Caddie: The person carrying your clubs during your round of golf. With who may also communicate yardage measurements, rakes bunkers, and provides other information by the golfer’s request.
Caddie-Master: The person in charge of caddies.
Calamity Jane: The great Bobby Jones’s putter.
Carry: The distance between a ball’s takeoff and landing.
Cart: A motorized vehicle used to transport golfers around the course.
Casual Water: Water other than a water hazard on the course from which you can lift your ball without penalty.
Center-Shafted: Putter in which the shaft is joined to the center of the head.
Character Builder: A short, meaningful putt.
Charting the Course: To pace each hole so that you always know how far you are from the hole.
Chili-Dip: A mishit chip shot, the clubhead hitting the ground well before it hits the ball.
Chip: Very short, low-flying shot to the green.
Chip-In: A holed chip.
Choke: This word has two meanings: One is to grip lower on the club than normal. The other definition in golf to play poorly because of self-imposed pressure.
Choke Down: To hold the club lower on the grip.
Chunk: See chili-dip.
Cleat: A spike on the sole of a golf shoe.
Cleek: Old term for a variety of clubs.
Closed Face: A clubface pointed to the left of your ultimate target at address or impact. Or a clubface pointed skyward at the top of the backswing. It can lead to a shot that goes to the left of the target.
Closed Stance: Player sets up with the right foot pulled back, away from the ball.
Clubhouse: Main building at a golf club. An indoor area located on a golf course, which provides services such as the golf proshops and restaurants.
Club Length: Distance from the end of the grip to the bottom of the clubhead.
Collar: Is similar to the strip of grass which runs around the green and which is usually longer in length than the grass on the putting surface. Also see Apron.
Come-Backer: The putt after the preceding effort finished beyond the hole.
Compression: The flattening of the ball against the clubface. The faster you swing and the more precisely you hit the ball in the middle of the clubface, the more fun you have.
Concede: To give an opponent a putt, hole, or match.
Core: The center of a golf ball.
Course Rating: The difficulty of a course, measured with a formula by the USGA. Every golf course is given a rating. The higher the course rating, the more difficult the golf course is to play.
Cross-Handed: Grip with the left hand below the right (common for right-hand golfer’s).
Cross Wind: The breeze blowing from right to left or from left to right.
Cup: A container in the hole that holds the flagstick in place.
Cuppy Lie: When the ball is in a cup-like depression.
Cut: A score that eliminates a percentage of the field (or players) from a tournament. Usually made after 36 holes of a 72-hole event.
Cut Shot: A shot that curves from left to right.
