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D Dance
floor The
green. Perhaps the term conies from the smooth surface and relative
flatness of the green, or maybe it is meant to convey the joy that
accompanies finally making it there. One of the most famous dances
performed on the green is the "sabre dance" done by Chi
Chi Rodriguez to celebrate a birdie. Dawn patrol
The golfers who are the first to play each day, so named because
they start their march around the course at sunrise. Dead When
your ball is in a position from which you have no chance of getting
it onto the green with your next shot. These positions include squirrels'
nests and car windshields. (See alsojaiZ.) Deuce A
score of two for any hole. Too many of these on your scorecard means
you're probably only counting your tee shots. Delay
- Golfers are expected to play "without undue delay."
The question of exactly what constitutes undue delay has been under
intensive study since 1971. Dew sweepers
Golfers who habitually play first in the morning; members of
the dawn patrol. Die it in
the hole The action of putting the ball so that it falls into
the cup as it is dying, or losing the last of its momentum.
Such strokes run the risk of becoming Central America putts,
left on the amateur side of the hole. Digger A
golfer who takes a big divot with his iron shots. A digger's
swing takes a very steep approach to the ball. The opposite
is a picker, a golfer who sweeps the ball off the ground
with a flatter swing path. Dimples
- Tiny circular hollows impressed onto the outer covering of golf
balls to regulate their lift. The surface is also usually punctuated
with at least one large cut, or "smile," caused by a shanked
iron shot. Curiously, golfers who complete these "faces"
by adding eyes, ears, hair and a nose to roughly resemble whoever
taught them golf find that they can hit their works of art nearly
twice the distance of an undecorated ball. Divot
- Colourful Scottish word for the piece of turf scooped from the
ground in front of the ball in the course of an iron shot. In Scotland,
depending on its size, a divot is referred to as a "wee tuftie"
(2 " x 4 "), "peg o' sward" (4 " x 6 "),
"snatch of haugh" (6" x 8"), "fine tussock"
(8" x 10"), "glen" (1' x 2'), "firth"
(11/z' x 3'), "loch" (2' x 4') and "damned English
divot" (anything larger than 8 square feet). Dogleg
- A hole with a 90° angle between the tee and the green. One
with a pockmarked tee area, unkempt fairways or a patchy green is
a "dogear." One on which large amounts of casual water
regularly accumulate is a "dog paddle." One with an elevated
tee and green and a sunken, treacherous approach is a "dog
dish." And a course on which holes like these predominate is,
simply, a "dog." Dog track
Derogatory term for a golf course that is not well maintained. Dormie
- Formal term for a team in match play that leads by as many holes
as remain to be played. "Hustlers" will often deliberately
shoot poorly during the early part of a round to get gullible opponents
into this apparently favourable position, then propose a greatly
increased, all-or-nothing bet on the remaining holes, with a sudden-death
playoff if necessary. How can you spot these tricksters? It's not
easy, but, generally speaking, don't play golf for money with players
who use two-piece clubs that unscrew in the centre of the shaft,
who put baby powder on their hands before grasping the driver or
use billiard chalk on their clubfaces, or who have a habit of saying
things like "Dunlop 4 in the centre pocket" before making
a putt. Double Bogey
- Two strokes over par, or, for a golfer who happened to score a
7 on a long par-5, a birdie and an eagle that occurred on the same
hole. See TRIPLE BOGEY. Double Chen
Hitting the ball twice on the same shot. The term derives from
the 1985 U.S. Open when tournament leader T. C. Chen suffered a
disastrous two-stroke penalty for hitting his ball twice while attempting
a shot from greenside rough. Rattled by his mistake, Chen was caught
and passed by eventual champion Andy North. Double dip
In a four-ball match, a double dip occurs when you and
your partner both birdie the same hole. The dipping is done
by your opponents—into their pockets! Double Eagle
- Three strokes less than par for a given hole. This unusual achievement
might be accomplished by, say, taking advantage of a tailwind on
a straight par-5 hole to get down in two strokes, scoring a hole-in-one
on a short par-4 or just skipping entirely a difficult par-3 hole.
See HOLE-IN-ONE. Double sandy
A score of par or better on a hole where two shots are played
from bunkers, most often recorded on a par four or par five where
one sand shot is played from a fairway bunker and one shot from
a greenside bunker. Amateurs rarely record a double sandy, but
if they do they can collect because it's usually included as junk
bet Down and
dirty Playing the ball "as it lies." No rolling the
ball over or sitting it up. The way the game is meant to be played;
your score is meaningless unless you play it down and dirty. Down the
road When you fail to qualify for the next round of play in
a tournament. Also called on your way home. Downtown
Where the ball goes when you absolutely launch one from the
tee. Borrowed from the baseball term for where a home run ball goes. Dress
- Although clothes in a variety of styles are acceptable on a golf
course, a few general pointers are worth keeping in mind when selecting
an outfit: It should
be visible to an individual with normal eye sight looking out
the window of a spacecraft in orbit. It should
be made out of a fabric derived from a substance that was mined
or refined rather than grown or raised. It should
jam radar. It should
be composed of no fewer than eight separate colours or shades
and should bear a minimum of four distinct emblems. When scuffed,
the shoes should require repainting or restuccoing rather than
shining. Any hat
should be identifiable as such only by its position on the wearer's
head. Draino Exclamation
that follows the sinking of a putt, particularly a long putt. Dribbler
A shot that travels only a few feet, usually without getting
airborne. Drive
- The initial shot on each hole, made with a special wood, the driver,
on par-4 and par-5 holes, and with shorter woods or irons on par-3
holes. Because the drive is so critical to the play of the hole,
total concentration is essential, and thus, if the shot is spoiled
because of some audible disturbance inadvertently caused by another
player on the tee, such as a pair of shoelace tips clicking together
or the wind whistling through an onlooker's eyelashes, it is customary
to take the shot over. See MULLIGAN.
Drive for
show and putt for dough "He who putts the best wins the
most." This timeless golf cliche supports the contention of
some PGA Tour critics who say the professional game amounts to little
more than a weekly putting contest. Driving Iron
- The #1 iron, sometimes used for tee shots. Its chief virtue is
that, unlike a wooden-headed driver, it puts a deep cut in the ball
while driving it into the rough or out of bounds, thus ensuring
that if the golfer who hit the ball cannot find it, no other player
will get any use out of it. Driving Range
- A place where golfers go to get all the good their systems. Drop kick
When the club strikes the ground and then bounces into the ball.
(See also chilli dip, dub, ). Dropped
cat, like a Description of a ball with plenty of backspin that
hits the green and hardly bounces. Dropping
a Ball - A recent rule change does away with the old requirement
that players introducing a ball to replace one that is lost do so
by dropping it over their shoulder and behind their back. Players
may now drop it at arm's length in any direction they choose. Of
course, as before, a penalty stroke is assessed. This rule change
does not affect clandestine ball drops, which are still made from
the bottom edge of the pants pocket with the thumb and first two
fingers of one hand while idly swinging a club with the other. And,
it goes without saying, there is still no penalty for such drops.
Dub To
mishit a shot badly, causing it to roll on the ground and come to
a stop far short of its target. A dubber is the guy in the
group ahead who takes fourteen shots to reach the green and still
insists he's having fun. (See also hacker and duffer.') Duck hook
A shot that ducks to the left as soon as it is hit. More
hazardous than a slice because it carries topspin and tends to roll
farther after reaching the ground. As Lee Trevino once said, "You
can talk to a fade, but a hook won't listen." Duffer
- A golfer whose actual score on any given hole is ordinarily more
than twice his or her reported score. |