Mulligan – The Mulligan Golfers Guide

Like much of the history of golf, the origin of the term ‘Mulligan’ has been lost in the mists of time and you will find several different explanations, depending on the source you consult. So let’s get rid of some of the more frivolous or fanciful heirs of the term first.

The writer Henry Beard, for example, says that the expression is named after Thomas Mulligan, a fairly detailed Irish aristocrat (if his writings are based on anything) who lived in Duffnaught Hall near Lough Sclaff, who incidentally burned to the ground. the foundation in mysterious circumstances. one week after his death in April 1879. Thomas was a fervent but clearly not very talented golfer who allegedly wrote: ‘Since strokes made after the game ends at the 18th hole do not count towards the total entered on the card counting from one, it seems. To me, it is eminently reasonable that any shot made before the game starts correctly with a satisfactory shot on the first tee should have no more consequences for the score than the shots one has made by way of Practice on the course of hitting balls on the driving land. In short, the player’s first hit counted for a game is the first playable drive from the first tee, and shots taken beforehand are not scored. ‘

It’s reasonably easy to rule out the possibility that a mulligan bears this gentleman’s name for three reasons. First, it died more than 80 years before the term came into popular use, and an ocean away from where it was absorbed into common parlance: in the United States of the 1940s. Second, it refers to everyone. the shots before “a satisfactory drive on the first tee”, which in some cases, at least among the people we play with, could mean that it would take half an hour to get the opening hole in motion. Third, he cannot write.

An equally unlikely story suggests that Mulligan was associated with upwardly socially mobile Irish-Americans, at the time some of them were abandoning their traditional blue-collar origins and joining upscale, or rather expensive country clubs.

The existing membership, showing all the lack of charm, grace, or manners that occasionally still exists in the more conceited golf clubs, mocked these incompetent aspiring golfers, although they were probably being conceited and conceited because that’s what they did for people. whom they considered their social inferiors. So the term Mulligan became a general nickname and an ethnic slur, rather like ‘Dutch candy’, to denote anyone who was so bad at golf that they needed help starting their round.

Also unlikely, but worth repeating for its rarity value, the suggestion that some lounge bars in America would keep a bottle of Mulligan on the bar. It contained a fiery mixture of pepper and spices that, when added to the beer, gave it an extra kick that was calculated to give the drinker a boost equal to the boost a golfer would get if they were allowed an extra or free throw. Absurd, artificial and crazy, but you pay your money and choose.

So, to aid your deliberations, here is another proposal, in our opinion, equally unlikely. This suggests that the term derives from ‘mull’, which is the small hump of grass or dirt that golfers used to place the ball on for easier hitting before the invention of modern tees. If the player sniffed the ball, or just hit a losing streak, he was supposed to say to his caddy, “I’m going to reflect again,” and hit another ball on the tee. It just doesn’t sound good, does it? Surely it would be more spontaneous and natural to say: ‘I’ll hit someone else’ or something similar.

The unlikely final etymology we have been able to trace refers to John A ‘Buddy’ Mulligan, who worked at Essex Fells Country Club in New Jersey as a wardrobe assistant.

Once Buddy had cleaned the locker room, if there were no members around, legend has it that he would play a round of golf with Dave O’Connell, the pro assistant, and Des Sullivan, who was a member and budding journalist (he became golf editor Newark Night News).

On one of these occasions his first tee shot was so terrible that he begged his fellow players to give him another chance, claiming they had a chance to practice while he had not. They agreed, and for weeks Buddy bragged to club members that he had been able to squeeze an extra shot from two golfers who were notorious for not giving away anything to their opponents.

The members, who clearly recognized a good thing when they heard it, immediately got into the habit of giving themselves a Mulligan whenever circumstances allowed. The main reason this story sounds hollow is that it is difficult to imagine a country club in the 1930s, when this incident was supposed to have occurred, allowing a locker room attendant to fall asleep and play golf whenever he felt like it.

Therefore, having discarded the most fanciful suggestions, it is time to turn our attention to the suggested origin of the term Mulligan which has gathered the widest support, and is cited by the museum of the United States Golf Association (USGA). as the most credible of all. all competing claims. But even here the waters are muddied by the fact that despite narrowing it down to a guy named David Mulligan (who was a member of the Montreal Country Club or St Lambert GC in the same city), three possible explanations are offered. as to the reason why you are singled out as the possible culprit.

The first proposition is that one day he simply laid down another ball, referring to it as his ‘correction’ shot, but his fellow players decided to name it after the man who first thought of the idea.

Story two says that access to the golf club was via a bumpy and bumpy dirt road and a rickety bridge. Mr. Mulligan was so shocked by the experience of simply hitting the golf course (or his fellow members grateful that he was the driver) that he was given an extra shot on the first hole, either out of sympathy or gratitude.

The third story tells that our David fell asleep one day, arrived late to the tee and as a result of rushing, hit a terrible drive that his fellow players allowed him to retake.

Mulligan was a prominent hotelier, who at one time owned the Waldorf Astoria in New York and moved to Winged Foot GC, from where news of the shooting that bears his name is supposed to have spread.

There you have it, numerous possible explanations, but none of them explain why the website you’re reading them on is named after this legendary expression of golf.

Although the Mulligan is not as widely used in the UK as it is in the US or Europe, and some staunch traditionalists believe that there is no place in the game for a treat, but we believe that golf should be played in the essence of the Mulligan.

One of the many things we love about golf is that it offers 18 new outings, 18 opportunities to put your previous shots behind you and move up to the next tee, in the hope that this time you will get it right. And we all know the experience of playing like a donkey all day, giving up any belief in our ability to make a decent shot and then nailing a yell at the last one to establish a pair or even a birdie. And it is this experience that will take you back to the course next time, demonstrating the triumph of optimism over experience that is the luck of every golfer.

There is also the fact that for most of us golf is a hobby, a hobby that we do for fun. It would be nice if, like professional golfers on Tours around the world, we could warm up and hit a few balls on the course before walking to the first tee, but for most of us this is not practical. So we come to our weekly game unprepared and wonder why we so often get off to a disastrous start. In these circumstances, if a fourball agrees to give each member a second chance in that opening campaign, we don’t think it should be vilified.

There is a well-known story of an American who asks a Scotsman, “What’s the name of a Mulligan here?” and the answer of: ‘Three from the tee’ or ‘Trap’, depending on how bitter you are when you tell the story, but we believe in the possibility of redemption.