How Golf Learned to Speak: The Surprising Origins of Par, Birdie, Caddie and More

This article is adapted from original content first published in Golf Journal, the quarterly print magazine available exclusively to USGA Members.

Golf is a sport full of contradictions, starting with the fact that golfers don’t “golf”—they play golf. Yet in casual conversation you’ll still hear, “I’m golfing today,” a phrasing that makes traditionalists cringe. It’s a reminder that mastering the game requires not only solid ball-striking but fluency in a vocabulary that has evolved for centuries.

Golf’s language is a colorful patchwork: technical phrases like fade, carry and moment of inertia exist alongside slang like banana ball, breakfast ball and fried egg. Even clichés—cart golf, army golf, blind squirrel—have a life of their own. But beneath all that playful jargon are a handful of foundational words that shape the way the game is understood.

Some of those words have changed dramatically over time. Bogey once meant what par means today. Par itself came from the world of finance. Meanwhile, terms like curlew and whaup—yes, both birds—were once floated as alternatives to hole-in-one. None stuck, of course, but they underscore just how fluid golf’s vocabulary once was.

That evolution accelerated in the late 19th century, when the growth of printed media helped spread consistent terminology. “The widespread use of a golf language coincided with the rise of the printed word,” says Elizabeth Beeck, exhibitions curator at the USGA Golf Museum. “Many of the common terms emerged in the 1880s and ’90s as travel and communication improved.”

Here’s a closer look at where golf’s essential words come from—and how they became etched into the game’s identity.

Par

The concept of par entered golf thanks to a Scottish journalist named A.H. Doleman. Before the 1870 Open Championship at Prestwick, Doleman asked two professional golfers to estimate a “perfect score” for the 12-hole layout. Their answer—49—led Doleman to compare a golfer’s performance to a stock trading above or below its average value, or “par,” a term with Latin roots meaning equal.

The idea took decades to solidify. A standardized Course Rating system arrived in the 1890s, but the USGA didn’t officially adopt par until 1911, defining it as “perfect play without flukes.” The R&A followed in 1925.

Bogey

Long before it meant one over par, bogey was the target score on any hole—essentially our modern version of par. The term was introduced in 1890 at Coventry Golf Club, where secretary Hugh Rotherman created a standard called the “ground score.”

The word “bogey” itself has darker origins. Since the 1500s it had referred to a mischievous spirit or goblin, inspiring the later “bogey man.” Golfers adopted the idea of trying to “catch” Mr. Bogey, and strong players were praised as “bogey men.”

As equipment and course quality improved, professionals routinely beat Mr. Bogey. That shift paved the way for par to become the benchmark—and bogey eventually slipped into its current meaning: one shot worse than par.

Birdie

America can claim this one. In early 20th-century slang, a “bird” meant something excellent. At Atlantic City Country Club, golfer A.B. Smith used the phrase “a bird of a shot” after knocking in a three on a par 4. He and his playing partners began calling such a score a “birdie,” and the term spread quickly. A plaque at the club dates the moment to 1903.

The bird theme expanded. Eagle emerged soon after to represent two under par, logical in a country where the eagle is a national symbol. Double eagle appeared first, but the rarer, more poetic albatross eventually won out for describing three under.

Caddie

Many believe caddie stems from the French word cadet, meaning “boy.” The story goes that Mary, Queen of Scots, encountered the term in France and brought it home, where it eventually came to describe those who carried golfers’ equipment.

Whether the French actually played a form of golf at the time is debated, but the linguistic link is solid: French terms commonly found their way into Scottish usage. By the 1600s, caddie was established, and by the 1800s it was firmly tied to golf.

Fore

Despite sounding like a shortened “foreword,” the true origin is murkier—and more interesting.

One theory traces it to military drills, where riflemen warned those ahead of them with cries like “Beware foreword!” If echoed on Scottish golf links near military sites, the warning could easily have morphed into “fore.”

Another idea involves the forecaddie, who would stand in the landing zone to spot balls in the era of the fragile featherie. Golfers would shout “forecaddie!” before hitting. Over time, the warning shortened to the single syllable we shout today.

Golf

The word golf has many contenders for its linguistic lineage: colf, kolf, chole, kolbe, kolven. All relate to early stick-and-ball games, some played on frozen Dutch canals and others tracing back to Roman times.

The Scots adopted the game and experimented with spellings—gawf, gowf, gouff, goiff—before settling on the now-familiar “golf.” Whatever its true origin, the word stuck, and the game blossomed into the modern sport we know.

And for the record, even if the Scots may once have “golfed,” proper usage today—as any purist will remind you—is simply to play golf.