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Half a hole...

Mind that apostrophe.
StepOne
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Half a hole...

#169829

Postby StepOne » September 28th, 2018, 1:14 pm

...is better than none?

How does the old joke go again ... "I always wanted to be a sports journalist, and now I are one."

Henrik Stenson putts in for par to half the hole and steady the Swede's nerves. The 42-year-old can be twitchy on the greens.


from 13:05 at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/golf/44076481

Cheers
StepOne

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Re: Half a hole...

#169833

Postby UncleEbenezer » September 28th, 2018, 1:24 pm

StepOne wrote:
Henrik Stenson putts in for par to half the hole and steady the Swede's nerves. The 42-year-old can be twitchy on the greens.

StepOne

Whut? I can't parse that first sentence at all. Also bemused by the second: I could understand someone getting twitchy on a sugar or caffeine rush, but what are those greens?

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Re: Half a hole...

#169836

Postby UncleIan » September 28th, 2018, 1:35 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
StepOne wrote:
Henrik Stenson putts in for par to half the hole and steady the Swede's nerves. The 42-year-old can be twitchy on the greens.

StepOne

Whut? I can't parse that first sentence at all. Also bemused by the second: I could understand someone getting twitchy on a sugar or caffeine rush, but what are those greens?


It's golf, so there's a bit of context needed.

The first sentence, Stenson has played a putt, which is what you do when you're on the green, and it's gone in the hole. He took the number of shots that it is expected to take for that hole, that's par. He took the same number of strokes (hits of the ball) as his opponent, so he didn't win or lose the hole, so they call it a halve (or half if you can't spell).

The second sentence, it's the green in the sense of the putting area round each hole, not greens as in "you must eat your greens".

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Re: Half a hole...

#169851

Postby StepOne » September 28th, 2018, 2:03 pm

UncleIan wrote:so they call it a halve (or half if you can't spell).


Surely it would be 'half' if they were calling it a half?

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Re: Half a hole...

#169862

Postby UncleIan » September 28th, 2018, 2:16 pm

StepOne wrote:
UncleIan wrote:so they call it a halve (or half if you can't spell).


Surely it would be 'half' if they were calling it a half?


I thought that was the original point you were making, that it should be halved or halve not half.

I think you would/should say "the hole was halved". It's confused by if the round is drawn between the two players, then then both USA and Europe score half a point.

And now "halve" just looks weird when I type it. I'm not cut out for this board.

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Re: Half a hole...

#169865

Postby kiloran » September 28th, 2018, 2:22 pm

What is half a hole? Surely that is two (smaller) holes.

--kiloran

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Re: Half a hole...

#169869

Postby StepOne » September 28th, 2018, 2:28 pm

UncleIan wrote:I thought that was the original point you were making, that it should be halved or halve not half.

I think you would/should say "the hole was halved". It's confused by if the round is drawn between the two players, then then both USA and Europe score half a point.

And now "halve" just looks weird when I type it. I'm not cut out for this board.


'Half' is the noun, and 'halve' is the verb (I think !)

So you would sink a putt to halve the hole. But you would call it a half. And, yes, you would say the hole was halved, because that's the verb.

Trying to think of another example, and I guess it's similar to 'the calf was calved'.

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Re: Half a hole...

#169871

Postby bungeejumper » September 28th, 2018, 2:34 pm

As a non sports nut, I find I can sometimes get right through a TV news report without ever knowing which sport is being discussed.

"England's under-18s secured a stunning victory at Lille as they clinched their second-round place in the Gaston Rocard, thanks to a final-whistle pass from third wingblock Anke Backshot that gave front inside leg Reg Garble a clear shot and left Vega Primark Hamburg gasping." (I may have made some of that up, which wouldn't be at all surprising as I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.)

American football (or worse, basketball) is even more baffling. But cricket must surely be the most densely jargoned sport in the world? The difference being that most residents of this board have been absorbing its obscure lingo since they first drew breath, so they don't even notice its stupidity.

I was, however, amused to hear the News at Ten announcer describing the current transatlantic golf championships (ho hum, I forget what they're called....? :D ) as the world's most important sporting event. Personally, I'd put it quite a long way behind soccer and probably tennis. A bunch of middle-aged men in bad trousers and worse shirts and Trump-style peaked caps, waddling round a park and all trying to get tiny white balls into small holes, from which they will then remove them again. Who'd a thought that the TV audiences would run into hundreds of millions? Not me, for a kick-off.

Harrumph.

BJ

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Re: Half a hole...

#169877

Postby UncleEbenezer » September 28th, 2018, 2:50 pm

kiloran wrote:What is half a hole?
--kiloran

The setting for half a toad?

I'll get me coat.

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Re: Half a hole...

#169879

Postby bungeejumper » September 28th, 2018, 2:57 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
kiloran wrote:What is half a hole?
--kiloran

The setting for half a toad?

Ah yes, a TITH. The only thing worse than having a frog in your throat.

BJ

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Re: Half a hole...

#169881

Postby kiloran » September 28th, 2018, 3:00 pm

bungeejumper wrote: But cricket must surely be the most densely jargoned sport in the world? The difference being that most residents of this board have been absorbing its obscure lingo since they first drew breath, so they don't even notice its stupidity.

BJ

Just consider it as the sporting equivalent of Mornington Crescent (according to Mrs Trellis of North Wales)

--kiloran

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Re: Half a hole...

#169886

Postby UncleIan » September 28th, 2018, 3:10 pm

bungeejumper wrote:I was, however, amused to hear the News at Ten announcer describing the current transatlantic golf championships (ho hum, I forget what they're called....? :D ) as the world's most important sporting event. Personally, I'd put it quite a long way behind soccer and probably tennis. A bunch of middle-aged men in bad trousers and worse shirts and Trump-style peaked caps, waddling round a park and all trying to get tiny white balls into small holes, from which they will then remove them again. Who'd a thought that the TV audiences would run into hundreds of millions? Not me, for a kick-off.


It's the Ryder cup. I'm guessing you don't watch much professional golf do you? They're mostly pretty athletic these days. And middle aged?...each team has 12 players in it. Europe has five players in their twenties, four in their thirties, and three in their forties. USA has seven players in their twenties, three in their thirties, and two in their forties. Your point on the fashion is fairly well made mind you.

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Re: Half a hole...

#169897

Postby bungeejumper » September 28th, 2018, 4:22 pm

UncleIan wrote:It's the Ryder cup. I'm guessing you don't watch much professional golf do you?

You guess correctly. So where are their horses, then?

BJ

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Re: Half a hole...

#169952

Postby Gengulphus » September 28th, 2018, 8:02 pm

StepOne wrote:
UncleIan wrote:I thought that was the original point you were making, that it should be halved or halve not half.

I think you would/should say "the hole was halved". It's confused by if the round is drawn between the two players, then then both USA and Europe score half a point.

And now "halve" just looks weird when I type it. I'm not cut out for this board.

'Half' is the noun, and 'halve' is the verb (I think !)

So you would sink a putt to halve the hole. But you would call it a half. And, yes, you would say the hole was halved, because that's the verb.

I've cheated and looked up a few online dictionaries...

I've found some that give the golf-specific meaning of "halve" as a verb - for instance, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/halve and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/halve#Verb.

I've not found any that give any golf-specific meaning of "half". That doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't used that way in some golf circles, but if so, it doesn't seem to have entered the language more generally.

The word "half" can incidentally be an adjective or adverb instead of a noun - the sentence "He half completed the half marathon, but then retired to the pub for a half." contains an example of each!

Gengulphus

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Re: Half a hole...

#169981

Postby scotia » September 29th, 2018, 12:18 am

Gengulphus wrote:The word "half" can incidentally be an adjective or adverb instead of a noun - the sentence "He half completed the half marathon, but then retired to the pub for a half." contains an example of each!
Gengulphus

So half is clearly versatile! But are we still agreed that it should be "to halve a hole"? To avoid such sticky problems, and remove the need for fractions (vulgar or otherwise) why is there any need to award a half? Awarding two of them will not affect the result of a match, and we would be obliged to call them halves.

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Re: Half a hole...

#169988

Postby swill453 » September 29th, 2018, 5:15 am

scotia wrote:So half is clearly versatile! But are we still agreed that it should be "to halve a hole"? To avoid such sticky problems, and remove the need for fractions (vulgar or otherwise) why is there any need to award a half? Awarding two of them will not affect the result of a match, and we would be obliged to call them halves.

Because the score also indicates how far we have progressed through the match. If halves were ignored then a score of 1-0 wouldn't pass on the information that there had been, say, 15 games halved. Whereas 8.5-7.5 obviously does.

Scott.

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Re: Half a hole...

#170232

Postby scotia » September 30th, 2018, 12:07 pm

swill453 wrote: If halves were ignored then a score of 1-0 wouldn't pass on the information that there had been, say, 15 games halved. Whereas 8.5-7.5 obviously does.
Scott.

Good Point - and that leads us to another point - the decimal point. There would be no need to have a half or two halves if we were to have a point five. Now that leads me to another quandary. Should it be two points five or two point fives? Maybe we could solve all of these thorny problems by simply banning golf. As Mark Twain remarked "Golf is a good walk spoiled".

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Re: Half a hole...

#170288

Postby swill453 » September 30th, 2018, 4:22 pm

scotia wrote:Good Point - and that leads us to another point - the decimal point. There would be no need to have a half or two halves if we were to have a point five.

Funnily enough golfers are pretty savvy regarding fractions and their decimal equivalents. If they halve a hole, then 0.5 gets added to each team's score, and nobody bats an eyelid. It's almost as if it was common sense.

Scott.

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Re: Half a hole...

#170295

Postby jfgw » September 30th, 2018, 4:54 pm

scotia wrote:As Mark Twain remarked "Golf is a good walk spoiled".


I did only nine holes yesterday so it was only half a walk.

Julian F. G. W.

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Re: Half a hole...

#170543

Postby GoSeigen » October 1st, 2018, 4:11 pm

StepOne wrote:Trying to think of another example, and I guess it's similar to 'the calf was calved'.


Breath -- breathe.
Belief -- believe.

etc

GS


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