Golf: Majors, the Ryder Cup and Indian Golfers

The correct answer is C, the Masters Tournament. The Masters, founded in 1934 by the amateur Bobby Jones with Clifford Roberts, is the only one of the four majors played on the same course every year, Augusta National in the state of Georgia in the United States, and its champion is given the famous green jacket. Option A is wrong because The Open Championship rotates among links courses in Britain, including the Old Course at St Andrews. Option B is wrong because the U.S. Open is held on a different American course each year, chosen by the United States Golf Association. Option D is wrong because the PGA Championship, conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America, also moves from venue to venue. The fixed-venue fact is the single most asked detail about the Masters.

The correct answer is B, The Open Championship. Often called the British Open, it was first played in 1860 and is the oldest of the majors; it is run by The R&A and its trophy is the Claret Jug. Option A is wrong because the Masters is the youngest of the four, dating from 1934. Option C is wrong because the PGA Championship began in 1916. Option D is wrong because the U.S. Open began in 1895, which makes it older than the other two American majors but still younger than The Open. The order of founding, 1860, 1895, 1916 and 1934, is worth memorising, because questions are set both on the oldest and on the newest major. Remember too that The Open is the only major played outside the United States each year.

The correct answer is A, the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is the biennial match play contest named after the English seed merchant Samuel Ryder, first played in 1927; the European side was originally Great Britain alone and was widened to the whole of Europe in 1979, and no prize money is paid to the players. Option B is wrong because no major team trophy is played between the United States and Asia. Option C is wrong because the Great Britain and Ireland side plays the United States in the amateur Walker Cup and Curtis Cup, not Australia. Option D is wrong because the Presidents Cup, begun in 1994, is the one between the United States and an International team of players from outside Europe, and it is this pair that candidates most often swap.

The correct answer is B, Arjun Atwal. Atwal won the Wyndham Championship in 2010 and so became the first golfer from India to win on the PGA Tour, the premier professional circuit of the United States. Option A is wrong because Jeev Milkha Singh's firsts are different ones: he was the first Indian to earn a European Tour card and the first to enter the top fifty of the world rankings, and he topped the Asian Tour Order of Merit twice. Option C is wrong because Anirban Lahiri's distinction is being the first Indian selected for the Presidents Cup, in 2015, the year he won the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Option D is wrong because Jyoti Randhawa won the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2002 but no PGA Tour event. Each name carries its own first, so learn them as pairs.

The correct answer is B, Eagle. The bird names rise with the achievement: one stroke under par on a hole is a birdie, two under is an eagle and three under is an albatross or double eagle. Option A is wrong because a birdie is only one under par, the commonest of these scores. Option C is wrong because a bogey is the opposite, one stroke more than par, and two over par is a double bogey. Option D is wrong because an albatross is three under par, so rare that most professionals never record one. A hole completed from the tee in a single stroke is a hole in one or an ace, which on a par three hole is also an eagle by this scale. Papers set this question in both directions, giving the name and asking the score or giving the score and asking the name.

The correct answer is B, Royal Calcutta Golf Club. Founded in 1829, it is the oldest golf club in India and the oldest anywhere outside Great Britain, and it was given the title Royal in 1911. Option A is wrong because the Delhi Golf Club, host of many editions of the Indian Open, dates from the middle of the twentieth century. Option C is wrong because the Bombay club, though also an old colonial institution, came after Calcutta. Option D is wrong because the Bangalore Golf Club was founded towards the end of the nineteenth century. The club's date is a favourite static GK question, often paired with the Indian Golf Union of 1955, which governs amateur golf, and the Professional Golf Tour of India of 2006, which runs the professional circuit in the country.

The correct answer is C, Rio de Janeiro 2016. Golf had been played at the Olympic Games of 1900 in Paris and 1904 in St Louis and then dropped out; it came back at Rio in 2016 as a 72-hole stroke play competition for men and for women, with sixty players in each field. Option A is wrong because Beijing 2008 added no golf event. Option B is wrong because London 2012 had no golf either, although the decision to restore the sport had already been taken by then. Option D is wrong because Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, was the second Games of the modern run, and it is remembered in India for Aditi Ashok finishing fourth in the women's event. The sport is represented at the Games by the International Golf Federation.

The correct answer is A, New Delhi, 1982. Golf entered the Asian Games at the ninth edition, held in New Delhi in 1982, the Games whose mascot was the elephant Appu, and both individual and team events have been contested since. Option B is wrong because the Bangkok Games of 1978 had no golf. Option C is wrong because Seoul 1986 was the edition after golf had already been introduced. Option D is wrong because Beijing 1990 came later still. For questions on golf at the Games, keep three facts ready: the 1982 debut in India, the format of individual and team medals decided by stroke play, and the fact that the field is largely amateur, which is why young players win Asian Games medals before they turn professional. The ninth Asian Games of 1982 are themselves a frequent question, since they were the second Games hosted by India after 1951.

The correct answer is B, the Ladies European Tour. Aditi Ashok won the Hero Women's Indian Open in 2016, becoming the first Indian woman to win on that tour, and she went on to represent India at the Olympic Games, finishing fourth at Tokyo. Option A is wrong because the LPGA Tour is the American circuit, on which she has played without that particular first. Option C is wrong because the Japan tour is a separate national circuit altogether. Option D is wrong because the Asian women's tour is not the circuit attached to this record. The companion name to learn is Diksha Dagar, who plays with a hearing impairment, has won on the Ladies European Tour and won a medal at the Deaflympics, and among the men Ali Sher, the first Indian professional to win the Indian Open.

The correct answer is C, 14. A player may begin a round with no more than fourteen clubs and may not add to that number during play, except to replace a club damaged in the normal course of the round; carrying more brings a penalty. Options A and B are wrong because ten and twelve are not limits in the rules, although a beginner's half set may hold about that many clubs. Option D is wrong because eighteen is the number of holes in a full round, not of clubs, and the question is built on exactly that confusion. A typical set includes a driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges and a putter, and the player's advisor and bag carrier is the caddie. The rules themselves are written by The R&A at St Andrews and the United States Golf Association.

The correct answer is A, Indian Golf Union. Formed in 1955, it is the national body for amateur golf, runs the national amateur championships and selects Indian teams for amateur events such as the Asian Games and the Eisenhower Trophy. Option B is wrong because the Professional Golf Tour of India, started in 2006, organises the professional circuit in the country and does not govern the amateur game. Option C is wrong because the Sports Authority of India is the government body for sports infrastructure and training, not a federation for any single sport. Option D is wrong because the International Golf Federation is the world body that represents golf at the Olympics; the Indian Golf Union is its affiliate in India. Questions often put the Union's 1955 date beside the Royal Calcutta Golf Club's 1829.