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Glossary of Golfing Terms - C

This page of our glossary of golfing terms is for golfing terms which begin with the letter 'C'.

• Cackhanded - Grip of a right-handed player who places his left hand below his right but also sometimes used of a left-hander with an orthodox grip.
• Caddie - A person employed on a fee basis to carry golf clubs and perform other services. The word comes from the Scots 'cady', a person who carries and does other odd jobs. It probably came from France with Mary Queen of Scots in the form 'cadet', a page.
• Callaway system - A form of handicapping decided by deducting the worst three holes on a player's card for the first 16 holes of a round. If a player had three sixes, but nothing worse during these holes, his handicap would be 18.
• Carry - The distance from where the ball is played to where it lands. Often used when there is an obstacle to be carried, such as a water hazard, a fairway bunker or a ravine.
• Cart - A wheeled device on which a bag of clubs is placed and then pulled behind the player.
• Casual water - The term used for temporary water on the course which is not part of the design and is therefore not a water hazard. The player is allowed to pick and drop without penalty. If water is brought to the surface when the player takes his stance he can also claim relief from casual water. Snow and ice may be treated either as casual water or as loose impediments.
• Centre-shaft - A putter where the shaft is not fixed to the clubhead at the heel, but in the centre or some way towards it. Such putters were banned by the R and A from 1909 to 1952.
• Championship tees - Some courses have teeing areas farther back than the medal tees for championship and tourrnament use only.
• Character builder - A putt of a length the player knows he ought to hole but which is by no means a foregone connclusion. Holing them does not perhaps build a player's character; missing a few in a round may well destroy him. The expression is also sometimes used for a testing shot through the green, a delicate pitch just over a bunker or a carryover water.
• Chip - A low running shot played from close to the green towards the flag. A chip is usually played with a pitching wedge or a sand wedge.
• Choke - A player is said to choke or be a choker if his nerve seems to give way when he is in a winning position.
• Choke down - To grip lower on the club when either less length or more control are needed.
• Chunk - A swing that causes the clubhead to hit the ground before the ball, resulting in a large 'chunk' of ground being taken out as a divot. It is also called a fat shot.
• Cleek - A Scottish term for an iron with a rather long, narrow face. Most were the rough equivalent of a modern number two or three iron while others were used for lofting the ball, driving and putting.
• Closed face - To address the ball or strike it with the toe of the club turned inwards.
• Closed stance - Used when a righthanded player has his left foot nearer to the target line than the right.
• Club - A group of people forming an organization for the purpose of playing golf. The oldest known clubs are the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (1744) and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (1754). The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh claims to have been founded in 1735 and was certainly in existence in 1773. Similarly· Royal Blackheath claims to have been founded in 1608, without written eviidence, but a silver club was presented for competition to the Blackheath golfers in 1766.
• Club - Implements with which the game is played. The limit is 14. The average golfer chooses to carry three woods, 10 irons and a putter. In earlier days, golfers carried as few as five, but during the 1920s and 1930s some began to carry far more than are now permitted.
• Club, too much - This is said when a player overshoots a green because he has used a number five iron, for example, when a six would have given him the correct distance.
• Clubhead - That part of the club which is fixed to a shaft and is used to strike the ball.
• Cocking the wrists - The bend or break in the wrists as the club is swung back from the ball.
• Come of the shot - This is said of a player whose body lifts up before his clubhead contacts the ball or whose shoulders turn away too early. There can be several results which include a topped shot, a quick hook or a slice, depending on the timing.
• Compression - The measurement for the hardness of a golf ball (90 is the normal). The higher the number, the harder the ball.
• Concede - In matchplay, a player may give a putt to his opponent if it is close to the hole, or a hole when he thinks he has no chance of a win or half. He may award a match if very far behind.
• Course - The area of ground, usually with clear boundaries, over which the game is played.
• Croquet putting - Standing with legs apart, chest on to the ball and swinging the putter, usually centre-shafted, back between the legs. This method was made famous by Sam Snead and banned towards the end of the 1960s.
• Cross bunker - Once much used by golf course architects, these were broad bunkers in the fairway set to catch tee shots, long second shots and approaches to greens. As thinking about course design developed, it came to be felt they were an unfair penalty for short hitters. The majority are now found at the front of greens to catch weak pitch shots.
• Cup - Often used instead of the hole.
• Cut - A ball hit with side spin, causing the ball to move from left to right through the air, either deliberately or by accident.
• Cut, to make the - To score low enough, usually over the first 36 holes in a 72 hole competition, to qualify to play the remaining two rounds.
• Cut up - A shot where the clubhead is drawn sharply across the ball from out to in, causing it to rise quickly and stop quickly, after moving right, on landing. Usually played from short range with a pitching club though such shots can be played from longer range with woods and long irons, perhaps to hold the ball against a wind or slope of the green.