These 10 Golf Terms Make Me Cringe

Earlier this week, my colleague Brittany made an extensive list of golf terms.

As you can see, golf jargon is expansive. And, for the most part, golf is a game with plenty of fun lingo.

Albatross. Sandbagger. Waggle.

However, golf’s lexicon has a few stragglers as well. These are the terms I hate to hear. Quite frankly, they make me wince like I just three-putted from 10 feet.

For one reason or another, here are the 10 golf terms that make me cringe.

(And, yes, I am the old man yelling at the cloud.)

1. Golfing

Look, I’m not here to be the grammar police but the term golfing just doesn’t make sense.

You don’t add “-ing” to any other major sport in this context. Tennising? Baseballing? Basketballling? I’m not sure how golf got roped into this racket.

This is one of those little things where you can tell the ballknowers from the novices. If someone says they are golfing rather than playing golf, the chances are high that they are new to the game or don’t play much.

Does it matter? Not at all. Does it make me cringe? It sure does.

2. Pin

I’m not sure who is doing PR for the word “pin” in golf but they must be the same people who turned Brussels sprouts around.

Pins exist in bowling alleys, ATM machines and bulletin boards. Flagsticks exist on golf courses. That is how the USGA defines it and that word makes a lot more sense given how there is, you know, a flag involved. Flagstick is a cool term unique to golf while pin is definitely not.

But somehow we’ve decided to incorporate pin (pin high, pin seeking, etc.) into virtually every reference to the flagstick.

Make the flagstick great again.

3. Playing through

Taking things in a slightly different direction here, I cringe at “playing through” for a different reason than the first two.

First of all, I now associate “playing through” with TV coverage when they give us 18 percent of the screen for the golf while a commercial plays on the rest. I would rather just get straight commercials and then see the shots on tape delay.

And then we have one of the most awkward encounters in golf: playing through a group (or having a group play through you).

It’s weird either way. If you are playing through someone, you inevitably rush while the group watches you finish the hole. If someone is playing through you, that means they were on your ass and you have to take a forced break.

No matter how you slice it, playing through isn’t ideal.

4. Gimme

If you’ve followed my writing, you know my feelings on gimmes. We should just cancel them and everyone can finish out the hole instead of negotiating their score.

Gimmes are one of the oddest things in golf. Within a certain circle—and nobody can fully agree on what that circle is—golfers are expected to say “that’s good” so their playing partners don’t have to hole out.

I’m also just against the term “gimme” in the first place. Hey, I want that putt, gimme it.

Is this actually serious in a fun game of golf? Not really but it grinds my gears.

5. Shank

The dreaded S-word.

Shank is a full-on cringe but for much different reasons than the previous four terms listed here.

Everyone who has played golf has hit a shank at some point. It’s the most embarrassing shot in golf and it can be a recurring sickness that rears its ugly head at the most inopportune times.

You wouldn’t wish the shanks on your worst enemy. You would rather have just about any other swing problem.

The only exception is…

6. The yips

While the term of “the yips” or “being yippy” extends into other sports—like when a second baseman can’t throw to first all of a sudden—the word is synonymous with golf.

Shanks and yips can sometimes overlap but the biggest difference is that the yips are purely mental.

A golfer gets over the ball and can’t take the club back. Or their mind goes completely blank once the downswing starts.

Usually, it’s a talented golfer who has the physical ability but is struggling with a mental burden. He or she has become infected and needs to visit a sports psychologist.

Some golfers never recover.

7. Foot wedge

“Foot wedge” is a term used for when golfers move their ball into a better position. It can be said for a golfer moving their ball away from a root during a casual game or a serial cheater improving their lie while nobody is looking.

Similar to gimme, my issue with the term is two-fold:

• If you are playing golf for score, you might as well play the ball as it lies and see what your real score is rather than negotiating with yourself. You can’t brag about shooting 78 if you use the foot wedge liberally.

• If you are playing golf for fun and score is irrelevant, just do whatever you want. There doesn’t need to be any pomp and circumstance around “taking a foot wedge” to give yourself a better lie. That makes it sound like you are doing something wrong. You can do it on virtually every shot where you don’t have a perfect lie. Honestly, it’s a nice way for beginners to learn the game.

The term is also just kind of a dad joke that isn’t funny.

8. Fore

After playing a lot of competitive junior golf, I have PTSD from the word “fore.”

There is no good news when that word is heard on a golf course. Either you hit a bad tee shot that is headed toward another group or someone hit an errant tee shot in your direction.

As bad as it is to hear the word, not hearing someone yell it is almost more cringey. Hitting into someone and not even warning them is even worse.

9. Provisional

Interestingly enough, I think I’ve only heard the word “provisional” in a competitive golf context.

Similar to fore, there is no good time for a provisional to be played.

First, you hit a ball that might have gone out of bounds or been lost. Next, you have to declare your provisional. Then you have to make another swing, often with the uncertainty of knowing whether the original ball is still in play.

Sometimes you are better off playing the provisional rather than finding the original ball in an unsavory location.

So, yeah, provisional is a tough word to hear.

10. Skull

Another word unique to golf in this context, skull is a brutal word.

There are many humiliating shots that can be hit in golf but skulling a short game shot might take the cake in the non-shank division.

That feeling of hitting the equator of the ball and seeing it fly past the hole—often ending up in a much worse position than where you came from—is one of the most deflating feelings in the world.

The “skull” must stand for “skull and crossbones” because you are dead in that scenario.

That is my list. What are your most cringey golf words? Let me know below in the comments.