By U.B. Acharya
To the golf playing addicts as well as to the non-golf playing enthusiasts, September end was a visual treat on live TV. In Paris, 24 of the world’s best golfers from Europe and USA fought very hard for three days and finally Europe came as deserving winners of the Ryder Cup. Before proceeding further on the details of the Ryder Cup, let me explain some of the fundamentals of the game of Golf. Golf is defined as “a club and a ball” sport where a stationary ball is hit with a club. The ball is hit successively from a starting point called the “Tee” until the ball finally ends up in a “Cup” of 4.25” in diameter. The space from the tee to the cup is defined as a “Hole.” The aim of the game is to hit the ball from the tee to its own cup with minimum number of strokes. Unlike most ball games, golf does not have a standardised playing area (defined as the “Course”) but utilises the terrain of the area to prepare a golf course. A full course consists of 18* holes each with a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards and finally the “Putting Green” with a cup and a flagstick. While many holes are designed with direct line-of-sight from the tee to the flagstick, some holes might bend to the left or to the right and these holes are called “dog-leg” holes. (* Did the 15th century Scottish people who invented this game know that the Hindu religion’s most sacred document “Bhagavad Gita” also has 18 chapters?)
