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How to make yourself like golf on TV?



You are browsing through the TV one day, with no special program that interests you, and as you browse the channels, you stopped at a channel where they are showing many many silly men walking under the hot sun, some carrying heavy bags in which houses many dangling clubs. The players then use the long club to hit their white little balls and then walk again and hit their balls again. The commentator mentioned tons of gibberish words that doesn't make sense to you, after a while of watching it then shows a scoreboard where you don't even understand what is it trying to say. You offed the TV and went to sleep. Boring much?


So welcome to this session of "HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF LIKE GOLF ON TV?"


Well first of all let me say this to you, golf is a very interesting game ONLY if you understand how does it works. I mean, I don't know how to play cricket, heck I don't even know how are games won in cricket, that's why I do not watch or like cricket. And the same thing applies on you, you don't know how to play golf, you don't know how games are scored and won, that's why you don't like or watch golf. That's why I'm writing this, I want you to feel the excitement I feel when I watch players like Tiger Woods on TV.

(This guy is Tiger Woods, if it doesn't ring any bell)


Okay... Now before I really really bring you to the fundamentals of watching golf on TV. Please please have a look at this video even if you don't want to read the remaining of the article, and see just how players are psyched up in their game, and how big golf really is in this world. 



Excited? This is the "Shot of the Year 2005" made by Tiger Woods.

Ahhuh, now that you've read on. It's time to teach you how to watch and enjoy golf on TV. 



How is the game played and won?

Every game that are played in the world have a scoring system and unique conditions for the game to be won. Of course it would be very ignorant of me to explain golf without teaching you how the game is scored and won. So here goes.

  • A tournament(competition) you see on TV is usually played in 4 rounds, one round per day. The winner is the one who completes 4 rounds of golf in the least amount of shot played. So for example a person played 287 shots total (Which means he needed to hit the ball 287 times to finish 4 rounds) and the others played 288 and 289 and so on. So that person wins because he played the least shots.
  • Every round of golf consists of 18 holes, each spans from 100 meters to 600 meters in length. 

Here's an example of a hole:

  • Of course, there are many kinds of holes. And every hole in a golf course is categorized into "pars". There are three type of holes, Par 3 holes, Par 4 holes, and Par 5 holes. The hole in the image above is a typical par 4 hole, usually between 200 meters to 400 meters long. A Par 3 holes however are holes less than 200 meters, and Par 5 are holes are usually between 400 meters to 600 meters. So why differentiate them? Now this is where the scoring system kicks in.

The par represents the standard score you should play for that hole, a par 3 hole's standard score is 3 shots/strokes, which means the ball is hit 3 times before entering the hole, etc... And, if you get the same score as the hole standard, you score is called a "Par".  ie: Your score for a Par 5 hole is 5 shots, so that is a par. So what happens when you played more or less? Read on

  • If the score for the hole is ONE shot less than the hole standard (par), it is called a "Birdie". Also written as -1 in scorecards or scoreboards. 
  • If the score for the hole is TWO shot less than the hole standard, it is called an "Eagle". Also written as -2 in scorecards or scoreboards.
  • If the score for the hole is THREE shot less than the hole standard, it is called an "Albatross". Also written as -3 in scorecards or scoreboards.
  • If the score for the hole is ONE shot more than the hole standard, it is called a "Bogey". Also written as +1 in scorecards or scoreboards.
  • If the score for the hple is TWO shot more than the hole standard, it is called a "Double-Bogey". Also written as +2 in scorecards or scoreboards.
  • If the score for the hple is THREE shot more than the hole standard, it is called a "Triple-Bogey". Also written as +3  in scorecards or scoreboards.
  • Since the pros usually have the maximum score of bogey in a round, I think it's highly unnecessary to list out the others.

Actually all these scoring system and their terms takes some time to understand.  :)

Ok, now that I've explained about the scoring system, it is time to see how does it actually works in your TV screen. Take a look at the image below.
As you can see, the winning player finished 4 rounds of 18 hole golf in the least amount of shots, and his score according to the standard score is -8, pretty neat huh? The -8 is the total for four days. So it might be that he played 8 birdies, or maybe 4 eagles? Or even 11 birdies and 3 bogeys for his 4 round.



That's it for today. Stay tuned and I'll be posting "How to make yourself like golf on TV? part 2" in a few days time. :)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

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