California
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U. S. the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento; the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, the country's second most populous, after New York City. California has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, its largest county by area, San Bernardino County; the City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. California's $3.0 trillion economy is larger than that of any other state, larger than those of Texas and Florida combined, the largest sub-national economy in the world. If it were a country, California would be the 5th largest economy in the world, the 36th most populous as of 2017.
The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies, after the New York metropolitan area. The San Francisco Bay Area PSA had the nation's highest GDP per capita in 2017 among large PSAs, is home to three of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people. California is considered a global trendsetter in popular culture, innovation and politics, it is considered the origin of the American film industry, the hippie counterculture, fast food, the Internet, the personal computer, among others. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are seen as global centers of the technology and entertainment industries, respectively. California has a diverse economy: 58% of the state's economy is centered on finance, real estate services and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.
S. state. California is bordered by Oregon to the north and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; the state's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, from the redwood–Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. Although California is well-known for its warm Mediterranean climate, the large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains. Over time and wildfires have become more pervasive features. What is now California was first settled by various Native Californian tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries; the Spanish Empire claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its successful war for independence but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War.
The western portion of Alta California was organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. The California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom; the word California referred to the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico. The name derived from the mythical island California in the fictional story of Queen Calafia, as recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo; this work was the fifth in a popular Spanish chivalric romance series that began with Amadis de Gaula. Queen Calafia's kingdom was said to be a remote land rich in gold and pearls, inhabited by beautiful black women who wore gold armor and lived like Amazons, as well as griffins and other strange beasts. In the fictional paradise, the ruler Queen Calafia fought alongside Muslims and her name may have been chosen to echo the title of a Muslim leader, the Caliph. It's possible.
Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, inhabited by black women without a single man among them, they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with great virtue; the island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the craggy rocks. Shortened forms of the state's name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000; the Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups were diverse in their political organization with bands, villages, on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash and Salinan.
Trade, intermarriage a
Ben Crenshaw
Ben Daniel Crenshaw is a retired American professional golfer who has won 19 events on the PGA Tour, including two major championships: the Masters Tournament in 1984 and 1995. He is nicknamed Gentle Ben. Born in Austin, Crenshaw attended and played golf at Austin High School and the University of Texas, where he won three NCAA Championships from 1971 to 1973, he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He turned professional in 1973. In 1973, Crenshaw became the second player in Tour history to win the first event of his career. Following five runner-up finishes in major championships without a victory, including losing a sudden-death playoff for the 1979 PGA Championship, in 1984 he won The Masters. In the mid-1980s, he suffered from Graves' disease, a disease of the thyroid, but he continued to accumulate victories, finishing with 19 on the PGA Tour, including an emotional second Masters victory in 1995, which came a week after the death of his mentor Harvey Penick. In 1999, he was selected as captain of the United States Ryder Cup team for the matches at The Country Club, Massachusetts.
He was criticized from some quarters for his captaincy over the first two days as his team slipped to a 10-6 deficit. S. won 8 ½ of the final day's 12 points to regain the Cup. Crenshaw won several professional events outside the PGA Tour, including individual and team titles in the World Cup of Golf in 1988, he was among the top ten on McCormack's World Golf Rankings from 1976 to 1981 inclusive, returned to spend 80 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking from 1987 to 1989. In 1987, he became one of the few players in history to finish in the top ten of all four major championships in the same season without winning any of them. Crenshaw is regarded as one of the best putters in golf history, his instructor growing up, Harvey Penick, taught him a smooth, effortless stroke on the greens, which allowed him to master the speediest of greens–including those at Augusta National Golf Club. In winning the Masters in 1995, "Gentle Ben" did not record a single three-putt during the tournament.
Since 1986, Crenshaw has been a partner with Bill Coore in Coore & Crenshaw, a golf course design firm. The 2015 Masters was the final for Crenshaw. Crenshaw married his second wife Julie in 1985. All three of his daughters were presented to high society as debutantes at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Politically, Crenshaw is a Republican, has donated money to multiple Republican candidates. 1968 International Jaycee Junior Golf Tournament 1971 NCAA Championship, Eastern Amateur, Southern Amateur 1972 NCAA Championship, Eastern Amateur, Porter Cup, Trans-Mississippi Amateur 1973 NCAA Championship, Western Amateur, Sunnehanna Amateur, Southern Amateur, Northeast Amateur PGA Tour playoff record 1975 Texas State Open 1979 Texas State Open 1980 Texas State Open 1981 Mexican Open 1985 Shootout at Jeremy Ranch 1988 World Cup, World Cup Individual Trophy 1991 Fred Meyer Challenge 1995 PGA Grand Slam of Golf 2009 Wendy's Champions Skins Game LA = Low amateur CUT = missed the halfway cut WD = withdrew "T" indicates a tie for a place.
Most consecutive cuts made – 13 Longest streak of top-10s – 6 He played on four Ryder Cup teams and captained the 1999 team. In 1987, he became one of the few players in history to record top-10 finishes in all four major championships in the same season. Ed Dudley, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Doug Sanders, Miller Barber, Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Sergio García, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Vijay Singh have achieved the feat. In 1991, Crenshaw was given the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf, his stepmother, Roberta Crenshaw, was an Austin-area philanthropist. He is now a noted golf course designer, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. He is the 2006 Kappa Alpha Order Sportsman of the Year. "If we are to preserve the integrity of golf as left to us by our forefathers, it is up to all of us to carry on the true spirit of the game."
Amateur Eisenhower Trophy: 1972 Professional Ryder Cup: 1981, 1983, 1987, 1995, 1999 World Cup: 1987, 1988 Kirin Cup: 1988 Dunhill Cup: 1995 Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge: 2002 List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins Official website Ben Crenshaw at the PGA Tour official site Ben Crenshaw at the European Tour official site Ben Crenshaw at the Official World Golf Ranking official site
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was a British-American actress and humanitarian. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s, she continued her career into the 1960s, remained a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend. Born in London to wealthy prominent American parents, Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939, she was soon given a film contract by Universal Pictures, she made her screen debut in a minor role in There's One Born Every Minute, but Universal terminated her contract after a year. Taylor was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, had her breakthrough role in National Velvet, becoming one of the studio's most popular teenaged stars, she made the transition to adult roles in the early 1950s, when she starred in the comedy Father of the Bride and received critical acclaim for her performance in the drama A Place in the Sun.
Despite being one of MGM's most bankable stars, Taylor wished to end her career in the early 1950s. She disliked many of the films to which she was assigned, she began receiving roles she enjoyed more in the mid-1950s, beginning with the epic drama Giant, starred in several critically and commercially successful films in the following years. These included two film adaptations of plays by Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly, Last Summer. Although she disliked her role as a call girl in BUtterfield 8, her last film for MGM, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Taylor was paid a then-record-breaking $1 million to play the title role in the historical epic Cleopatra, the most expensive film made up to that point. During the filming, Taylor and co-star Richard Burton began an extramarital affair, which caused a scandal. Despite public disapproval and Burton continued their relationship and were married in 1964. Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, they starred in 11 films together, including The V.
I. P.s, The Sandpiper, The Taming of the Shrew, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Taylor received the best reviews of her career for Woolf, winning her second Academy Award and several other awards for her performance, she and Burton divorced in 1974, but reconciled soon after, remarried in 1975. The second marriage ended in divorce in 1976. Taylor's acting career began to decline in the late 1960s, although she continued starring in films until the mid-1970s, after which she focused on supporting the career of her sixth husband, Senator John Warner. In the 1980s, she acted in her first substantial stage roles and in several television films and series, became the first celebrity to launch a perfume brand. Taylor was one of the first celebrities to take part in HIV/AIDS activism, she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991. From the early 1990s until her death, she dedicated her time to philanthropy, for which she received several accolades, including the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Throughout her career, Taylor's personal life was the subject of constant media attention. She was married eight times to seven men, endured several serious illnesses, led a jet set lifestyle, including assembling one of the most expensive private collections of jewelry in the world. After many years of ill health, Taylor died from congestive heart failure in 2011, at the age of 79. Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, at Heathwood, her family's home on 8 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, she received dual British-American citizenship at birth, as her parents, art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor and retired stage actress Sara Sothern, were United States citizens, both from Arkansas City, Kansas. They moved to London in 1929, opened an art gallery on Bond Street; the family led a privileged life in London during Taylor's childhood. Their social circle included artists such as Augustus John and Laura Knight, politicians such as Colonel Victor Cazalet. Cazalet was Taylor's unofficial godfather, an important influence in her early life.
She was enrolled in Byron House, a Montessori school in Highgate, was raised according to the teachings of Christian Science, the religion of her mother and Cazalet. In early 1939, the Taylor decided to return to the United States due to fear of impending war in Europe. United States ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy contacted Francis and encouraged him to return to the US with his family. Sara and the children left first in April 1939 aboard the ocean liner SS Manhattan, moved in with Taylor's maternal grandfather in Pasadena, California. Francis stayed behind to close the London gallery, joined them in December. In early 1940, he opened a new gallery in Los Angeles, after living in Pacific Palisades with the Chapman family, the family settled in Beverly Hills, where Taylor and her brother were enrolled in Hawthorne School. In California, Taylor's mother was told that her daughter should audition for films. Taylor's eyes in particular drew attention. Sara was opposed to Taylor appearing in films, but after the outbreak of war in Europe made return there unlikely, she began to view the film industry as a way of assimilatin
Pat and Mike
Pat and Mike is a 1952 American romantic comedy film starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The movie was written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, directed by George Cukor, who directed The Philadelphia Story with Hepburn, Adam's Rib with Hepburn and Tracy. Pat Pemberton is a brilliant athlete who loses her confidence whenever her charming but overbearing fiancé Collier is around. Women's golf and tennis championships are within her reach, he wants her to give up her goal and marry him. She enlists the help of Mike Conovan, a shady sports promoter. Together they face mobsters, a jealous boxer, a growing mutual attraction. Sports Stars Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon were friends with Hepburn and Tracy, had the idea of writing a film to showcase Hepburn's athletic abilities, she was an avid golfer and tennis player, indeed performed all the sports footage in the film herself. Pat and Mike was filmed on location in California; the golfing scenes were filmed at Ojai Valley Inn. Tennis scenes were filmed at the Cow Palace near San Francisco.
The opening scenes were filmed at Occidental College, standing in as fictional Pacific Technical College. Many notable athletes appear in cameo roles as themselves in the film, including golfers Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betty Hicks, Helen Dettweiler, tennis champions Don Budge, Gussie Moran and Alice Marble. Other notables in the cast include Charles Bronson in his second credited movie role, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Jim Backus, and, in his acting debut, former athlete Chuck Connors known as the star of The Rifleman television series; the score for the film was composed and conducted by David Raksin, with orchestrations by Robert Franklyn and Ruby Raksin. Of his music, Raksin said "My music was sly and a mite jazzy, despite the fact that everyone seemed to like it, so did I."The complete score was issued on CD in 2009, on Film Score Monthly records. According to MGM records the film earned $2,050,000 in the US and Canada and $646,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $74,000. List of American films of 1952 Pat and Mike at AllMovie Pat and Mike on IMDb Pat and Mike at the TCM Movie Database Pat and Mike at the American Film Institute Catalog
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball and track and field. She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics, before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships, she is regarded as one of the greatest female athletes of all time. Mildred Ella Didrikson was born on June 26, 1911, the sixth of seven children, in the coastal city of Port Arthur, Texas, her mother and her father, Ole Didriksen, were immigrants from Norway. Although her three eldest siblings were born in Norway and her three other siblings were born in Port Arthur, she changed the spelling of her surname from Didriksen to Didrikson. She moved with her family to 850 Doucette in Beaumont, Texas, at age 4, she claimed to have acquired the nickname "Babe" upon hitting five home runs in a childhood baseball game, but her Norwegian mother had called her "Bebe" from the time she was a toddler. Though best known for her athletic gifts, Didrikson had many talents.
She competed in sewing. An excellent seamstress, she made many of her clothes, including her golfing outfits, she claimed to have won the sewing championship at the 1931 State Fair of Texas in Dallas. She attended Beaumont High School. Never a strong student, she was forced to repeat the eighth grade and was a year older than her classmates, she dropped out without graduating after she moved to Dallas to play basketball. She was recorded several songs on the Mercury Records label, her biggest seller was "I Felt a Little Teardrop" with "Detour" on the flip side. Famous as Babe Didrikson, she married George Zaharias, a professional wrestler, in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 23, 1938. Thereafter, she was known as Babe Didrikson Zaharias or Babe Zaharias; the two met. George Zaharias, a Greek American, was a native of Colorado. Called the "Crying Greek from Cripple Creek," Zaharias did some part-time acting, appearing in the 1952 movie Pat and Mike; the Zahariases had no children. They were rebuffed by authorities.
Didrikson gained world fame in All-American status in basketball. She played organized baseball and softball and was an expert diver, roller-skater, bowler. Didrikson's first job after high school was as a secretary for the Employers' Casualty Insurance Company of Dallas, though she was employed only in order to play basketball as an amateur on the company's "industrial team", the Golden Cyclones; as a side note, the competition was governed by the Amateur Athletic Union. Despite leading the team to an AAU Basketball Championship in 1931, Didrikson had first achieved wider attention as a track and field athlete. Representing her company in the 1932 AAU Championships, she competed in eight out of ten events, winning five outright, tying for first in a sixth. Didrikson's performances were enough to win the team championship, despite her being the sole member of her team. Didrikson set four world records, winning two gold medals and one silver medal for track and field in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
In the 80-meter hurdles, she equaled the world record of 11.8 seconds in her opening heat. In the final, she broke her record with an 11.7 clocking. In the javelin, she won gold with an Olympic record throw of 43.69 meters. In the high jump, she took silver with a world record-tying leap of 1.657 metres. Fellow American Jean Shiley jumped 1.657 metres, the pair tied in a jump-off when the bar was raised to 1.67 metres. Shiley was awarded the gold. Didrikson is the only track and field athlete, male or female, to win individual Olympic medals in a running and jumping event. In the following years, she performed on the vaudeville circuit, traveled with teams like Babe Didrikson's All-Americans basketball team and the bearded House of David team. Didrikson was a competitive pocket billiards player, though not a champion, she was noted in the January 1933 press for playing a multi-day straight pool match in New York City against famed female cueist Ruth McGinnis. By 1935, Didrikson began to play a latecomer to the sport in which she became best known.
Shortly thereafter, she was denied amateur status, so, in January 1938, she competed in the Los Angeles Open, a PGA tournament. No other woman competed against men in this tournament until Annika Sörenstam, Suzy Whaley, Michelle Wie and Brittany Lincicome six decades later, she shot 81 and 84, missed the cut. In the tournament, she was teamed with George Zaharias, they were married eleven months and settled in Tampa, Florida, on the premises of a golf course that they purchased in 1951. Didrikson became America's first female golf celebrity and the leading player of the 1940s and early 1950s. In order to regain amateur status in the sport, she could compete in no other sports for three years, she gained back her amateur status in 1942. In 1945, she had participated in three more PGA Tour events, missing the second cut of the first of them, making the cut of the other two. Zaharias won the 1946 U. S. Women's Amateur and the 1947 British Ladies Amateur – the first American to do so – and three Women's Western Opens.
Having formally turned professional in 1947, Didrikson dominated the Women's Professional Golf Association and the Ladies Professional Golf Association, of which sh
Southern California
Southern California is a geographic and cultural region that comprises California's southernmost counties, is the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States. The region is traditionally described as eight counties, based on demographics and economic ties: Imperial, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Ventura; the more extensive 10-county definition, which includes Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, is used and is based on historical political divisions. The Colorado Desert and the Colorado River are located on southern California's eastern border with Arizona, the Mojave Desert is located north on California's Nevada border. Southern California's southern border is part of the Mexico–United States border. Southern California includes the built-up urban area which stretches along the Pacific coast from Ventura through Greater Los Angeles down to Greater San Diego, inland to the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley, it encompasses eight metropolitan areas, three of which together form the Greater Los Angeles Combined Statistical Area with over 18 million people, the second-biggest CSA after the New York CSA.
These three MSAs are: the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the Inland Empire (, the Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura metropolitan area. In addition, Southern California contains the San Diego metropolitan area with 3.3 million people, Bakersfield metro area with 0.9 million, the Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, El Centro metropolitan areas. The Southern California Megaregion is larger still, extending east into Las Vegas and south across the Mexican border into Tijuana. Within southern California are two major cities, Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as three of the country's largest metropolitan areas. With a population of 4,042,000, Los Angeles is the most populous city in California and the second most populous in the United States. South of Los Angeles and with a population of 1,307,402 is San Diego, the second most populous city in the state and the eighth most populous in the nation; the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside are the five most populous in the state, are in the top 15 most populous counties in the United States.
The motion picture and music industry are centered in the Los Angeles area in southern California. Hollywood, a district of Los Angeles, gives its name to the American motion picture industry, synonymous with the neighborhood name. Headquartered in southern California are The Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. Universal, Warner Bros. and Sony run major record companies. Southern California is home to a large homegrown surf and skateboard culture. Companies such as Vans, Quiksilver, No Fear, RVCA, Body Glove are all headquartered here. Skateboarder Tony Hawk; some of the most famous surf locations are in southern California as well, including Trestles, The Wedge, Huntington Beach, Malibu. Some of the world's largest action sports events, including the X Games, Boost Mobile Pro, the U. S. Open of Surfing, are held in southern California; the region is important to the world of yachting with premier events including the annual Transpacific Yacht Race, or Transpac, from Los Angeles to Hawaii.
The San Diego Yacht Club held the America's Cup, the most prestigious prize in yachting, from 1988 to 1995 and hosted three America's Cup races during that time. The first modern era triathlon was held in Mission Bay, San Diego, California in 1974. Since southern California, San Diego in particular have become a mecca for triathlon and multi-sport racing and culture. Southern California is home to many sports sports networks such as Fox Sports Net. Many locals and tourists frequent the southern California coast for its beaches; the inland desert city of Palm Springs is popular. Southern California is not a formal geographic designation and definitions of what constitutes southern California vary. Geographically, California's North-South midway point lies at 37° 9' 58.23" latitude, around 11 miles south of San Jose. When the state is divided into two areas, the term southern California refers to the 10 southernmost counties of the state; this definition coincides neatly with the county lines at 35° 47′ 28″ North latitude, which form the northern borders of San Luis Obispo and San Bernardino counties.
Another definition for southern California uses Point Conception and the Tehachapi Mountains as the northern boundary. Though there is no official definition for the northern boundary of southern California, such a division has existed from the time when Mexico ruled California and political disputes raged between the Californios of Monterey in the upper part and Los Angeles in the lower part of Alta California. Following the acquisition of California by the United States, the division continued as part of the attempt by several pro-slavery politicians to arrange the division of Alta California at 36 degrees, 30 minutes, the line of the Missouri Compromise. Instead, the passing of the Compromise of 1850 enabled California to be a
Golf course
A golf course is the grounds where the game of golf is played. It comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, a green with a flagstick and hole. A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes. Most courses contain 18 holes. Par-3 courses consist of 18 holes all of which have a par of three strokes. Many older courses are links coastal. Courses are private and municipally owned, feature a pro shop. Many private courses are found at country clubs. Although a specialty within landscape design or landscape architecture, golf course architecture is considered a separate field of study; some golf course architects become celebrities in their own right, such as Robert Trent Jones, Jr.. The field is represented by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects, although many of the finest golf course architects in the world choose not to become members of any such group, as associations of architects are not government-sanctioned licensing bodies, but private groups.
While golf courses follow the original landscape, some modification is unavoidable. This is the case as new courses are more to be sited on less optimal land. Bunkers and sand traps are always artificial, although other hazards may be natural; the layout of a course follows certain traditional principles, such as the number of holes, their par values, the number of holes of each par value per course. It is preferable to arrange greens to be close to the tee box of the next playable hole, to minimize travel distance while playing a round, to vary the mix of shorter and longer holes. Combined with the need to package all the fairways within what is a compact square or rectangular plot of land, the fairways of a course tend to form an oppositional tiling pattern. In complex areas, two holes may share the same tee box, fairway, or green, it is common for separate tee-off points to be positioned for men and amateurs, each one lying closer to the green. Eighteen-hole courses are traditionally broken down into a "front 9" and a "back 9".
On older courses, the holes may be laid out in one long loop and ending at the clubhouse, thus the front 9 is referred to on the scorecard as "out" and the back 9 as "in". More recent courses tend to be designed with the front 9 and the back 9 each constituting a separate loop beginning and ending at the clubhouse; this is for the convenience of the players and the club, as it is easier to play just a 9-hole round, if preferred, or stop at the clubhouse for a snack between the front 9 and the back 9. A successful design is as visually pleasing. With golf being a form of outdoor recreation, the strong designer is an adept student of natural landscaping who understands the aesthetic cohesion of vegetation, water bodies, grasses and woodwork, among other elements. Most golf courses have only par-3, −4, −5 holes, although some courses include par-6 holes; the Ananti CC and the Satsuki golf course in Sano, Japan are the only courses with par 7 holes. Typical distances for the various holes from standard tees are as follows.
Men Par 3 – 250 yards and below Par 4 – 251–450 yards Par 5 – 451–690 yards Women Par 3 – 210 yards and below Par 4 – 211–400 yards Par 5 – 401–575 yards Harder or easier courses may have longer- or shorter-distance holes, respectively. Terrain can be a factor, so that a long downhill hole might be rated par 4, but a shorter uphill or treacherous hole might be rated par 5. Tournament players will play from a longer-distance tee box, behind the standard men's tee, which increases the typical distance of each par; this compensates for the longer distance pro players can put on tee and fairway shots as compared to the average "bogey golfer". The game of golf is played in what is called a "round"; this consists of playing a set number of holes in an order predetermined by the course. When playing on an 18-hole course, each hole is played once. To begin a hole, players start by striking the ball off a tee. Playing the ball off a tee can only be used on the first shot of every hole although it is not required to use a tee on the first shot.
Tees are a small wooden or plastic peg used to hold the ball up, so that when hit by the club the ball travels as far as possible. The first section of every hole consists of tee-box. There is more than one available box where a player places his ball, each one a different distance from the hole to provide differing difficulty; the teeing ground is as level as feasible, with mown grass similar to that of a putting green, most are raised from the surrounding fairway. Each tee box has
Ben Hogan
Steve Elkington
