Understanding Golf Scoring: From Birdie to Albatross

Golf is a sport with a long history and over the years it has managed to gather more and more fans. In 1744 the first association of players was founded in Scotland and in 2016 it was recovered for the Olympic Games after one hundred and twelve years of absence (the third edition, held in 1904 in the United States, had been the last in which golf had been included as a competitive sport).

In addition to the great players in the history of sports –Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Severiano Ballesteros-, there are many entertainment and political figures who have practiced it regularly, such as Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Clint Eastwood, Hugh Grant, Jack Nicholson, Jane Seymour, Katherine Hepburn, Kevin Costner, Sean Connery… Also other sports stars: Albert Costa, Alex Corretja, Rafael Nadal, Guti, Guardiola, Zidane, Bale, Zubizarreta, Ronaldo, Michael Jordan, Diego Maradona.

Those who know the sport thoroughly assure that It is ideal for strengthening muscles, bones and, above all, reducing stress. Both to see the best in golf play and understand what is happening, or to try a few shots and discover a world from which -according to those who have gone through the experience- it is difficult to detach yourself, it is very necessary to know some technical details, particularly the scoring system used in the competition.

the birdie

In golf, points are defined by the number of strokes the player needs to get the ball into the hole.. In each golf course there are holes of three, four and five strokes, which are called, precisely, holes of par three, par four and par five. In English, “par” is the abbreviation of “professional average result” (the average performance of a professional) and reflects the number of shots that are considered “ideal” to put the ball in the hole.

It is called birdie under par, that is, when a hole is achieved in one less stroke (for example, a par 4 hole in three strokes or a par 5 hole completed in four strokes). The term birdie was coined by the American golfer Ab Smith in 1899, in Atlantic City. The story is funny: he was so impressed with a shot of his own that he referred to it as a “bird with one stone.”

To play a round of golf it is necessary to complete 18 holes in a set order. There are two categories of golf courses: professional, which according to USGA (United States Golf Association) standards are those where the sum of the total distances of the 18 holes exceed 7,000 yards (6400.80 meters), and tourist courses. , executives or amateurs, that do not exceed 7,000 yards.

Other related shots: albatross, par, bogey…

There are other shots besides the birdie, of course, that determine the score a golfer gets. A “bogey” indicates that he has holed out with one stroke over par. The “double bogey” or “3 over par” is used for cases where he needs two or three more shots, respectively, to pocket the ball.

The “par” is the set number of strokes to put the ball into a hole, depending on the distances. There are par three, four or five holes. And sticks of different lengths and heads with different angles are used according to those distances. The smaller the number of degrees of inclination, the greater the length of the rod and therefore more distance. A golfer may carry a maximum of fourteen clubs and a minimum of five in each game.

The “eagle” indicates that the hole has been completed with two shots under par, the “albatross” indicates that the hole has been completed with three shots under par (holing the ball on two shots on a par 5, for example). , the “condor” means holed out four shots under par, and finally the “hole in one,” an achievement for experts, is used when a player puts the ball in with the first shot. Californian Norman Manley amassed an impressive 59 holes-in-one between 1964 and 1979. His compatriot Mike Crean recorded the longest hole-in-one in history when he holed out on a Denver course from 517 yards.

Birdie records in golf history

The players who achieved the most birdies in the same tournament are two, American Mark Calcavecchia and Australian Paul Gow. Born in Nebraska in 1960, “Calc” was a thirteen-time winner on the PGA Tour -including the 1989 Open Championship- and a protagonist of this sport between the mid-1980s and 2007, the season in which he achieved his last victory on the circuit, with almost 47 years. He is also the player who shares the record for most consecutive birdies (nine) with Australian James Nitties (at the Vic Open in his country in 2019) and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia in 2017).

At the 2009 Canadian OpenCalcavecchia reached the mark of 32 birdies in the same tournamenta figure that was very close to the Chilean Joaquín Niemann in 2021 (he achieved 31 in the Tournament of Champions played in Hawaii) and to which the Australian Gow also reached, a discreet golfer who surprised with the mark at the BC Open of the year 2001 but never did not win a tournament on the professional circuit.

Buenos Aires, 1967. I am an Argentine journalist who has worked in the public news agency of my country (Telam) and the two most important newspapers in that market, Clarín.

and The Nation. Also with a long experience in radio (I have been on the air without interruptions since 1999). With a degree in sports journalism, I have also developed an extensive career as a film, music and theater critic. I host a podcast dedicated to great records in the history of pop music called Risk Group and I’ve also directed a feature length fiction and four plays, so my interests are diverse. I have lived in Madrid since 2021 and I have started working for Relevo in 2023.


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