Even if you’re the most hardcore golf player and watcher — which if you’re on this site, you probably are — it’s frankly impossible to know every single thing about the sport. Welp, we’re here to remind you about 10 of them. Let’s get started:
1. Only two sports have ever been played on the moon (by humans at least, no telling about extraterrestrial beings). Javelin throw and you guessed it, golf.
In 1971, Apollo 14 crew member Alan Shephard used a six-iron to club a ball from space.
2. Surely, you know golf was invented in Scotland. However, did you know the country actually banned the sport on three separate occasions — 1457, 1471, and 1491 — for “interfering with residents military training.”
3. What’s a list about golf without Tiger Woods, right?
Woods hit his first-ever hole-in-one at age eight. Now ask yourself, what were you doing at that age?
4. Speaking of holes in one, the statistical probability of hitting one is an eye-popping 12,500 to one! And no, that’s not a typo, either!
5. What about the probability of hitting two hole-in-ones during a single game? 67 million to one! The feat has been accomplished in the PGA just three times in history.
6. Today, golf balls are made up of rubber and plastic. However, that hasn’t always been the case. At first, balls were composed of goose feathers stuffed in leather (spoiler alert: they flew a lot further than current ones). Wood was also used at one time to create balls.
7. The Masters Tournament was first contested in 1934 and plays out during the first full week of April. The Masters increased the prize pool to $11.5 million in 2019 and the winner’s share increased to more than $2 million.
8. What about the longest golf course in the world? That dubious distinction is reserved for the International Golf Club in Massachusett — a par-77 course stretching 8,325 yards. Hope you have a caddie ready!
9. Got a hole burning through your pocket? Head to the Las Vegas Shadow Creek course and pony up $500 a round — or $9,000 for an 18-hole game. The course is the world’s most expensive.
10. Last fact, but it’s an important one… want to know why you’re struggling at the course? Cause it’s not hot enough! Golf balls, made of rubber, travel further in warm temperature.