The Great Debate of 2017

[Rich Goodale]

I used to golf my balls quite nicely thank you, but now that my dominatrices (aka instruments) flog them mercilessly they do not do as they are told.  Please help me out of this spiral into golfing hell.......


NB--in this case the gerund "golfing" is acting as a verb, rather than a noun. Or so I think....

[Jack Carney]

I always use it as a noun. I don't believe I have ever indicated that i was going golfing! I would say something like:


I am playing tomorrow.
Anyone want to play on Sunday?
Dennis played well yesterday.


In my world there is never a misunderstanding

[Kalen Braley]

I was listening to a interesting bit on NPR a few months back.  They were interviewing a linguist about the evolution of languages in general and specifically discussed the English language.


He said in all of his 30+ something years of studying various languages, he only really knew one thing for sure...as hard as we try, we have no control over what and how languages will eventually morph into.


I suspect golf as verb is one of those things that'll never go back into the proverbial bag...

[BCrosby]

There have been and, I think, still are magazines called some variant of 'Golfing'. There the word is being used as a gerund, a noun. It is descriptive of a sport.


I don't say, however, "I am tennissing" for the same reason I don't say "I am golfing". 


Bob

[Peter Pallotta]

Mark B tried for years to add 'Flog' to the lexicon so as to distinguish the pro game from the one we play. A smart man, a decent idea, but it never got off the ground. Maybe no one wants to say the word 'flogging' anymore, or even less something like 'Tiger really flogged his ball today'.

[MCirba]

To golf, or not to golf?   That is the question.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I don't say, however, "I am tennissing" for the same reason I don't say "I am golfing".

You probably say "I am bowling" though.

Tennis and golf are different kinds of words. One can be used as a verb (golf). One cannot (tennis).

Again, I don't use golf as a verb very often (if ever?). I don't like how it sounds. But to deny what is a fact - golf is a verb - just seems odd/silly to me.

[Neil Regan]

"Golf' as a verb was used as early as 1894 by at least one Nobel Prize winner (and avid golfer), Rudyard Kipling:

...Last mystery of all, he learned to golf — well; and when an American knows the innermost meaning of ‘Don’t press, slow back, and keep your eye on the ball,’ he is, for practical purposes, denationalised.

Error in the Fourth Dimension, 1894


-----
Maybe Kipling's usage inspired this very famous image:

[Dan Kelly]

I don't say, however, "I am tennissing" for the same reason I don't say "I am golfing". 


Bob

Bob,


At the risk of repeating myself...


If a tennis player were a tenniser, as a golf player is a golfer, you might very well and reasonably say “I am tennissing.”


If a golf-er is not golf-ing, what in the world is he doing?


Dan

[Garland Bayley]

I don't say, however, "I am tennissing" for the same reason I don't say "I am golfing". 


Bob

Bob,


At the risk of repeating myself...


If a tennis player were a tenniser, as a golf player is a golfer, you might very well and reasonably say “I am tennissing.”


If a golf-er is not golf-ing, what in the world is he doing?


Dan

QED! QED!

[Steve Wilson]

Subsidiary to the Great Debate is the fact we do not play golf at a track we play golf on a tract.

[Matthew Essig]

Thank you for the research, Neil!

[BCrosby]

No one denies that people use the phrase "I am golfing". I prefer not to. Historically, most good writers have avoided the phrase. I suspect that is because it sounds hokey. It does to me. Much like other nouns that have taken on verb forms like "climatizing" or "respecting" (as in "She is not respecting me.") or "balling".


Bob



 

[Bret Lawrence]

Bob,


How do you feel about birdied, bogeyed, parred or eagled? Just a few more nouns that have become verbs in golf language. Stymie, on the other hand is a verb.  Did the historically good golf writers use stymie as a verb or a noun or both?


Bret

[BCrosby]

Bret -


Sure, the verbs stymied, birdied, bogied, etc. have all become accepted usage. I assume because alternative ways of describing those events have proven to be more cumbersome. Good writers - if memory serves - tended to say "A laid B a sytmie", though no doubt there are plenty examples of where stymie was used as a verb as well as in "B was stymied".




Bob

[John Kavanaugh]

I'm a fancyman just based on where I play so I try not to be when expressing how I play.  It's a small sacrifice to promote inclusion.

[Mike Hendren]

I like saying "Lee Buck Trevino could really golf his ball."

[BHoover]

I like saying "Lee Buck Trevino could really golf his ball."

Exceptions can be made in special circumstances, such as this.

[John Connolly]

Yes, "golf" can be a verb. Usage trumps rules every ... single ... time.

[Kalen Braley]

Yes, "golf" can be a verb. Usage trumps rules every ... single ... time.

Which is funny cause the "rules" aka the dictionary already says it can be used as a verb....lol

[BHoover]

Yes, "golf" can be a verb. Usage trumps rules every ... single ... time.

Which is funny cause the "rules" aka the dictionary already says it can be used as a verb....lol

[Kalen Braley]

Yes, "golf" can be a verb. Usage trumps rules every ... single ... time.

Which is funny cause the "rules" aka the dictionary already says it can be used as a verb....lol

[John Connolly]

Looks like we're moving into "flat earth society" waters ...

[John Kavanaugh]

Looks like we're moving into "flat earth society" waters ...

Except the Flat Earth people are cool.

[John Connolly]

Those traits are mutually exclusive.