Quick facts
60+ million on-course golfers worldwide; 45 million Americans played on- or off-course in 2023 (NGF)Global participation
The R&A (founded 1754) and the USGA (1894), publishing a unified Rules of Golf since 1952Governing bodies
The Open, first contested at Prestwick in 1860 over three loops of a 12-hole linksOldest championship
The 2025 Masters final round averaged 12.7 million US viewers, golf's largest audience since 2018Biggest audience
Roughly 38,000 courses in more than 200 countries, with around 43% of the supply in the United StatesCourses worldwide
Tiger Woods spent 683 weeks as world No. 1, including a record 281 consecutive weeks from 2005 to 2010Record dominance
Golf is the rare sport where the playing field is the opponent. No two courses are alike, no course plays the same two days running, and the rulebook demands players police themselves. A round asks a competitor to hit a stationary ball with fourteen different clubs across four miles of turf, sand, water and wind, then hole it on greens running at speeds measured to the decimal. The game's oldest championship dates to 1860, its first written rules to 1744, and its essential problem has never changed: the ball does not move until you make it, so every error is unforced.
The grip golf holds on the world comes from access as much as spectacle. The handicap system, standardized globally in 2020, lets a 20-handicapper compete meaningfully against a scratch player, which no other major sport manages. Meanwhile the professional game supplies genuine drama at scale: Francis Ouimet beating Harry Vardon at Brookline in 1913, Jack Nicklaus's back-nine 30 at Augusta in 1986, Tiger Woods winning the 2008 US Open on a broken leg, Rory McIlroy completing the career Grand Slam in a 2025 Masters playoff. Roughly 38,000 courses across 200-plus countries feed a participation base above 60 million.
Tactically, golf is applied probability. Because there is no defense, strategy lives entirely in shot selection: where to aim given a personal dispersion pattern, when a tucked pin is worth attacking, whether an extra 20 yards off the tee justifies a tighter landing zone. The analytics revolution, built on Mark Broadie's strokes gained framework and the PGA Tour's ShotLink laser-tracking data, has quantified all of it, and the answers have reshaped the sport. Athletically, the modern game is a power discipline: tour clubhead speeds regularly exceed 120 mph, and the tour-average drive now travels just over 300 yards.
Frequently asked questions
Why do golf courses have 18 holes?
Because St Andrews settled on it. The Old Course originally had 22 holes; in 1764 the Society of St Andrews Golfers combined several short opening holes, reducing the round to 18. As the R&A's influence spread — it formally defined a match as 18 holes in 1858 — courses everywhere copied the standard, and by the late 19th century 18 had hardened into the global definition of a full round. The popular story that it stems from the number of shots in a bottle of whisky is a myth. Nine-hole courses remain fully legitimate (and are growing again as time-pressed golfers seek shorter rounds); a nine-hole loop played twice constitutes a standard 18-hole score for handicap purposes.
What are the four major championships in men's golf?
The Masters (April, always at Augusta National, founded 1934), the PGA Championship (May, founded 1916), the US Open (June, founded 1895) and The Open Championship (July, founded 1860, played on a rota of British links). Winning all four in a career is the career Grand Slam, achieved by only six men: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and, in 2025, Rory McIlroy. Before the Masters existed, the majors of Bobby Jones's era included the US and British Amateurs. The women's game recognizes five majors, including the US Women's Open and the Chevron Championship; the Players Championship, despite the strongest field in golf, is not a major.
Who has won the most major championships?
Jack Nicklaus, with 18 professional majors between 1962 and 1986 — six Masters, five PGA Championships, four US Opens and three Opens — plus a record 19 runner-up finishes. Tiger Woods is second with 15, the last at the 2019 Masters. Walter Hagen holds third with 11. Counting the amateur-era definition, Bobby Jones won 13 national championships including the 1930 Grand Slam. In the women's game, Patty Berg holds the record with 15 majors, ahead of Mickey Wright's 13. Nicklaus's combination of 18 wins and 19 seconds — 73 top-10 finishes in majors overall — is generally considered the single most imposing record in golf.
What is a golf handicap and how does it work?
A handicap expresses playing ability as strokes relative to par, allowing players of different standards to compete fairly — golf's most distinctive feature. Under the World Handicap System, adopted globally in 2020 to merge six regional systems, your Handicap Index is calculated from the best 8 of your last 20 score differentials, each adjusted for the difficulty of the course and tees played (course rating and slope rating). The maximum index is 54.0. On any given day, your index converts to a course handicap for the tees you play; a 15-handicapper receives 15 strokes, distributed across the holes ranked hardest. The system self-corrects as you post scores, and safeguards cap the effect of abnormally good rounds and freeze rapid upward drift.
What is strokes gained and why does everyone talk about it?
Strokes gained measures the quality of every shot against a statistical baseline — the average number of strokes needed to hole out from that distance and lie. Hitting a 160-yard approach to 8 feet gains fractions of a stroke on the field; dumping it in a bunker loses them. Developed by Columbia professor Mark Broadie from the PGA Tour's ShotLink data and adopted by the tour in 2011, it replaced misleading stats like fairways hit and total putts. It matters because its findings changed how golf is played: approach play separates elite players most, driving distance is worth far more than accuracy, and putting is streakier and less predictive than it looks on television. Categories — off the tee, approach, around the green, putting — now frame nearly all professional performance analysis.
What is the difference between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf?
The PGA Tour is the established US-based circuit: 72-hole stroke play, 36-hole cuts, fields of 120-plus, and qualification through performance. LIV Golf, launched in June 2022 and funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, plays 54 holes with no cut, shotgun starts, 48-player fields, simultaneous team and individual competitions, and guaranteed contracts — signing stars like Mickelson, Johnson, Koepka, Smith and Rahm for packages reported in the hundreds of millions. LIV events receive no world-ranking points, so its players rely on past exemptions to enter majors, which remain the only tournaments where both sides meet. A framework agreement announced in June 2023 was meant to reunify the game through a joint commercial entity, but a completed deal has proved elusive.
What do par, birdie, bogey and eagle mean?
Par is the expected score for a hole for expert play — two putts plus the shots needed to reach the green, giving par 3s, 4s and 5s. A birdie is one under par on a hole, an eagle two under, and an albatross (double eagle in the US) three under — typically holing a second shot on a par 5, rarer than a hole-in-one. A bogey is one over par, followed by double and triple bogeys. The vocabulary is American: 'birdie' arose from 'bird,' slang for something excellent, at Atlantic City Country Club around 1903, and the avian theme escalated from there. A standard course totals par 70 to 72, so a professional shooting 65 is 'seven under' — golf's universal scoring shorthand.