Glossary

blades (n): Forged golf irons. High-end, not forgiving. Made for the better player.

British Isles: a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe which comprise Great Britain, Ireland and a number of smaller islands.

chalk stream: the English term 'chalk stream' is most widely used among a small group of fly fishermen (who fish for trout on these rivers utilizing a specific type of artificial fly and their attendant techniques), as the ecology of the chalkstreams creates an especially entertaining variation on the general theme of fly fishing.

England: a country, which is part of the United Kingdom.[3][4] Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population,[5] whilst its mainland territory occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain.

gorse: a genus of about 20 species of evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia. Other common names for gorse include furse, whin and furze. A typical hazard on a links golf course (see below).

Great Britain: the larger of the two main islands of the British Isles. Great Britain makes up the largest part of the territory of the state known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. England, Scotland and Wales are mostly situated on the island.

heather: The national flower of Norway, but with a strong affiliation to Scotland. It is a small perennial shrub growing to 20-50 cm tall (rarely to 1 m), and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on well-drained acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade. The other (along with gorse) typical hazard on a links golf course.

Ireland: is the third largest island in Europe. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain. Politically, the state Ireland (described as the Republic of Ireland in cases of ambiguity) covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, covering the remainder in the north-east.

links golf: Golf played on links courses; i.e., courses built on sandy soil (whether seaside or not) and that are buffeted by winds. A links course must play firm and fast, with sometimes crusty fairways and greens that feature many knolls and knobs to create odd bounces and angles. And a links course needs to be relatively treeless with a native rough that is tall and thick.

Linksland: The British Golf Museum says that "links" are coastal strips of land between the beaches and the inland agricultural areas. This term, in its purest sense, applies specifically to seaside areas in Scotland. So "links land" is land where seaside transitions into farmland. Links land has sandy soil, making it unsuited for crops. The land, in fact, was thought to be worthless because it was not arable for crops.

match play: a scoring system for golf in which a player or team earns points for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; this is as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted.

Mendoza Line: The Mendoza Line is an informal term used in baseball for when a player's batting average falls below the boundary between extremely poor and merely below-average. It is often used to characterize a batting average of below .200. The term is named for former shortstop Mario Mendoza, who actually hit .198 in the 1979 season.

Scotland: a country that occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It is part of the United Kingdom, and shares a land border to the south with England.

United Kingdom: commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain, includes the island of Great Britain, the northeast part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.