NCG's Golf Glossary: What is a green?

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 green?

A green is the area on a hole where the hole is located and it is where a player plays towards in order to complete the hole.

How would I use it in a sentence?

“He hit the green in two on the par 4 and has a putt for a birdie”

What are the origins?

The first mention of the putting green was in 1812 but without definition. The greens weren’t prepared separately to the rest of the course.

This was due to the fact that greens were also used as the teeing grounds and therefore the other name given to the putting surface was ‘table land’.

In 1888 the R&A included new innovations such as not being allowed to touch the line of your putt on the green and not being able to play until your partners ball had come to rest.

It wasn’t until 1952 the putting green was separated to the rest of the course and was a putting area only.