“The First Birdie”

“The First Birdie”

By Sean Fawcett

Did you know that term “birdie” was first used right here in Southern New Jersey? It’s true, and it happened one day way back in 1903 at maybe the most historic of all the great South Jersey golf courses, Atlantic City Country Club, founded in 1897, in a December foursome which included two of America’s greatest golf course architects and personalities, A.W. Tillinghast and George Crump.

According to history, the two giants of the game, Tillinghast, architect of two of most famous championship sites Baltusrol and Bethpage Black and Crump, designer of the revered Pine Valley Golf Course were golfing with fellow Philadelphians Bill and Abner Smith. Abner was playing the long par 4 twelfth hole and hit his second shot right at the hole making the score of 3 (one-under-par) an all-but assured formality. The story continues that someone from the group following that historic swing, either Abner himself, or maybe his brother exclaimed something like “that’s a bird of a shot!”. Thus, the term meaning one shot under par became a local phrase “birdie” and becoming the official vocabulary that all golfers call a score of one shot better than par. The term for two shots under par, “eagle”, was first used at the same club soon after.

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