Golf's Strangest Traditions Around the World

Golf is a game built on rules, rituals, and a healthy dose of superstition. Golf's strangest traditions around the world range from buying the entire bar after a hole in one to playing a round completely naked on a Scottish links at midnight. Some rituals make total sense - marking your ball, raking a bunker, shaking hands on the 18th green. Others? They are genuinely, brilliantly strange. The kind of traditions that make a first-time visitor to a golf club raise an eyebrow and whisper, "Wait, you're doing what?"

From centuries-old Scottish customs to modern ceremonies that have somehow become sacred, here is a tour of golf's most unusual traditions from around the world.

What are golf's strangest traditions around the world?

Golf's strangest traditions range from buying the entire bar after a hole in one to playing a round completely naked in Scotland. Customs vary wildly by country - Japan has elaborate gifting protocols for new members, South Korea holds formal caddies as near-sacred figures, and at TPC Sawgrass in Florida, players quietly dread the famous island green on the 17th as if it has a personality of its own.

The hole in one round - you score, you pay

Let's start with the one that has caused the most financial pain across golf's long history: the hole in one round.

In almost every golf-playing country, the tradition is the same. You ace a hole - a rare, extraordinary feat - and your reward is to buy drinks for the entire clubhouse. In some clubs, that means everyone in the bar. In others, it extends to the whole membership. In Ireland and the UK, this can run to serious money on a busy Saturday.

The logic, if you can call it that, is that witnessing or hearing about a hole in one is itself a kind of gift to the other members, and the ace-maker pays for the privilege of joining a very exclusive club. The result is that many golfers quietly dread making a hole in one when they are short on cash. Some even carry "hole in one insurance" - yes, that is a real product, particularly popular in Japan and Germany.

Japan's gift-giving culture on the golf course

Speaking of Japan: golf etiquette there goes several layers deeper than anywhere else in the world. New members joining a golf club are often expected to present formal gifts - usually boxes of sweets or regional food - to existing members and staff. It is a gesture of gratitude and humility, rooted in broader Japanese gift-giving customs, but the scale can be startling to outsiders.

The hole in one tradition in Japan takes it even further. A formal ceremony, called "Eagle" or hole-in-one commemoration, can involve engraved gifts to playing partners, commemorative plaques, and a formal meal. Some golfers set aside a dedicated savings fund for the event. The gifts are not optional - failing to mark the occasion properly is considered a significant breach of golf etiquette.

Golf in Japan is serious business. Tee times are respected to the minute, mobile phones disappear, and the post-round meal in the clubhouse follows a precise social order. It is a version of the game that would be almost unrecognisable to a Sunday morning four-ball in Ireland.

Scotland's Musselburgh - the world's oldest golf tradition still running

Musselburgh Links, just outside Edinburgh, claims to be the oldest golf course in the world still in use, with records of play dating to the 16th century. The traditions that surround it feel equally ancient.

The most distinctive: golf played here has historically operated on a "first come, first served" basis with no formal booking system for much of its history - a public course, freely open to all. Players share the fairways with joggers, dog walkers, and the occasional confused tourist. The scorecard is almost secondary. What matters is that you showed up, played the ground, and carried on a tradition that stretches back centuries.

For many Scottish golfers, the real tradition at courses like Musselburgh is the walk itself - not the score. The idea of fussing over statistics feels vaguely inappropriate on a course that has hosted Open Championships and seen players in top hats and woollen coats. Then again, even on ancient ground, knowing your distances still matters. Using Hole19's GPS rangefinder on a course this old is not cheating on tradition - it is just playing smart.

The Ryder Cup handshake - and why it matters

At every level of matchplay golf, the handshake at the end of the round is sacred. But nowhere is this more charged than at the Ryder Cup, where years of national rivalry compress into a single moment on the 18th green.

The tradition of the concession - offering a putt your opponent could reasonably miss - is an act of sportsmanship that has defined Ryder Cup lore. Jack Nicklaus conceding Tony Jacklin's putt at Muirfield in 1969 to halve the match remains one of the most replayed moments in golf history. The game agreed to end in a tie rather than play for an advantage. It was extraordinary, and it became a standard that every subsequent handshake is measured against.

The tradition here is not just good manners. It is the idea that how you finish a round says more about you than how you started it. Golf etiquette runs deeper than most players realise - and matchplay brings it all to the surface.

South Korea's caddie culture

In South Korea, the caddie is not just someone who carries your bag. At many premium golf clubs, your caddie is a trained professional who advises on club selection, reads greens, manages your pace of play, and keeps a detailed record of every shot. The relationship between golfer and caddie is treated with genuine formality.

Tipping is expected - but the etiquette around it is specific. Too little and you have caused offence. Too much and you have disrupted the professional relationship. The caddie is expected to know the course in extraordinary detail, down to the way wind channels through a particular valley on the back nine. Many South Korean caddies work exclusively at one club for their entire careers, building a local knowledge that no GPS device can fully replicate - though combining both is increasingly common.

The post-round tradition in South Korea often involves a formal meal together, caddie included. It is a level of hospitality that reflects the broader seriousness with which the country has adopted - and in many ways elevated - the game.

The 19th hole - and why it exists

Every golfer knows the 19th hole is the bar. But the tradition has a specific origin: in the early days of match play, if a match was tied after 18 holes, the convention was to continue playing. The first "extra" hole was the 19th. Over time, "let's settle this at the 19th" evolved from a genuine golf tiebreaker into a universal euphemism for the post-round drink.

The name stuck, and now the 19th hole is arguably the most culturally significant hole in golf - the one where rounds are replayed shot by shot, where handicaps are debated, where the missed short putt on 14 becomes a story that lasts until the next time everyone is back at the club. It is the hole where the game's social fabric holds together.

This, incidentally, is exactly why we named this blog The 19th Hole. The game does not end on the green.

The TPC Sawgrass island green ceremony

The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, is the most famous par-3 in the United States. The island green has swallowed more golf balls and ended more rounds than perhaps any other single hole in the world. But what makes it a tradition rather than just a hazard is what happens when you make par - or better.

Players who survive the 17th often mark the moment with a quiet ritual: a fist pump, a long exhale, a look back at the water as if acknowledging a beast they managed to escape. During The Players Championship, galleries have turned this into a genuine communal event. Watching a professional ace the 17th - as has happened dozens of times - produces a roar that carries across the whole course.

The unspoken tradition is that every golfer who plays Sawgrass carries the 17th with them for the rest of their lives. It becomes part of their golf story. Whether they parred it or made a seven, the 17th is never just another hole.

Australia's "Bingle Bangle Bongle" and other side games

In Australia, a round of golf rarely happens without a side bet, and the most beloved of these is a format called Bingle Bangle Bongle - also known as Bingo Bango Bongo. Three points are awarded per hole: one for the first ball on the green (Bingle), one for the closest to the pin once all balls are on (Bangle), and one for the first ball holed (Bongle). The format deliberately levels the playing field between handicaps and rewards smart course management over raw power.

What makes it a genuine tradition rather than just a game format is the culture around it. Settling Bingle Bangle Bongle debts at the 19th hole is a ritual. Working out who owes what is frequently contested. The arguments are half the point.

Australian golf clubs also maintain strong traditions around the weekly "Comp" - the Saturday competition round - where the club champion's name on the board still carries genuine social weight. Tracking your own stats across rounds is becoming increasingly common among serious club golfers in Australia, adding a data layer beneath the traditional handicap competition.

Why these traditions matter - and what they say about the game

Golf's strangest traditions around the world exist because the game has always been about more than the score. The rituals - buying the bar after an ace, presenting gifts to club members, walking a centuries-old links in Scotland, arguing about Bingle Bangle Bongle points over a beer - are the way golfers mark time, build community, and carry the game forward.

They also explain why golf has survived and grown across such wildly different cultures. The game adapts. It absorbs local customs and makes them its own. The fundamental structure - a course, a ball, a hole - is universal. Everything built around it is beautifully, gloriously specific to where you are.

If you play a new course and notice a ritual you don't recognise, lean into it. Ask. Most of the time, the answer is a good story. And in golf, the stories are as important as the shots. Playing a new course always brings surprises - the local traditions included.

What is the most unusual golf tradition in the UK?

The hole in one round - buying drinks for the whole club - is probably the most universally observed unusual tradition in UK golf. In Scotland specifically, some clubs still practice the tradition of the "loser's dram," where the losing player in a match buys a whisky for the winner at the 19th. It is the right outcome delivered in exactly the wrong order, which feels perfectly Scottish.

How does Hole19 fit into a world of golf traditions?

Some traditions are worth keeping. The post-round drink. The handshake on the 18th. The argument about whether that chip on the 7th was really a birdie opportunity or a lucky bounce. Hole19 does not touch any of those.

What it does is give you the knowledge to play the round itself with more confidence - precise GPS distances, shot tracking, stat breakdowns, and Otto AI to help you understand where your game is actually going. Knowing exactly how far it is to carry the bunker on 12, or tracking how many fairways you hit last week, is not at odds with golf's traditions. It is just playing smarter.

Download Hole19 free and bring it with you to your next round - wherever in the world that round happens to be.

Can I use the Hole19 app on courses outside the US and UK?

Yes. Hole19 covers golf courses across more than 200 territories worldwide, including all the major golf destinations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and beyond. Whether you're playing a public links in Scotland, a formal members' club in Japan, or a resort course in South Korea, the GPS data, shot tracking, and Advanced Stats work the same way. The traditions change; the rangefinder stays consistent.

Frequently asked questions about golf traditions

Why do golfers buy drinks after a hole in one?

The tradition originated in British golf clubs as a way of sharing the good fortune of a rare achievement with the wider membership. The ace-maker treats everyone because witnessing - or hearing about - a hole in one was considered a gift to the club. The custom spread globally and is now one of the most widely observed rituals in the game.

What is the tradition at the 19th hole?

The 19th hole refers to the clubhouse bar. The name comes from matchplay's historic "extra hole" when matches were tied, but today it simply means the post-round social gathering where the round is replayed, bets are settled, and the next round is usually planned.

Do different countries have different golf customs?

Significantly so. Japan has formal gift-giving protocols and hole-in-one ceremonies. South Korea elevates the caddie to near-professional status. Australia runs side-bet formats like Bingle Bangle Bongle as standard. Scotland's public links tradition is built on accessibility and informality. The core game is universal; the culture around it is intensely local.