Is the origin of the word GOLF truly, as was just relayed to me, "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden"?

As is often the case with acronym origins one hears - unfortunately, no, that is an Old Wives' Tale, or what they now call Urban Legends. (I like Old Wives' Tale better, but I guess it's sexist!) Keep an eye out for those, once you are looking, everyone and their dog will be happy to tell you how certain words originated as acronyms. In general, acronyms becoming words was not really in vogue before WWI or WWII.

As I recall it's probably from Dutch kolf, to strike something, also the name of a game played by hitting balls with clubs.

Thanks for the info, I kinda, sorta thought that, just wanted to make sure and knew if I asked here I would get the correct answer.
Over and out.

> gentlemen only, ladies forbidden

I've heard this witty version of golf before too.
I like the (simple) idea behind the game, but I hate the elitist stance of the clubs. Years ago I was involved in the compiling of a guide to golf clubs in Northern Europe. I had to talk to people at countless clubs across Europe and boy were there some snotty whatnots. Clubs are such a waste of space in small countries like England too. Kids have a piddlely little postage stamp to play on, while endless acres of fairways remain closed to the public, where countless kids get chunked out or arrested every year just for trying to really use the land instead of having a handful of stinking rich overweight men waddle up and down after a little ball once or twice a day.

[/rant]

Anyone here know anything about Frisbee golf? A friend of mine plays it and says they have official courses and everything! I was amazed. My guess is that it is played much like golf, but instead of holes, they have baskets that you try and throw the frisbee into. More info appreciated.

Anyone here know anything about Frisbee golf? A friend of mine plays it and says they have official courses and everything!

Here is a site for the "Sawbill Frisbee Golf Association":
http://www.sawbill.com/sfga.html

You can click on info about their official courses with such interesting holes as:

Big rock to boat storage sign -- par 4
Canoe trailer to garbage truck -- par 3
or the ever popular par 4
RV shed to second horse in log house backyard

Hey, Sparteye, you think you could arrange a similar course around your place for Wordapalooza!?

Anyone here know anything about Frisbee golf?

What little I know about it is that it's an offshoot of Ultimate [Frisbee], which is a team game played with a Frisbee. I played it one summer. I was really bad. The people who play it are pretty intense, and maybe I just wasn't intense enough. It's like a cross between football (American) and basketball. You can't run with the Frisbee, and to score you have to successfully pass it to someone in the end zone. It has its own lingo but I've forgotten most of it. The guys wear skirts sometimes, to play.

Anyway, some Ultimate players decided to make up a golf-like game. Apparently you throw Frisbees into baskets. You have a selection of different sizes of Frisbees (like golf clubs!) depending on the sort of shot you have to make. Wind (in both games) is a very, very big factor. This sport was just starting up the year I started and quit Ultimate so I never did try it, I just had a friend who was into it.

I've played frisbee golf many times... one of my favorite sports... but you gotta have a lotta land to make it a challenge for anyone with some skills.

Consuelo - you really got all you need to know other than different discs for different shots!

I love it when you guys talk about playing. . .

There is nothing like a *good sports thread! Nothing!

What's a good sports thread? Definition, please; I'm in the dark, a place where good and sports collide. Sorry, sports guys!

WW

a good sports thread and golf.. oh dear, i'll be forced to look up the rules for indoor golf. (and no, i don't think it would be a good game to play any time in the near future..)

I had to clarifie (a little (very little) cross-treading) the meaning of my words by adding the italics to stress the hidden agenda... I knew 'Nothing' would not be enough!

Why did the Sheik refuse a round of golf? (another kind of hidden agenda)

I'm *sure it has something to do with 'the holy land'...

I used to know one about a farmer who had 18 daughters...

Musick writes:

I had to clarifie (a little (very little) cross-treading) the meaning of my words by adding the italics to stress the hidden agenda... I knew 'Nothing' would not be enough!....love the parentheses within parentheses touch....

And what is the meaning here of nothing?

And, Helen, I mean, of course, "oftroy,": What is the meaning of "indoor golf"? Sounds dangerous to me! All those balls rebounding offa walls and hitting people in their noggins.

And I don't get human beings attempting frisbee in the first place when dogs get by far better press for their skills.

And, since I'm so extraordinarily confused by this entire topic, I have a very important question to ask:

Why do golfballs have those inverted pimples in 'em?

Ball regards,
WordWearied I really do try to understand sports, but fail miserably

And what is the meaning here of nothing?

Do you mean in the *original context or as it relates to "Golf Farming"?

Either way, "nothing" *seems to be just short of anything.

well, i went googling for indoor golf, and it seem there is now a legitimate game of indoor golf..

the one i know involves, 2 balls and a single club, and the object of the game is getting the club in the hole not the balls... it is generally a two player game.. mixed sets is the most common... but three somes and party aren't unknown.. i think i have the rule (hard copy) if i can find them, and scan them, i'll post them.. when i was first handed the rules, i saw the word golf thought it was about sports, and had to be convinced it was worth while reading the rules.. (sometimes i am very dense!)

of troy curiously writes of indoor golf:

and the object of the game is getting the club in the hole not the balls...

A more casual reader might read the above and not blink an eye. I, however, am sometimes a close reader and I've read closely what of troy has written: the object is to get the club in the hole. not the balls.

Well, this sounds like the strangest sport in the world. There you have it: a bunch of holes and some person poking his or her club into the hole. Is this a game practiced by traffic cops to test sobriety? They haul you into headquarters, which is an indoor golf set-up. And they say to you, "See whether you can take this golfclub and poke it into one of the golf holes." You look at the cop and decide whether or not to argue. You decide to ask for clarification, "You have asked me to put this club into one of the holes, right?" The cop answers, "Right." You, even if of somewhat staggering standard, reply, "And you don't want me to hit a ball into any of the holes, right?" And the cop answers, "Right." So, you poke your old club into the hole. The cop quickly responds,"Gotcha! You're definitely drunk! Who would ever think of putting the club into the hole unless he (she) were a drunk!"

I deduce that indoor golf is a ploy created by the local police department for identifying drunks.

Ball regards,
WW

The Sheik preferred indoor golf ala of troy to outside boring pastime. He'd already shot eight holes

Are inverted pimples called dimples because d is an inverted p?

and the object of the game is getting the club in the hole not the balls...

Reminds me of that old (apocryphal?) Johnny Carson quip....

Which apocryphal quip of Carson's? (Finally somebody PM'd me and cued me in to indoor golf. Good grief.)

A group of us in the office play this every spring and summer. The rest of the guys (including one woman) have already been out a few times this year. (I've been a little too busy for it these days, as we go during lunch and I often work through lunch.)

We have our own course defined in a park a few miles from work. The groundskeeper there knows us and welcomes us. On weekends we sometimes get our families together to play at an 'official' course in a park very close to where I live. I was introduced to this by one of our number who played it in college, among a number of other sports (he was being courted by the Allblacks).

It's a pretty fun game, which I find odd because I've never thought of golf as remotely interesting. Three of the six of us play regular golf. Regular golf is a big thing at work - there's a league in the company and our division while the smallest has two teams. (I'm not sure, but I *think* there are four players on a team.)

Frisbee golf is more fun if you keep things moving. It took me some time to get used to it, though, as it's a little harder than it looks. I can throw straight or I can throw far, but I can't throw straight and far. Also, I don't throw far at all compared to some of the other guys. They're all a bit taller than me and those long arms are really a boon to them. Also, throwing through stands of trees can be pretty annoying. We have a two "holes" that are actually trees next to steep embankments. If you overshoot the tree by even a small amount, you have to stumble down 30 to 50 feet of ditch. If you're really unlucky, it might even roll down into the creek which adds a point to your score.

Only 3 of us have ever won the game. Usually, the ex-rugby fellow wins. He's quite good - particulary at the long distance throws and cutting through branches. There's been some call for us to use handicaps which I don't like. They're welcome to do it, but I will always consider my score to be whatever it really is. The argument is that this would give all of us a chance to win, but I don't play to win - only for the enjoyment of the game.

k

I googled around, and apparently what Carson said is an urban myth (still, it doesn't have to be true to be funny! ). This is from back in the days when TV was live, so I guess no records were kept. Here's TV Guide's take (you have to scroll about halfway down):

http://tvguide.aol.com/tv/televisionary/010410a.asp

This has nothing to do with golf, but ...

Maybe those are not true, but I was channel-surfing the other day and watched just a few seconds of some game show bloopers show. There was a blurb about a newlywed who was asked where she liked to have sex. Apparently *that* rumor is true.

k

Dear FF: Tantalzing dearth of information.

it doesn't have to be true to be funny!

And it doesn't have to have happened to be true.

Well, they bleeped her, but I think she said something along the lines of "in the backside." Wish I could recall the exact question/answer.


k

I heard it as an interview on a Brit talk show (believe they call 'em "chat shows") in which the blushing bride replied, "in the fanny."*

---
*which does not mean there what it means here

which does not mean there what it means here

Is that something like the *difference between "in" and "from", praps?

Is that something like the *difference between "in" and "from", praps?

hehehe... are you prepositioning me?

We useta call 'Golf Rd' (as we saw it on the street marker) "Dr. Flog".

(Oh my d-G... what have I done!?!?...) Where's an interrobang when *you need one, tsuwm?

I thought it derived from the less attractive, but nevertheless more appropriate golfing verb, "flog".

stales

The had to call it golf. Oh Dammit was already taken.

"Who invented golf? Though golf is mentioned in Scottish statutes as
early as 1457 and The Old Course at St. Andrews is considered to
be the birthplace of golf, this traditional belief is open to some debate.
The etymology of the word "golf" has been traced to the Dutch word
"kolf," an icy activity played with clubs and balls that would have
pre-dated The Old Course."

wwh asks: Who invented golf?

At the risk of offending our UK contributors, perhaps the St Andrews story is just another example of history being written to suit the UK?

Other examples include Captain Cook's discovery of Australia (the Dutch and Portuguese beat him by a couple of hundred years).

Perhaps the one I marvel at the most is the laughingly feeble attempt that Christ visited the isles way back when. As documented in the words of the hymn....."And did those feet.....in ancient times....walk upon England's mountains green...."

Give me a break.

stales