26 Golf facts

If you are not familiar with golf, you probably won't get these. Ask your closest golf player.


1. Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing.


2. When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls.


3. If you are afraid a full shot might reach the green while the group ahead are still putting, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up, or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.


4. The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about the golf swing.


5. If it isn't broke, try changing your grip.


6. Golfers who claim they don't cheat also lie.


7. Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.


8. A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponent's luck.


9. It's surprisingly easy to sink a 50 foot putt when you lie.


10. Counting on your opponent to inform you when he breaks a rule is like expecting him to make fun of his own haircut.


11. Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts.


12. It's not a gimme putt if you're still away.


13. The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the large tree.


14. There are two kinds of bounces: unfair bounces and bounces just the way you intended to play it.


15. You can hit a two-acre fairway 10% of the time and a 2-inch branch on a tree 90% of the time.


16. Every time a golfer makes a birdie he must subsequently make three triple bogeys to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe.


17. If you want to hit a 7-iron as far as Tiger Woods try to hit just short of a water hazard.


18. To calculate the speed of a player's downswing, multiply the speed of his backswing by his handicap. Example, backswing 20 miles per hour, handicap, 15, downswing 300
m.p.h.


19. There are two things you can learn by stopping your backswing at the top and checking the position of your hands: how many hands you have, and which hand is wearing
the golf glove.


20. Hazards attract; Fairways repel.


21. You can put "draw" on the ball, you can put "fade" on the ball, but no golfer can put "straight" on the ball.


22. A ball you can see in the rough from 50 yards away is not yours.


23. If there is a ball in the fringe and a ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker.


24. If both balls are in the sand, yours is in the footprint.


25. Don't buy a putter until you have had a chance to throw it.


26. The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all your errors.