Sand Trap - A deep depression filled with sand filled with golfers in a deep depression.

Sandbagger - A golfer who falsely posts high scores in order to inflate his handicap, thereby making him more difficult to defeat in matches. This is serious cheating. Also known as a ringer.

Sandy - When you escape from a bunker to make birdie or par, you've made a sandy. One of many junk bets golfers make during a match. ,

Sclaff - Onomatopoetic Scottish word for a flubbed shot in which the ground is contacted before the ball is hit. The game's Celtic inventors had plenty of time to develop a rich vocabulary for golfing mishaps, such as a ball topped lightly into the water (firkel), a ball hit a short distance through dense grass (glef f ), straight into the air (pooth), into the woods (slessgrack), into rocks (lofonnock) and into other players (yebastard).

Score - The total number of strokes needed to complete 18 holes or three times the caddy's tip, whichever is closest to 75.

Scorecard - A piece of paper on which a player's opening offer is written prior to the commencement of serious negotiations.

Scotch Foursome - Where players play in teams of two taking alternate shots. Each hole is started alternatively as well.

Scramble - Team competition where players play from the position of the best ball of a team member after every stroke or drive.

Scrambler - A golfer who plays somewhat erratically but manages to salvage good scores from inconsistent play. A scramble refers to a golf competition in which each of four players on a team hits a tee shot and picks a best ball, then plays a second shot from that spot. The team continues to pick a best ball and play from that spot until a shot is holed.

Scratch Player - A player with a handicap of zero; a par golfer.

Scuff - A lousy shot that results from hitting the ground before hitting the ball. (See also fat, hit it.}

Senior - A golfer who attributes poor play to the fact that he or she lacks the physique of a younger player.

Set of Clubs - A collection of no more than 14 golf clubs, usually consisting of three or four woods, nine or ten irons, and a putter.

Shag - To retrieve golf balls. Golf is full of odd terms and expressions. After hitting a 5-iron shot right onto the green, for example, you might answer an opponent's question about what club you used by saying, "The stick I used was a 7iron"; when citing a nonexistent rule to improve your lie, you might say, "I'm claiming relief from this lie under the rule covering tassleclots"; and after scoring a 6 on a hole, the right way to report your tally is to say, "I carded a five."

Shank - The most dramatic and unsettling form of misplayed shot, in which, as the clubshaft vibrates violently, the ball flies off to the right at nearly a 90° angle, embarrassing the golfer and endangering his or her fellow players.

Short Game - The short shots played around the green (chips, putts, pitches and sand trap blasts) and the cheap shots taken between the green and the next tee (quips, digs, cracks, slams and jests).

Shotgun Start - Some tournaments station players on each tee to start a round so that they can all finish at roughly the same time. This is called a shotgun start because the beginning of play was once signalled by a shotgun blast. Now they use a horn to signal the beginning of play—it's a lot safer.

Skull - To hit the upper part of the ball, causing a fast, low driving shot. You might try hitting slightly more under the ball with a sweeping movement of the arms.

Sky - To hit too far under the ball, causing a high, ballooning shot. You might try using your hands to open up the clubface a bit.

Slice - To hit the ball with too open a clubface. You might try closing it up a little.

Smile Ball - Balls that are skulled or otherwise mishit often wind up with a cut on their surface that resembles a smile, though you won't be smiling as you reach into your bag for another ball.

Smother - To hit the ball with too closed a clubface. You might try opening it back up and hitting more on the upper part of the ball.

Smother Hook - A hook that flies left and low to the ground, though only for a short distance; it is struck with a severely closed club face.

Snipe - To hook the ball such that it drops quickly.

Spin - Professional golfers and other accomplished players can apply a variety of spins to the ball to make it curve around obstacles, turn into the wind or stop dead where it lands. These shots take skill and practice, but most beginners have a bag of tricks, too! For example, even the rankest of amateurs can amaze their playing companions and themselves by making a ball run right across the centre of the hole without going in, rise straight up into the air, execute unbelievably sharp left or right turns, travel sideways or even backwards, or disappear entirely.

Spinach - The roughest of the rough. When you were a kid, you hated spinach for the taste. Now, as a mature, open-minded adult golfer, you hate spinach because you can't play a decent shot out of the stuff. (See also cabbage.}

Spike Mark - A tuft of grass caused by spiked shoes.

Spoon - Another name for a 3 wood.

Stance - The proper positioning of the feet for the golf stroke may seem a fairly complex matter, but there are really only a few basics to master: just remember to put the clubhead behind the ball with your left hand on the grip (some say the right hand), then step forward with your right foot (some say the left foot), bring up your left foot (or right) and grasp the grip with your right hand (or left). Now line up the ball with your left heel, your left toe, the inside of your left foot, or between your feet, with the left foot slightly forward, the right foot slightly forward, or both feet parallel. That's all there is to it!

Standard Scratch Score - The score a scratch golfer should get when playing a course in normal conditions.

Stick - Short for flagstick Also, a shot that hits and stops quickly is said to stick to the green.

StimpMeter - An instrument used to measure the speed of a green by applying a known force to the ball and measuring the distance travelled.

Stroke - Any forward movement of the club that is made with the intention of hitting and moving the ball and is observed by another golfer.

Stroke Play - Where the winner of a match or competition is the player who used the least number of strokes (after handicap deduction) to complete the course.

Stymie - A ball whose path to the hole is blocked by another ball is said to be "stymied," and under current rules the impeding ball is marked and moved. At one time, such shots had to be played by making the ball hop over or curve around the impediment, but a notorious, deliberately laid stymie during extra holes of the 1951 English Amateur Championship led to a modification of the rule, first in Britain and then, a little later, in the U.S.

Surlyn - Tear resistant plastic outer of modern golf balls (by DuPont Corp).

Swale - A depression in the terrain.

Sweet Spot - The preferred spot on the club face with which to strike the ball.

Sudden Death - Term for the situation that exists when a match is tied at the end of 18 holes and the player who feels the least amount of confidence about beating the opposition in extra-holes play suddenly remembers the death, earlier in the day, of a beloved aunt.

Swing - A full golf swing consists of the backswing that carries the clubhead up to the topswing point, the downswing that brings the clubhead to the point of impact, and the follow through. If the ball dribbles a few feet forward or hooks or slices violently into the woods or rough, the follow-through can be extended into the foresling-a graceful, lateral motion that sends the club spiraling into the underbrush. Alternatively, the follow-through may be stopped and the club brought up sharply in a vertical arc until the clubhead is behind the back, pointing at the ground, then swept smoothly up into the more classic topfling, which combines the power and accuracy necessary to send even the heaviest club into a distant water hazard.