NCG’s Golf Glossary: What is a triple bogey?

What is a triple bogey? Well, here at National Club Golfer we’re the publication for the everyday player and so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to give you a step-by-step introduction to 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 triple-bogey?

A triple bogey is the term applied to any golfer who goes three over par on any single hole on the golf course.

Every hole on a golf course has a par rating applied to it. This single-digit number applies to the score a golfer is expecting to achieve from tee to hole.

Therefore, a golfer makes a triple bogey when he or she takes three more strokes than par to play the hole. It would be a very poor score for a pro to get but is common for an amateur player.

How would you use it in a sentence?

“I was already 1 over par when I missed the putt to make it a triple bogey”

What’s the origin?

The term bogey is derived from ‘bogle’, a 16th Century Scottish name for goblin. This was then adapted by golfers into ‘Mr Bogey’ whom they would imagine measuring their score against.

Any other business?

During World War II hostile and unidentified aircraft were referred to as bogeys. As in, “Tally ho chaps, looks like we’ve got Gerry on our tail. I count one or two bogeys, it could possibly even be a triple-bogey scenario!”

Of course, this is not even remotely what we are talking about when we say the words triple bogey on a golf course.

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