Golf in Hereford, Herefordshire

Golf is a sport in which a player, using many types of clubs including a driver and a putter, hits a ball into each hole on a golf course in the lowest possible number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not use a standardized playing area; rather, the game is played on golf "courses", each one of which has a unique design and typically consists of either 9 or 18 holes. Golf is defined in the Rules of Golf as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules."

Golf has increasingly turned into a spectator game, with several different levels of professional and amateur tours in many regions of the world. People such as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam have become well recognized sports figures across the world. Sponsorship has also become a huge part of the game and players often earn more from their sponsorship contracts than they do from the game itself.

A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's ability to play golf over 18 holes. Handicaps can be applied either for stroke play competition or match play competition. In either competition, a handicap generally represents the number of strokes above par that a player will achieve on an above average day.

Find Out More About Golf At Burghill Valley Golf Club in Hereford, Herefordshire

Hereford is a city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, in the West Midlands region of England.

The name "Hereford" is said to come from the Anglo Saxon "here", an army or formation of soldiers, and the "ford", a place for crosing through a river. If this is the origin it suggests that Hereford was a place where a body of armed men forded or crossed the Wye. The Welsh name for Hereford is Henffordd (or Henfordd).

Hereford Cathedral dates from 1079 and contains the Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world dating from the 13th century which was restored in the late 20th century. It also contains the world famous Chained Library.

Hereford was once the site of a castle, Hereford Castle that rivalled that of Windsor in size and scale and this was the base for repelling Welsh attacks and a secure stronghold for English Kings such as King Henry IV when on campaign against Owain Glyndwr. The castle was dismantled in the 1700s and landscaped into Castle Green.

It is now known chiefly as a trading centre for a wider agricultural and rural area. Products from Hereford include: cider, beer, leather goods, nickel alloys, poultry, chemicals and cattle, including the famous Hereford breed. The city was the home of the British Special Air Service (SAS) for many years, although the Regiment relocated to nearby Credenhill in the late 1990s.