Texas Wedge (a golf putter)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Aug 25 03:40:02 UTC 2006


Any "Texas wedge" entry  coming up in OED, HDAS, DARE? Anything in the
Dallas Morning News database?
--Barry, back from Texas, who didn't play golf there.
...
...
_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/texas_wedge_a_putter/_
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/texas_wedge_a_putter/)
...
...
<i>Listening to America</i>
by Stuart Berg Flexner
New York: Simon and Schuster
1982
Pg. 276:
<i>Texas wedge</i> does not refer to a wedge at all but is a  late 1950s
humorous American term for a putter when it can be used for a short  approach shot
over very flat, rather bare ground, as might be found in  Texas.

_http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/g/bldef_texaswedg.htm_
(http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/g/bldef_texaswedg.htm)
"Texas Wedge"
>From _Brent  Kelley_ (http://golf.about.com/mbiopage.htm) ,
Definition: The  putter, when it is used to putt from off the green. The term
was popularized by  Ben Hogan. Texas golf courses had a reputation, back in
the days of Hogan and  earlier, for very hard fairways. A player might have to
land a ball short of a  green to allow it bounce up onto the green. And when a
player's ball stopped  short of the green, the putter might be a better
choice for the shot because of  the hardness of the fairway and collar and the
shortness of the grass. So a  putter would be used rather than a wedge.

Texas' golf courses have come a long way since then, but the term stuck. A
Texas wedge is the putter when used from off the green, or the shot that
results.
14 March 1954, Florence (SC) <i>Morning News</i>, pg. 3B:
Dave Neiman loves the "Texas Wedge" shot and usually can pull off some
interesting shots with his putter over many types of terrain, but he added a new
twist this week.
23 February 1955, Galveston (TX) <i>News</i>, pg. 11 photo  caption:
[Mike Souchak -- ed.] is shown using a putter, called "Texas wedge" by the
pros.
26 May 1957, Chicago <i>Daily Tribune</i>, pg. A4:
Disdainful of a wedge, Joe elected to play it out with the Texas wedge -- the
 putter.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list