hacker - golf player of limited proficiency (1934 September 5)

[Garson O'Toole]

Cite: 1934 September 5, The Hartford Courant, Grant Hopes To Improve
Mark In National Amateur Next Week, Page 12,  Hartford, Connecticut.
(ProQuest Historical newspapers)

This means that all a fellow has to do to win the National Amateur
championship is to win eight matches. Remember, also, that there are
no hackers in this field.

I did not see in the OED an entry for "hacker" in the golf sense. OED
does have an interesting cite containing the word "hacker" in the
soccer domain under "clogger". Apparently, hacking in soccer is
performed using legs and feet. In basketball hacking is performed with
arms and in golf it is performed with clubs

(OED 1989) 1980 D. MORRIS Tribal Words [MS.], The term clogger..today
has become exclusively used inside the Soccer Tribe to describe a
brutal, heavy-footed hacker. It also carries the implication of
stupidity (‘they were a crude bunch of cloggers’).

Garson

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