Golf is a sport considered elitist in Brazil, but this only happens because we have no tradition in this practice. To play golf, all you need is a ball, a club and a hole in the ground. Looking at it this way, it is even difficult to understand why children do not play golf in the street or why golf is not a sport that is part of the school curriculum.
Golf is believed to have Roman origins, specifically in paganism. Paganica was a game in which you beat a bent stick into a leather ball stuffed with feathers or wool. Although there is no proof of this origin, it is not difficult to notice the similarities between paganica and golf. The contours of golf took shape in Scotland: it involves hitting a small ball, with the help of a club, until it lands in a certain hole. The path that the ball must take to reach its goal is named after the hole to be hit and, sometimes, this route has some difficulties that need to be overcome, such as trees, sand and wells.
Although there are mini golf courses in malls, golf is officially played on large courses that comprise eighteen distinct courses. The golf score is quite curious: The amount of shots to be made until the ball hits the given hole is called
pair. For each distance, there are a certain number of pairs. In addition, each score has a different nomenclature, which will be described below:- Condor: When the player reaches his goal in four strokes less than par;
- Albatross: Three shots short of par;
- Eagle: With two shots less than par;
- Birdie: With one shot less than par;
- Pair: Number of strokes equal to the given pair;
- Bogey: When the player needs one more shot than par to hit the hole;
- Double Bogey: Two more strokes than pair;
- Triple Bogey: Three strokes more than par;
- Quadruple Bogey: Four more strokes than par.
When the player hits the hole with just one shot, this play is called hole in one. It is very rare to happen and, when it happens, professional sport usually gives extra rewards to the athlete who accomplished the feat. In amateur sport, on the other hand, prohibited from receiving extrinsic rewards, it is the athlete who pays lunch and dinner to celebrate the move. If, on the one hand, run a hole in one it's rare, imagine two such plays in a row! This is a golf curiosity: the first person to accomplish the feat was a woman (who was only able to enter golf professionally after 1944): Laura Cox, in 1977, in Australia.
If the player hits the ball in hard to reach places - like lakes or tree tops, it is allowed him to relocate the ball as close as possible, but allow him to give the next shot. However, he is given a shot as a penalty.
Unlike in many sports, the referee does not stand by the hole to wave if the ball has effectively fulfilled its path: its function is to execute the rules and act discussing with the athletes, acting whenever there is an infraction in the rules. A very peculiar figure, which only exists in the world of golf, is the caddy, whose primary function is to carry the bag with the clubs of the athletes, but who are also considered athletes, due to the high knowledge they acquire by following the practice of golf very closely.
One last curiosity: golf is about to become an Olympic sport. This will happen at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016, when it will join the framework of disputed modalities.
By Paula Rondinelli
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Physical Education from the São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – UNESP
Master in Motricity Sciences from the São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – UNESP
Doctoral Student in Integration of Latin America at the University of São Paulo - USP
Sport - PE - Brazil School
