Golf, being a boring sport, has no choice but to entertain itself with great fanfare. When a guy who hits a ball around in a paddock with only a stick, and everybody else watches on, or else brings their own ball and stick, can get headlines for his marital mishaps, something has gone wrong. Which brings us to today’s SportCabulary and your chance to make the game of golf a while lot more interesting.
Putting from the Rough: Ever done it?
Blame Matt Damon for putting this one on the radar. Before Good Will Hunting, all this meant was that a golfer was using his putter to hit the ball just off the green.
But for some reason, in that movie, Damon used “putt from the rough” to imply that his therapist was, well, using his putter in most unsavoury fashion. The term stuck. A Bit of a bummer for golfers the world over.
Actually, we don’t blame Matt, we thanks him for making the game just that little bit more interesting, not to mention the whole movie just that little bit more Oscar Worthy.
On a side note, Japanese tourists coming to America and hoping to have a round of golf are given information explaining the all American lingo.
On Putt from the Rough they are told in the brochure:
“Yakuza golf = Putt from the Rough Basically, you are not allowed to use a putter off the green. Matt Damon’s derogatory use of Putt from the Rough, in the movie Good Will Hunting, towards legendary Sports columnist George Plimpton meant the character played by Plimpton was gay.
I am assuming the Japanese associate Yakuza with macho. If you putt from the rough you are not a real man? Hey Scotland! What do you think of those apples?”
Make of that what you will.
