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There's no dearth of names for bad shots on the golf course. The duffer can dub, slice, hook, top, pull, push, sky, shank, or sclaff a shot. Sclaff is a word at home-albeit not warmly welcomed-on the Scottish links. In Scots, sclaff originally referred to a slap with the palm of the hand and was likely of onomatopoeic origin. The similarity of the painful resonance of a sclaff to the disheartening thud of a golf club striking the ground behind a ball did not go unnoticed by grimacing golfers on the fairway. By the 19th century's end, sclaff was being used as both a noun and verb for such a stroke.
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“Sclaff.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sclaff. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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