenty paintings, what each one actually shows, and which wall it is for.

One test sorts the good from the landfill: would a golfer still want this in five years? A sleeve of balls fails it. A framed print of the course where they finally broke ninety does…

Honest help picking a gift the golfer will keep. No filler, no pro-shop tat: just what's worth giving, who it suits, and what it costs. Every gift we mention is personalised and made to…