When learning a new sport, you’re bound to come across terminology that just confuses the hell out of you. I think I’m pretty good at figuring out sports terms, but no matter how many times I read or see the term “up and down” in golf, I still can’t figure out what it means! I’m pretty sure it has something to do with chipping the ball onto the green. I asked my friend, Google, who pointed me to this know-it-all named Wikipedia and here’s what I found:
- Up and down
- Describes the situation where a player holes the ball in two strokes starting from off the green. The first stroke, usually a “pitch”, a “bunker shot” or a “chip”, gets the ball ‘up’ onto the green, and the subsequent putt gets the ball ‘down’ into the hole. A variation is called “up and in”.
Ah, I get it now! It’s just a term on how a player scores. It’s like golf’s version of an alley-oop in basketball or a one-timer in hockey. I feel better now.
Golf, terminology, up and down
As a new golfer, I spend just about all my time with my golf clubs at the driving range. Last year when I first started, I would basically go play “whack-a-ball”. I’d take my friend’s clubs out, pick out a club that seemed fun at the time and just whack-a-ball until I got bored and wanted to use a different club. I am a competitive person though, so I want to get the most out of my practice time.
My interest in golf started with golf computer games and video games, so I’m used to knowing the range of each club in my bag. Unfortunately, in real life I don’t get a little display that tells me how far the ball will fly if I use my 9-iron. So I decided to find a chart I could take with me to the driving range to record the distances for each club. I found a couple charts that told me what the average distance for each club, but I’m not average. I’m much worse than average. I wanted something I could fill out myself. I couldn’t find any, so I made my own:
I created the chart as a PDF to make it easier to print. To download the PDF version, click here. I hope it helps you as much as I hope it helps me!
(This is version 1 of my Golf Club Distance Chart, so if you have any ideas or suggestions let me know and I’ll make a new version.)
driving range, golf club distance chart, pdf
