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Country: gb Page generated at: Sunday, 19 April 2026 at 10:29:10 British Summer Time
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Glossary
NCG’s Golf Glossary: What is a hole out?

published: Jan 1, 2010

|

updated: Apr 17, 2024

NCG’s Golf Glossary: What is a hole out?

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Don’t know your dormies from your doglegs? NCG’s Golf Glossary is here to help

What is a hole out

Here at NCG we pride ourselves on being the publication for the everyday player, so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to delve into the wonderful world of the golfing lexicon.

Sometimes the most obvious terms have the most interesting story, so you might find yourself an interesting conversation starter…

What is a hole out?

A hole out is a phrase is said when a player’s ball find the bottom of the hole. Usually a commentator will refer to a hole out when a player gets the ball in the hole from a considerable distance or from a chip shot or bunker shot.

How would I use it in a sentence?

“He hit his second shot with an 8 iron and holed out from 150 yards”

What are the origins?

Unfortunately it’s hard to find to determine who was the first players in golf who achieved a hole out shot but one of the most famous hole outs was Gene Sarazen’s at the 1935 Masters.

The shot was described as  “the shot heard around the world”. Sarazen was trailing by four shots going down the 15th. He struck a four wood from 235 yards and holed out for a two on the famous par 5.

Any other business?

One of the most recent famous hole outs was Rory McIlroy’s at the 2016 FedEx Cup. Mcilroy needed to win the Tour Championship in order to stand a chance of winning the $10 million bonus.

The Northern Irishman holed out from 137 yards on the 16th which helped him force a play-off and he went on to win the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup.

Click here to return to NCG’s Golf Glossary

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