What is an albatross in golf?
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 green.
Only a handful of routes exist to make one: driving a short par 4 and holing the approach, reaching a par 5 in two and sinking the eagle putt, or the freakest of all, a hole-in-one on a par 4. Each route needs distance and precision in the same shot, and on any given hole an albatross asks for one stroke fewer than an eagle does. We have no sourced figure for how often one happens, so treat any frequency you see quoted for it as unverified. What is not in doubt is the arithmetic: par is set by hole length under Appendix F of the Rules of Handicapping, so three under par on a par 5 means holing out in two. The name follows the bird theme golf borrowed for under-par scores: a birdie is one under, an eagle two under, and an albatross, a genuinely rare bird, three under. Americans sometimes call it a double eagle instead, same score, different name. It's the sort of round worth commemorating properly, see our golf gifts.
The albatross closes out the scoring terms in the game. Working back down the scale: a birdie is one under and par is the line itself.
Written by Craig Fearn, The Golf Gift Co. Last updated .