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 Golf (gowf in Scots) is a game in which individual players or teams strike a ball into a hole using various clubs and is one of the few ball games for which a standard playing area is not fixed; as described in the Rules of Golf, promulgated by the United States Golf Association and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the game comprises playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes. Thought to have originated in Scotland, the game has been played in the British Isles recreationally since the 16th century CE and professionally since the late 19th century CE; in its present form, the game dates to at least 1672, when golf is recorded to have been contested in Musselburgh, Scotland. Although the game was regarded for much of the 20th century CE as an elite pastime, it has become increasingly popular amongst individuals from all social and economic strata, largely appreciated as a game one can play of his/her entire life. Golf is played on a tract of land known as the course, most often in a links configuration. The course comprises a series of holes, typically of 9 or 18, where the hole is used to refer not only to the void in the ground in which a cup is placed and into which players seek to hit the ball, but also to the total distance from teeing ground to green (the area surrounding the actual hole). The first stroke on each hole is made from the teeing ground, where the grass is well-tended and the ball is struck from an elevated position, having been placed on a tee. After teeing off, a player strikes the ball again from the position at which it has come to rest, from the fairway (where the grass is cut low in order that balls may be easily played), the rough (where grass may be more unruly), or a hazard (such as a bunker of sand, body of water, or forest), from which play is most difficult, since hazards, like the rough, are designed to penalize players for inaccurate or otherwise errant shots. Strict rules apply to one's navigating a hazard, and one often must assess him/herself a penalty stroke if a ball is unplayable and must be moved. The grass of the putting green (or more commonly the green) is cut very short so that a ball can roll easily over distances of several yards. A player putts the ball with a special club, the putter, in order that the ball does not leave the ground vertically. The slope of the green, called the break, and the direction of grass growth, the grain, affect the roll of the ball towards the cup, which is always found somewhere on the green and must have a diameter of at least 4.25 inches (10.80 centimeters) and a depth of 3.94 inches (10.00 centimeters); the hole usually has a flag protruding from it so that it may be located from a distance, and this hole-and-flag combination is referred to as the pin? One seeks to strike the ball in the hole using the fewest strokes possible, hoping not to exceed par, the maximum number of strokes a skilled player should require to complete a given hole, in view of the hole's length and difficulty. It is believed by some people that the term 'GOLF' stands for 'Gentleman Only - Ladies Forbidden'.
A caddy (alternatively, caddie) is an individual, most often at a private golf club or resort, who carries the golf bag of a player and offers him advice on play and moral support. A caddy is expected to be acquainted with the rules of golf generally and a golf course in specific and to be able to advise his player as to club selection, shot yardage, pin placement, and overall strategy. The term is dated by historians to the late 16th century, when Mary, Queen of Scots, is thought to have brought the term to Scotland from her native France, where military cadets carried golf clubs for royalty. Traditional caddying, in which a caddy walks a course with a player, remains the most common method of caddying used at public and private golf clubs and the only form permitted on major professional golf tours. Caddies, who in professional golf are usually travel weekly with a single player but who at the club level are most often attached to a given club, serve also to perform a variety of common golf duties, such as the raking of bunkers and the repairing of divots. Caddies who work on the professional level often draw large salaries and earn fans of their own right; Eddie Lowery (pictured, center) became a celebrated figure after he, aged 10 years, caddied for American Francis Ouimet in the 1913 United States Open, and Lowery was ultimately depicted prominently in the 2005 dramatic film The Greatest Game Ever Played.  Although it is best known for its number two course, designed in 1907 by Scottish architect Donald Ross, which has hosted three men's major championships, two THE TOUR Championship events, and an iteration of the Ryder Cup Matches, the Pinehurst Resort, situated in Pinehurst, North Carolina, comprises eight full golf courses, and through 2004 was listed by Guinness World Records as the world's largest golf resort. Its first eighteen-hole course, completed in 1898 on land procured by Boston soda fountain magnate James Walker Tufts, featured square-shaped putting greens composed of oiled sand (pictured) and was home for a time to the North and South Open, during the former half of the twentieth century CE one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the United States, and to the United North and South Amateur Championship, organized by the United States Golf Association, which was won in 1904 (pictured) by American Walter Travis, who became the first The Amateur Championship winner to capture the North and South title. For more golf images, see the golf category at Wikimedia Commons.
Jack Nicklaus (born 21 January 1940 in Columbus, Ohio), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is an American professional golfer who was active between 1961 and 2005 on the PGA and then the Champions Tours and is widely regarded as one of the best ever to played the sport. Nicklaus enjoyed early success at the amateur and collegiate levels, winning the United States Amateur Championship in 1959 and 1961, capturing the 1961 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's national championship whilst an Ohio State University Buckeye, and helping the United States to one Eisenhower Trophy and two Walker Cup Match titles. Nicklaus formally joined the PGA Tour in 1962 and, at the United States Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, defeated countrymate Arnold Palmer in an eighteen-hole playoff to win his first major championship and to become the youngest-ever U.S. Open winner; a rivalry between Palmer and him would develop in subsequent years and be credited with popularizing professional golf as a televised spectator sport. Nicklaus claimed two more tournaments over his rookie season to finish third on the PGA Tour money list and to win the PGA Rookie of the Year Award. Read more about Jack Nicklaus...
For more quotations, see the golf category at the English Wikiquote.
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