Golf
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176 free Golf trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
97 free golf trivia questions with answers. Born on the windswept links of Scotland, golf has become one of the world's most popular sports. From Tiger's comeback to the traditions of Augusta, how well do you know the game?
30 of 176 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many holes are in a standard round of golf?
18
18 holes became the standard after St Andrews trimmed its round from 22 holes in 1764, merging short holes that golfers had played once going out and again coming home.
Q 02What is the term for one stroke under par on a hole?
Birdie
A birdie is one stroke under par. Atlantic City Country Club claims the word: by its account a player called a fine approach "a bird of a shot" around 1900, and the score that followed became a birdie.
Q 03Which country is widely regarded as the birthplace of golf?
Scotland
Scotland holds golf's earliest written record, and it is a ban: a 1457 act of the Scottish parliament outlawed the game, and the order had to be repeated twice before 1500.
Q 04What color jacket is awarded to the winner of the Masters Tournament?
Green
The green jacket first went to a champion in 1949, when Sam Snead won; each new winner may take it home for a year, after which it must stay at the club for good.
Q 05Tiger Woods was given which first name at birth?
Eldrick
Eldrick is the name on his birth certificate. His father Earl, a US Army officer, called him Tiger after Vuong Dang Phong, a South Vietnamese officer and wartime friend who carried the same nickname.
Q 06What do golfers call the nervous twitch that wrecks a player's short putts?
The yips
The yips make a golfer's hands jerk on short putts. Tommy Armour, a major champion credited with popularising the word, is said to have used it to explain why he gave up tournament golf.
Q 07What is the maximum number of clubs a golfer may carry in their bag during a round?
14
14 has been the limit since 1938, when the USGA stepped in because players such as amateur champion Lawson Little were hauling more than 20 clubs around the course.
Q 08By which nickname is Jack Nicklaus known?
The Golden Bear
The Golden Bear suited the big, blond Ohioan, and Jack Nicklaus made it his own: when he left his agent to run his own affairs, he named the company Golden Bear.
Q 09What is a "bogey" in golf?
One stroke over par
A bogey is one stroke over par, but in 1890s Britain it was the target score itself: golfers played against an imaginary Colonel Bogey, named after a music-hall song about the Bogey Man.
Q 10What trophy does the Champion Golfer of the Year lift after The Open Championship?
Claret Jug
The Claret Jug is shaped like the silver jugs once used to pour claret, the red wine of Bordeaux; each champion must hand it back before the next Open and keeps only a replica.
Q 11What does "par" mean in golf?
The strokes a skilled golfer should need
Par is the strokes a skilled golfer should need for a hole, and it always allows for two putts, which is why no hole has a par lower than 3.
Q 12Which famous golfer was known as "The King"?
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer became "The King" as the first superstar of golf's television age: his charisma helped make the sport a television event in the 1950s and 60s, and his fans called themselves Arnie's Army.
Q 13The Ryder Cup is a competition between teams from which two regions?
USA and Europe
Q 21Tiger Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open, his last major for almost 11 years, in a playoff at which course?
Torrey Pines
Torrey Pines, San Diego's municipal course, staged the 2008 U.S. Open: Woods beat Rocco Mediate in a playoff on a badly injured left knee, had surgery days later and did not win another major until 2019.
Q 22What does relief from a penalty area, such as a pond, cost a golfer?
One shot
One shot is the price of relief from a penalty area, the name the 2019 rules gave to water hazards; a golfer may instead play the ball as it lies, even from the water, at no cost.
Q 23Which par 3, just over 100 yards long, is the shortest hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links?
The 7th
The Ryder Cup pits a team from the United States against a team from Europe. Originally it was USA vs Great Britain, but it expanded to include all of Europe in 1979 to make the competition more balanced.
Q 14What is an "albatross" in golf?
Three strokes under par
An albatross is three strokes under par on one hole, usually a 2 on a par 5; because it takes a full shot holed from long range, it is far rarer than a hole-in-one.
Q 15Which golfer won the 1991 PGA Championship after getting into the field as the ninth alternate?
John Daly
John Daly, 25, got in only when Nick Price withdrew for the birth of his first child; he took on Price's caddie and beat Bruce Lietzke by three strokes.
Q 16What is a "mulligan" in golf?
An unofficial do-over shot
A mulligan is an unofficial do-over shot: the player replays a stroke and does not count it, which the Rules of Golf never permit. One popular origin story credits Canadian golfer David Mulligan in the 1920s.
Q 17Which PGA Tour event is often called golf's unofficial "fifth major"?
The Players Championship
The Players Championship is owned and run by the PGA Tour, which has long promoted it as a fifth major: none of the four real ones was founded or is run by the tour.
Q 18Before wooden pegs caught on in the 1920s, golfers teed up the ball on a small heap of what?
Sand
Sand, pinched into a little heap for each drive, was the tee for centuries; the wooden peg won out only in the 1920s, when dentist William Lowell marketed his red-topped Reddy Tee.
Q 19Which golfer was known as "The Black Knight"?
Gary Player
Gary Player of South Africa earned the nickname "The Black Knight" for his all-black wardrobe. He won nine majors and completed the career Grand Slam at the 1965 U.S. Open.
Q 20What does "dormie" mean in a golf match?
A player leads by as many holes as remain
A match is dormie when a player leads by as many holes as remain, such as 3 up with 3 to play: the leader can no longer lose in regulation, only win or be held to a tie.
The 7th is a short flick downhill on a calm day, but the ocean wind decides the club: in the gale on the last day of the 1992 U.S. Open, Tom Kite needed a 6-iron, missed the green, holed his next shot and went on to win.
Q 24What do golfers call the piece of turf that a club cuts out of the ground during a shot?
Divot
Divot is an old Scots word for a slab of turf, the kind once cut to roof cottages; golf borrowed it for the piece a club tears out in striking the ball.
Q 25Who became the first Japanese man to win a major at the 2021 Masters?
Hideki Matsuyama
Hideki Matsuyama's closest pursuer, Xander Schauffele, hit into the water and made a triple bogey with three holes left, so Matsuyama could drop a shot at the last and still win by one.
Q 26Which club is typically used for the longest shots hit off the grass rather than a tee?
3-wood
A 3-wood is the longest club most golfers hit off the turf. It is still called a wood, though persimmon heads gave way to metal after TaylorMade's metal clubs appeared in 1979.
Q 27What do golfers commonly call the flagstick marking the hole?
The pin
The pin is golfers' name for the flagstick. Since 2019 it may be left in the hole while putting; before that, a putt that struck it cost a penalty.
Q 28Bobby Jones, the amateur who won golf's 1930 Grand Slam, earned his living in which profession?
Law
Law was Bobby Jones's trade: admitted to the Georgia bar in 1928, he joined his father's Atlanta practice, played golf only as an amateur and retired from competition at 28.
Q 29Which biennial team event is professional women's golf's equivalent of the Ryder Cup?
Solheim Cup
The Solheim Cup, first played in 1990, is named after Karsten Solheim, the club-maker whose company agreed to bankroll it when the women's tours wanted a Ryder Cup of their own.
Q 30What is a "condor" in golf?
Four strokes under par
A condor is four strokes under par, in practice a hole-in-one on a par 5; only a handful have ever been recorded, usually by cutting the corner of a hole that bends sharply.