Golf Hole Names - Why, When and Where?

[Matt Frey, PGA]

I was just posed a few questions by a golf course architecture buff that I didn't have answers to:

• Why did courses start naming golf holes?
• When did that practice begin?
• What was the first course that named its holes?

I figured this group may have some answers. Any help would be much appreciated!

[Tom_Doak]

Matt:


Famous golf holes and famous hazards in the UK have had names going back at least as far as the late 1800's.  It was a natural thing for golfers to do, and it was far easier than trying to remember the hole number.  In fact, it could go back before it was common to have 18 holes ... for example I'm pretty sure the Alps at Prestwick had its name when it was still just a 12-hole course.


I don't know what was the first course to officially adopt names for ALL of its holes.  I'd guess it was either The Old Course or Prestwick.

[MCirba]

Matt,

I'm imagining it started with an expletive!

Honestly, I believe the practice started with the naming of features, such as "Hell Bunker", or "The Coffins", or at Old Musselburgh, "Pandemonium".   

I would think the naming of actual holes came second, but I am only speculating.

[Niall C]

Matt


I think Tom and Mike are along the right track in that it probably started with TOC and Musselburgh (probably before Prestwick in 1851). Hole names were more descriptive back then and were probably easier to remember, particularly when changes were made in numbering and order of holes as happened from time to time.


Niall

[Wayne_Freedman]

Yeah, well, there are the pretentious names that clubs give their holes, and the vernacular names from players who know the holes much better.


The 5th at my club has one such name. After four tough openers, we call it, Get One Back.


Other names should not be in print.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Theres one at Mendip Spring called 'kin hell. it was built in the 90s.

[Adam Lawrence]

Matt:


Famous golf holes and famous hazards in the UK have had names going back at least as far as the late 1800's.  It was a natural thing for golfers to do, and it was far easier than trying to remember the hole number.  In fact, it could go back before it was common to have 18 holes ... for example I'm pretty sure the Alps at Prestwick had its name when it was still just a 12-hole course.


I don't know what was the first course to officially adopt names for ALL of its holes.  I'd guess it was either The Old Course or Prestwick.

Even the Old Course didn't have names for _all_ its holes until 1971, when the tenth was named after Bobby Jones

[Tom_Doak]

Even the Old Course didn't have names for _all_ its holes until 1971, when the tenth was named after Bobby Jones

Interesting.  I went back to look at MacKenzie's map of The Old Course to see if he had the names for all the holes, and indeed he did.  The 10th was named "Tenth".

[Peter Pallotta]

Interesting to ponder if quirk went out of the game/design when more and more golf holes were numbered instead of named.  Holes #2, 7, 9 and 14  could all be any old thing, and as bland or commonplace as you wanted if a number was used to identify them instead of a feature/characteristc. If you were a golf hole before numbers became the norm you'd better have a "sinful valley" or a "scary wall" or a "bread bowl green" or otherwise no one would know or remember you, and soon they might start to wonder why they kept you around.

[Jon Wiggett]

Holes had names before they ever had numbers the same as clubs had names before they ever had numbers the same as houses had names before they ever had numbers. There is no technical reason why names were given it was just the way it was done.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Even the Old Course didn't have names for _all_ its holes until 1971, when the tenth was named after Bobby Jones

Interesting.  I went back to look at MacKenzie's map of The Old Course to see if he had the names for all the holes, and indeed he did.  The 10th was named "Tenth".

I think the 18th was renamed also.. Hame/Home  to Tom Morris.

[JJShanley]

Even the Old Course didn't have names for _all_ its holes until 1971, when the tenth was named after Bobby Jones

Interesting.  I went back to look at MacKenzie's map of The Old Course to see if he had the names for all the holes, and indeed he did.  The 10th was named "Tenth".

Little known fact: he also chose the name for the player in Rugby Union positioned at the back of the scrum.

[Ronald Montesano]

No course should ever have this run of holes
1-Yawn
2-Snore
3-Cliche
4-Redux
5-Good Lord No!
6-Rain Check?
7-Prolix
8-SeenB4
9-Last Chance
10-Seriously?
11-Far From home
12-Uninspired
13-Plangent
14-Nap
15-Ponderous
16-Bromide
17-Ibuprofen
18-Merciful God, or Jim Morrison

[Pete_Pittock]

C.B. MacDonald must have thought this was a Good Thing. Imagine him coming back from GB&I and trying to describe his templates.for NGLA. I'm going to build the 15th hole as the 4th hole, ad nauseum.

[Pete_Pittock]

As to why - memorability. We visualize with words, not numbers, especially when the words are descriptive. Unless you have a visual map of the course embedded within the brain, when someone references the fifth hole, one probably sorts through four memories before arriving at the destination.