Transcripts - Golf 101 for the Obsessed - 8 Secrets Hidden in the Basics

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Now, here’s your host, Corey, with another episode of the Birdie Board Podcast.

Welcome back to the Birdie Board Podcast. This is episode 8, only two more until we get to 10 episodes overall, which is pretty cool.

Golf might look simple — just a ball, a club, and a target — but beneath that calm surface lies centuries of history, mystery, and character. I wrote about this earlier in the week in a blog on the basics of golf, and I’m turning that into today’s episode.

This is for beginners who are curious about the game before their very first swing, and it is also for the longtime golfer who loves the spirit and traditions of the game. I’m going to mix stories, facts, and reflections. We will cover the simple things, and also the stories behind them. How did these terms start? Why did the game evolve the way it did?

First, golf is more than a sport. It is one of the only sports in the world where players call penalties on themselves. If you watch the PGA Tour, rules officials can get involved, but players still assess their own penalties. If you hit a ball out of bounds, you add the penalty yourself. In professional golf, failing to do that can lead to disqualification. On a weekend round or golf trip with friends, the foundation is honesty and keeping an accurate score for every stroke and every penalty.

This sport started a long time ago. In the 1400s, King James II of Scotland actually banned golf in 1457 because it distracted soldiers from archery practice. The ban lasted about 50 years. His grandson, James IV, lifted it and became a golfer himself. To me, that shows the persistence of golf and why it is still around today.

The word “golf” comes from the Dutch word “kolf” or “kolfje,” meaning club. Dutch sailors likely brought the concept to Scotland, where the game took the form we recognize.

Golf is played over 18 holes. Each hole is its own story. Courses run through dunes, forests, deserts, and true linksland. St Andrews, one of the oldest and most influential courses, originally had 22 holes. In 1764, members combined some shorter holes to create 18, which became the standard we use today. Musselburgh Links, dating to the 1600s, is often cited as the oldest course still in play. There is also a popular story that Mary, Queen of Scots, may have been one of the first recorded female golfers.

In golf, your main competitor is the course. Yes, you play against other people, but every contour, bunker, fairway angle, and green complex is the real challenge. If you learn to play the course well, you will usually play your opponent well.

Let’s talk scoring. “Par” is the expected number of strokes to complete a hole. One under par is a birdie. One over is a bogey. Those are the three most common results you will see. Two under par is an eagle, and three under is an albatross. For scores over par, we usually say double bogey, triple bogey, and so on. The word “birdie” comes from early 1900s American slang — a “bird” meant something excellent, as in “a bird of a hole.”

One of the rarest scores is a “condor,” which is four under par on a single hole. Only a handful have ever been recorded. One famous example was Larry Bruce in 1962, who made a hole-in-one on a 480-yard par 5 by cutting a dogleg and finding the cup.

Quick recap so far: the spirit and history of golf, why it is 18 holes, and how the scoring terms came to be.

Now equipment. You are allowed 14 clubs. Drivers, fairway woods, irons, wedges, and a putter — each has a job. A driver is typically used from the tee box. It produces the longest shots but also the widest dispersion left to right. As you move closer to the hole, you use irons for approach shots, then wedges for the short game. Once on the green, you use a putter with a flat face, whether it is a blade or mallet style.

The ball matters too. Early “featheries” were boiled feathers stuffed into leather and hand-sewn. Losing one hurt because they took a long time to make. Later, balls made from gutta-percha, a tree sap, added significant distance compared with featheries. Modern balls have roughly 300 to 500 dimples to reduce drag and add lift, which increases distance and allows players to shape shots. Those dimples play a big role in producing draws and fades you see from elite players.

Golf also runs on an unwritten code. Repair your divots. Rake bunkers after you play from them. Stay quiet while others swing. Do not walk on another player’s putting line. These customs protect the course, respect your group, and keep play moving. Historically, when golf was played on shared land, damaging the ground hurt everyone’s chance at a fair shot. That sense of respect is still the soul of the game.

On handicaps: the system is a brilliant way to let players of different skill levels compete fairly. A handicap is not your average; it tries to represent your potential. A scratch golfer has a handicap of zero. A beginner might start closer to 30, or around 25 with some natural athletic ability. Course Rating and Slope Rating describe difficulty so your handicap adjusts to where you play. It is one of the few sports that blends competition and honesty so well.

Pace of play matters too. An average round takes three to five hours. On tour, players average about 38 seconds per shot. Slow play can lead to penalties. For most of us, the rhythm is part of the appeal. Every shot is a reset. Golf is largely mental. Calmness, recovery after mistakes, and preparing for the next athletic moment are what carry you through an entire round.

Lastly, that first great shot. Maybe it is a pure drive or a long putt that finally drops. That spark of joy keeps you coming back. The average golfer loses more than one ball per round. Even pros find the water sometimes. The point is not perfection. It is persistence, patience, and a sense of humor. You do not master golf in a day, but you grow with it over a lifetime.

This episode was based on my recent blog post. If you want to read more, there is a fuller write-up there.

A couple of quick Birdie Board updates. We released version 1.6.1 on the App Store. I gave the logo a festive holiday touch. Inside the app, there is now a feedback link so you can easily send suggestions and bug reports. Match Hosts can now manually override a player’s handicap for a round. And there is a toggle to hide the optional “Pars and Handicaps” section during setup when you are not using it.

On the marketing side, the YouTube channel is doing really well. Over the last roughly 35 days, we have about 57,000 views. The goal is to build community around learning golf and having fun with it. You can find the channel by searching for Birdie Board.

That’s the episode. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and share it with a friend who loves golf. Before your next round, grab the Birdie Board app on the Apple App Store or Google Play, and let it handle the scoring while you enjoy the game.