Colonel Bogey Creates Golf Bogey

In the 1890s, British golfers played against an imaginary opponent called “Colonel Bogey,” who was said to take a fixed, predetermined number of strokes on each hole. Clubs drew up Colonel Bogey scoring tables so that players could measure their performance against this fictional ideal rather than just other golfers. Over time, golfers began using “bogey” to describe a standardized target score, and eventually, in modern scoring, it shifted to mean one stroke over par on a hole.

Previous Fact Next Fact