Ever wonder why full-length golf courses have 18 holes …
and not 20, or 10 or an Even dozen? Well during a discussion among the club’s membership board at St. Andrews in 1858, one of the members pointed out that it takes exactly 18 shots to polish off a fifth of Scotch. By limiting himself to only one shot of Scotch per hole, the Scots figured a round of golf was finished when the Scotch ran out.
Thanks to Andy for this Interesting Fact!
Other Interesting Golf Facts…
There are 336 Dimples in a regulation-size Golf Ball
The number of golfers in the United States and the population of Afghanistan. How weird is that? 2 220 (New York Times)
Courses Robert Trent Jones designed or remodeled in Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. Donald Ross had 12, Rees Jones 11 and Tom Fazio 10. (New York Times)
Rudyard Kipling, living in Vermont in the 1890s invented the game of snow golf. He painted the golf balls red so that they could be located in the snow.
After Mark Calcavecchia and John Daly completed the final round in the Tournament Players’ Championship in 2 hours and 3 minutes, both were fined by the U.S. P.G.A. for playing too quickly. Daly shot an 80 and Calcavecchia an 81.
Legendary professional Harry Vardon, the greatest Open Champion of all-time, had only one hole-in-one during his long career.
Americans spend more than $600 million a year on golf balls.
There are more then 11,000 golf courses in North America.
The chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are one in 67 million.
There are 50 million golfers in the world. Their average gross score is 107 shots. Eighty percent of all golfers will never achieve a handicap of less than 18.
The maximum weight for a golf ball is 1.62oz.
Before 1850, Golf balls were made of leather and were stuffed with feathers.
The oldest golfer ever to play a round was believed to be Arthur Thompson of British Columbia. At the age of 103, he equalled his age on the Uplands Golf Club in Victoria - a course of over 6,000 yards.