Q. In golf, is a bogey the same as one over par for a hole?
A: Not if you were playing golf in 1916.
One of the beautiful streets in the Jungle Prada
neighborhood is Bogie Avenue. In 1916 when the country club at Davista
golf course (later renamed the St. Petersburg Country Club and still later the Jungle Country Club) was opened, bogey - from the Scottish, bogie - was the score of an imaginary opponent - Colonel
Bogey. Par is regarded as a perfect score made by a first-class player making
no errors, but in the early days golfers had limited experience, less sophisticated
equipment, fewer training opportunities, and less aerodynamic golf balls, so a bogey score (originally
this had something to do with the bogey-man or boogie-man) was invented so a
golfer could match his score against a standard opponent - Colonel Bogey - instead
of a golf expert.
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| Pictured: 7995 Bogie Avenue N - photo: Steve of the Jungle CC |
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| Colonel Bogey |
In 1914, the imaginary Colonel Bogey received additional recognition when the Colonel Bogey March was composed by Kenneth J. Alford and then more fame in 1957 when the march was used in the movie “The Bridge over the River Kwai.”
A golfer’s full 18 holes of play on the St. Petersburg
Country Club (renamed the Jungle Country Club in 1925) was listed in the St.
Petersburg Times on February 12, 1918. The paper did not list par for each hole,
only bogey, an indication that the bogey score was a common way to measure one's skill. Notice that the bogey score is not one over par on each hole as it is observed today in golf - the bogey total for the course (82) is only 13 strokes over par (69).
Now, if I could just get that tune out of my head.
