Arjun Atwal winning on the US PGA Tour

[Christophe Verré]

Congratulations to Arjun Atwal for becoming the first Indian to win on the US PGA Tour. Our Indian ranchers must be proud ! He's shown great nerves during the exciting last day where at least seven players were on his tail.

[Deepak Bala]

where at least seven players were on his tail.

He had a tail and people were standing on it ? Gosh. That must have been painful

[Vikas Kapoor]

Honestly I did not know who is he until you mentioned.

[Maneesh Godbole]

Indians are always proud of any Indian excelling anytime in anything anywhere
Unfortunately, golf is hardly popular and most of us don't understand the nuances of the game or the skills required.

My knowledge about golf:
1) There is a small white ball which you try to pocket (read billiards) with an iron hockey kind of stick.
2) These pockets are called holes, and a course might have 9-18 holes
3) There is something called as handicap. Initially I used to think it was some physical disability, but now I know it is not so, though I still don't know what it really means
4) There is something called birdie.
5) Tiger Woods is a golf player and he was in the news recently for something not related to the sport of golf.
End of knowledge.

Another Indian, Jeev Milkha Singh is also another golf player from India. His father is the famous Milkha Singh, the flying sikh.

[Christophe Verré]

I understand it's far from being as popular as cricket It's not popular in my home country either, but it is very popular where I live now. I watch golf during the summer, because there's nothing else to watch (except baseball, yuck...)

1) Yes, although golf players don't use their hockey stick to pull other players' teeth out

[Sridhar Santhanakrishnan]

Maneesh Godbole wrote:
Unfortunately, golf is hardly popular and most of us don't understand the nuances of the game or the skills required.

True, Tiger Woods became popular after his putting skills off the golf course became coderanch.

[Joe San]

Even I did not know who this guy was till now. But did he defeat Tiger Woods? Then he should from now on become popular.

[Deepak Bala]

I watch golf during the summer, because there's nothing else to watch (except baseball, yuck...)

oh my god ! You prefer golf to baseball ?

[Gregg Bolinger]

Maneesh Godbole wrote:Indians are always proud of any Indian excelling anytime in anything anywhere
Unfortunately, golf is hardly popular and most of us don't understand the nuances of the game or the skills required.

My knowledge about golf:
1) There is a small white ball which you try to pocket (read billiards) with an iron hockey kind of stick.
2) These pockets are called holes, and a course might have 9-18 holes
3) There is something called as handicap. Initially I used to think it was some physical disability, but now I know it is not so, though I still don't know what it really means
4) There is something called birdie.
5) Tiger Woods is a golf player and he was in the news recently for something not related to the sport of golf.
End of knowledge.

Another Indian, Jeev Milkha Singh is also another golf player from India. His father is the famous Milkha Singh, the flying sikh.

1) There are both irons and woods. Woods are typically used off the tee and for max yards, generally a 1W, 3W, 4W, and 5W. I've never seen a 2W myself. 1 will drive more yards than a 5. Irons are broken down the same from 1-9 then you have a SW (Sand Wedge) and then you have a putter which is only used on the green.

2) Yep

3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_(golf)

4) Each hole is broken down into the number of strokes (shots) it would take to make it into the hole to break even. This is called a Par. If a hole is a Par 3 you have 3 shots to make into the hole to stay at a score of zero (the lower the score, the better). 1 over par (4 shots) would be a bogey and you would go to a score of 1. A birdie is 1 under par, and would give you a score of -1. There is also an Eagle which is 2 shots under par. And the coveted hole in one.

5) Yes.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Sridhar Santhanakrishnan wrote:

Maneesh Godbole wrote:
Unfortunately, golf is hardly popular and most of us don't understand the nuances of the game or the skills required.

True, Tiger Woods became popular after his putting skills off the golf course became coderanch.

Tiger woods was incredibly popular before his off course antics.

[Ankit Garg]

When I saw this heading, I thought an Indian won in Tennis

I know the rules of golf as I've played it on a video game. But as far as watching golf goes, I don't know what there is to see. A man stands with a stick in his hand trying to get a ball into a hole ... big deal :-)

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ankit Garg wrote:When I saw this heading, I thought an Indian won in Tennis

I know the rules of golf as I've played it on a video game. But as far as watching golf goes, I don't know what there is to see. A man stands with a stick in his hand trying to get a ball into a hole ... big deal :-)

I can't watch it nor can I play it. But I do respect the skill it requires, as I've attempted to play it before.

[fred rosenberger]

Gregg Bolinger wrote:

Maneesh Godbole wrote:Indians are always proud of any Indian excelling anytime in anything anywhere
Unfortunately, golf is hardly popular and most of us don't understand the nuances of the game or the skills required.

My knowledge about golf:
1) There is a small white ball which you try to pocket (read billiards) with an iron hockey kind of stick.
2) These pockets are called holes, and a course might have 9-18 holes
3) There is something called as handicap. Initially I used to think it was some physical disability, but now I know it is not so, though I still don't know what it really means
4) There is something called birdie.
5) Tiger Woods is a golf player and he was in the news recently for something not related to the sport of golf.
End of knowledge.

Another Indian, Jeev Milkha Singh is also another golf player from India. His father is the famous Milkha Singh, the flying sikh.

1) There are both irons and woods. Woods are typically used off the tee and for max yards, generally a 1W, 3W, 4W, and 5W. I've never seen a 2W myself. 1 will drive more yards than a 5. Irons are broken down the same from 1-9 then you have a SW (Sand Wedge) and then you have a putter which is only used on the green.

2) Yep

3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_(golf)

4) Each hole is broken down into the number of strokes (shots) it would take to make it into the hole to break even. This is called a Par. If a hole is a Par 3 you have 3 shots to make into the hole to stay at a score of zero (the lower the score, the better). 1 over par (4 shots) would be a bogey and you would go to a score of 1. A birdie is 1 under par, and would give you a score of -1. There is also an Eagle which is 2 shots under par. And the coveted hole in one.

5) Yes.

1) Strangely, a wood can be made out of metal. However, I've never seen an iron made out of wood.

2) If by 9-18 you mean "Nine OR 18" then yep. if you mean "Some number between 9 and 18 inclusive", then Nope. In a typical round, players play 18 holes. For a tournament, they'll play several rounds across several days. So they probably played something like 54 holes of golf.

3) It's similar to a bowling handicap, or horse racing, or extra stones in Go. It's a way to modify the scores so that really bad player can compete against really good players and have a chance to win. Handicaps are not used (to my knowledge) in a pro tournament.

4) As Gregg said, a birdie is taking one less stroke than whatever par is for that hole. terms are
Ace - one stroke and the ball is in the hole, regardless of what par is
Eagle - two strokes under par. If par is 3, an eagle is also a hole in one. on a par 4, you would take 2 strokes to sink the ball.
birdie - one stroke under
par - you use exactly what they say you should
bogey - one more stroke than par
double bogey - two more than par.

Note that I've never seen a hole with par less than 3, or over 5.

5) nothing to add here.

[Deepak Bala]

Gregg Bolinger wrote:

Ankit Garg wrote:When I saw this heading, I thought an Indian won in Tennis

I know the rules of golf as I've played it on a video game. But as far as watching golf goes, I don't know what there is to see. A man stands with a stick in his hand trying to get a ball into a hole ... big deal :-)

I can't watch it nor can I play it. But I do respect the skill it requires, as I've attempted to play it before.

I did play it for a while and enjoyed it. But I cannot play more than 3 holes. I get bored after that.

It took me 15 tries before I could actually hit the golf ball the first time After which I was able to get the ball where it should be in about 5-7 shots.

[fred rosenberger]

Ankit Garg wrote:A man stands with a stick in his hand trying to get a ball into a hole ... big deal :-)

as opposed to Cricket, where a man with a stick in his hand tries to hit a ball?

or Soccer/football where a man tries to kick a ball into a huge hole at the end of a field?

or table tennis where a man with a weirdly shaped stick tries to hit a ball between 1.4 and 2.7 meters?

[Ankit Garg]

fred rosenberger wrote:

Ankit Garg wrote:A man stands with a stick in his hand trying to get a ball into a hole ... big deal :-)

as opposed to Cricket, where a man with a stick in his hand tries to hit a ball?

He he, right . Anyway that was a joke, I know playing golf is not easy...

[Christophe Verré]

I like watching beautiful golf courses more than golf itself But I like when a few players are battling for first place, where a slightly miss can be fatal. I've never played golf, only mini-golf , and I have Tiger Woods PGA 11 on my Xbox360