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Why Golf Has 18 Holes — and Where "Birdie", "Eagle" and "Bogey" Came From

Golf's 18-hole round began at St Andrews in 1764 and spread slowly. The documented history, and where par, bogey, birdie, eagle and albatross came from.

By Published 7 min read

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Key takeaways

  • Credit St Andrews for the 18-hole round: in 1764 its golfers merged four short holes into two, turning a 22-hole round into 18.
  • Treat 18 as a convention that spread through influence rather than a rule; The R&A's own Rules describe a round as 18 or fewer holes.
  • Remember that bogey once meant roughly what par means now, and only later became one over par.
  • Read the birdie origin story as a recollection with conflicting details, not a documented event; the accounts disagree on the year and on who hit the shot.
  • When an origin story is offered as fact, ask whether it rests on a contemporary record or on someone's memory decades later.

Golf courses have 18 holes because St Andrews did. In 1764 the golfers there decided to combine the first four short holes of their links into two, which turned a round of 22 holes into a round of 18. The format then spread slowly, mostly through the influence of St Andrews and its members, until by 1891 the three clubs that hosted the Open all played 18 holes. Even so, the Rules of Golf did not lay down 18 holes as the "stipulated round" until 1950, according to Scottish Golf History, which concludes that the number is "partly at least an accident of history".

It began as a local change to one course and became everyone's standard.

Before 18: every course was different

The earliest known written rules of golf, the "13 Articles" of 1744, were drafted for a single day's competition on the links at Leith, according to the history of the Rules published by The R&A and the USGA. Early courses had all sorts of numbers of holes, and they were not always played in a fixed order. Scottish Golf History gives a sense of the variety:

Course Holes
Leith Links 5 in 1744, with 2 added later
Bruntsfield Links 5, expanding to 6 in 1818
Musselburgh Old Course 7 for many years, an 8th in 1832 and a 9th in 1870
Blackheath 5, expanding to 7 in 1844
Montrose Links 7 by 1810, 14 by 1825, 11 by 1849 and 25 by 1866
St Andrews (Old Course) 12 by 1764, with 10 of them played twice for a 22-hole round

St Andrews was laid out in a line, so a round meant playing holes out and back in. That is the arrangement the 1764 decision changed.

From 1764 to a standard: a timeline

Year What happened
1764 St Andrews combines its first four short holes into two. The round becomes 18 holes, still played over 10 holes, 8 of them twice.
1842 The Royal and Ancient's rules lay down 18 holes as a match: "One round of the Links, or 18 holes is reckoned a match, unless otherwise stipulated." The line is repeated in 1858 and 1875.
1851 Prestwick is built with 12 holes, which still did not look out of place.
1857 The greens at St Andrews carry two holes each, apart from the first and the last, with white flags for the outward holes and red for the inward ones. Scottish Golf History calls this the birth of the 18-hole course.
1882 Prestwick expands to 18 holes.
1891 Muirfield is built with 18 holes from its first year.
1919 Half of all the golf courses in Britain are still 9-hole courses.
1950 The 18-hole round is laid down as a stipulated round in the Rules of Golf.

The spread was slow. Scottish Golf History notes that it took 25 years for there to be 18 courses in the world with 18 holes, and it credits prominent members of the Royal and Ancient who belonged to other clubs as the main driver. It also suggests the Open Championship invited comparison: in its early rotation, a 36-hole Open meant three rounds of Prestwick's 12 holes, two rounds of St Andrews and four rounds of Musselburgh, and St Andrews' 18 would have looked like the natural unit. Once Prestwick and Muirfield, two of the clubs that hosted the Open, were also playing 18 holes, the norm was set.

What the Rules say today

The modern Rules are less attached to 18 than history suggests. Rule 1.1 of the 2023 Rules of Golf, still the current edition, says golf is played "in a round of 18 (or fewer) holes", and the definitions describe a round as 18 or fewer holes played in the order the Committee sets. A nine-hole round is a round. The World Handicap System accepts nine-hole scores as well as 18-hole ones, so a nine-hole game counts for handicap purposes too.

So 18 is the standard by convention and by course design, not because the Rules demand it.

Where the scoring words came from

The vocabulary in how golf scoring works has a history of its own, and most of it is younger than the 18-hole round.

Par

According to Scottish Golf History, the term came from the stock exchange, where a share can trade above or below its par value. In 1870 the golf writer A H Doleman asked two professionals, David Strath and James Anderson, what score would win the Open at Prestwick; they said perfect play should produce 49 for Prestwick's 12 holes, and Doleman called that "par".

Bogey

Bogey came from England and began with a different meaning. In 1890 Hugh Rotherham, secretary of Coventry Golf Club, proposed a standard number of shots a good golfer should take at each hole, which he called the "ground score". Great Yarmouth adopted the idea, and during one competition a golfer remarked that a player was "a regular Bogey man", probably after a popular music-hall song. The ground score became the bogey score, and players competed against an imaginary "Mr Bogey". At the United Services Club in Gosport, where members held military ranks, the imaginary opponent was given the rank of Colonel, and "Colonel Bogey" was born.

The meaning shifted later. As American pars became the up-to-date standard and many golfers scored above them, Americans began calling one over par a bogey. Scottish Golf History places that usage in the middle of the 20th century.

Birdie

Birdie comes from early 20th-century American slang, in which "bird" meant anything excellent. The Atlantic City Country Club in New Jersey claims the first use. In the version Scottish Golf History reports, from a conversation with Ab Smith published in 1962, Smith's second shot on a par 4 in 1898 or 1899 finished inches from the hole; he declared "That was a bird of shot", holed the putt, and his group began calling one under par a "birdie". By 1913 the English golf writer Bernard Darwin was explaining to readers that "a 'birdie' is a hole done in a stroke under par".

Eagle, albatross and condor

Eagle extended the bird theme to two under par; Wikipedia's account says the name was chosen because the eagle is a relatively large bird, and Scottish Golf History suggests American golfers were drawn to their national symbol. The term had reached Britain by 1919. Albatross, for three under par, is a British term; Americans more often say double eagle. Its first known reference dates from 1929, and the first albatross reported as such in the press was a hole-in-one on a par 4 at Durban Country Club in South Africa in 1931. Condor, an unofficial name for four under par, completes the set: a hole-in-one on a par 5, or a two on a par 6.

No bird names stuck for scores over par. Above bogey there are only double and triple bogeys. Joyce Wethered once suggested calling a hole-in-one a "curlew", the "whaup" in Scots, and it never caught on.

Where the accounts disagree

Origin stories travel well and lose their details on the way. Three disagreements are worth knowing about.

Topic One account Another account
Who hit the first "birdie" shot Ab Smith, in his own 1962 recollection, as reported by Scottish Golf History George Crump, whose first shot had struck a bird in flight, in the story Wikipedia retells
When it happened 1898 or 1899 (Smith's recollection); 1899 (Wikipedia) 1903, the date the Atlantic City club gives
When "bogey" first appeared in print 28 November 1891 in The Field, about competitions at Gosport (Wikipedia) Scottish Golf History cites a "bogey tournament" reported in The Field on 2 January 1892, and dates Colonel Bogey to 1892

Even the St Andrews story has a definitional wrinkle. 1764 produced an 18-hole round, played over ten holes; the 18-hole course, with separate outward and inward holes, came with the double greens of 1857. Scottish Golf History also notes lasting confusion over which hole received the first double green.

The useful habit is to ask what an origin story rests on. The 1764 change and the 1842 rule are documented decisions. The birdie story rests on a recollection reported more than 60 years after the round it describes, which is why the details drift.

Eighteen holes in a simulated career

In our fictional-tour golf career game, Golf Career Simulator Pro Tour, events run over multiple rounds, and momentum, confidence, fatigue and pressure move within an event, so a strong front nine is no guarantee of anything. Its tours, events and golfers are all fictional; the Golf Career Simulator Pro Tour guide covers how its multi-round events and cuts work. If you want to see how the scoring words are used in competition formats that reward or forgive a bad hole, golf tournament formats compares them. More golf explainers are on the golf hub, and the full catalogue is under sports career and GM games.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

Why do golf courses have 18 holes?
Because St Andrews did. In 1764 the golfers there combined the first four short holes of their 22-hole round into two, producing an 18-hole round. St Andrews' influence then spread the format slowly over more than a century, and Scottish Golf History calls the result partly an accident of history.
Do the Rules of Golf require 18 holes?
No. Rule 1.1 says golf is played in a round of 18 or fewer holes, and the Rules define a round as 18 or fewer holes played in the order set by the Committee. Nine-hole rounds are fully legitimate, and nine-hole scores can be used for handicap purposes under the World Handicap System.
Why is it called a birdie?
It comes from early 20th-century American slang in which a "bird" meant anything excellent. The Atlantic City Country Club in New Jersey claims the first use, from a round in which a near-perfect shot was called "a bird" and a score of one under par then became a "birdie". The accounts disagree on who hit the shot and on the year, which is given as 1898 or 1899 in one telling, 1899 in another and 1903 by the club.
Why is one over par called a bogey?
Bogey began in England around 1890 as a standard score for each hole that a good golfer should make, against which players competed as if against an imaginary opponent, later nicknamed Colonel Bogey. As pars in the United States became the stricter standard and golfers routinely scored above them, Americans began using bogey for one over par, and that meaning stuck.
What are an albatross and a condor?
An albatross is three under par on a hole, such as a two on a par 5; it is a British term, and Americans often call it a double eagle. A condor is four under par, such as a hole-in-one on a par 5. Condor is an unofficial name for an extremely rare score.

Sources

  1. 18 Hole Round (opens in a new tab)Scottish Golf History — accessed
  2. Bogey to Blow-Up: Meaning of Golf Words (Par, Bogey, Birdie, Eagle, Albatross, Condor) (opens in a new tab)Scottish Golf History — accessed
  3. Par (score) (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  4. Rule 1: The Game, Player Conduct and the Rules (opens in a new tab)The R&A — accessed
  5. New and Updated Model Local Rules for 2026 (opens in a new tab)The R&A — accessed
  6. Definitions (Rules of Golf): Round (opens in a new tab)The R&A — accessed
  7. A Brief History of Revisions to the Rules of Golf: 1744 to 2016 (opens in a new tab)The R&A and the USGA — accessed
  8. Rules of golf (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  9. Rules of Handicapping, Rule 3: Adjustment of Hole Scores (9-hole and 18-hole scores) (opens in a new tab)The R&A — accessed

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