“I’m going to take a Mulligan,” Dan said as he headed for his bag to retrieve a new ball. “You mean, you’re going to take another shot.” Mike said a little condescendingly.  “Whatever, I’m not coming all this way to duff a ball off the first tee.”  Dan tried to sound justified as he re-teed.  His second shot was only marginally better but headed in the right direction.  As Dan turned to replace his driver, a stern-looking gentleman in a buggy (a golf cart) not far off called him over for a little chat.  You could see from Dan’s body language that the conversation wasn’t going well.  His head was bobbing up and down, left and right and he was gesturing with his hands that looked more to us like a confession of sorts.  When he came back he didn’t look happy or contrite.  “That guy tells me there are no mulligans here.  So, I guess I’m hitting four when I get to my ball.   This place sucks already!”

You’ve been there. You’re playing golf and someone calls for “the mulligan,” the gimme, the do over.  Like it’s a god-given right, or something, that golfers use to cover up the sins of a bad shot.  For the purest, the mulligan really has no place in golf and it certainly wasn’t expected when Dan duffed his shot off the first tee at the Jubilee Course in St. Andrews; and while I can certainly empathize with Dan’s situation – being first off the tee with no warm up – his use of the mulligan got old after a while.  He took so many that, at first, it was laughable, then somewhat absurd, and finally, down-right embarrassing.  It was a good thing we didn’t get the ballot for the Old Course.

For 95% of those who play golf socially, the mulligan is probably the first golf concept they fully understand.  That’s even before learning the rules of the game.  I’d wager that over 75% of golfers still don’t know the rules of golf.  How far from the sacred legitimacy of the game have we strayed when the mulligan is revered more than the basic rules?  So I wondered, how did the mulligan make its way into the lexicon of golf anway?

Golf historians acknowledge that the word “mulligan,” has been around since the 1940s as it was commonly used on golf courses all across America.  All golfers have been known to hit a few shots over, right?  I can’t imagine, even in the antiquities, the early Scottish shepherds not hitting shots over.  I mean, there were ample rocks and pebbles around the links lands where golf was first played.  Do you really think they chased after each shot?

There are records of several stories that lay claim to the true origin of the word mulligan.  But are they truly factual?  Does any one really know for certain who tagged the name “mulligan” on that first do-over?  Dr. Rand Jerris, a USGA Museum Curator, offers several possible accounts of how the mulligan came to be.  However, be advised, these are only tales that have become, overtime, etched into golf’s folklore.

Let’s begin with David Mulligan.  He was a Canadian and a major hotelier in the early 1920s.  He had a passion for golf and was a frequent golfer at The Country Club of  Montreal which was one of the earliest golf courses in North America.  He originally coined the expression “correction shot” after he magnanimously re-teed an errant shot off the tee.  Of course, his playing partners preferred to label his action a “mulligan” to reflect David’s new practice.  It fit the situation and nobody seemed to complain.  David was believed to have done the same thing at Wing Foot and the legend took off.  Is this believable?  It all depends on the version of the truth you wish to believe; after all, there are several other accounts that assign credit to David.  Did he oversleep one morning and in the rush to make his tee time duff one only to be rewarded a freebie by his partners; or was he shaken-up by the drive over the rough corrugated road leading to the course and being frazzled off the tee was afforded the kind gesture of a do over by his car-pool crew?  All three stories make for interesting reading.

Ever hear of John A. “Buddy” Mulligan?  Neither had I before I started my mulligan quest.  Apparently Buddy would replay his wayward shots off the first tee.  Whether he was a good golfer is not known; however, we do know that he was a locker room attendant at a New Jersey country club called Essex Fells.  Believable?  It’s possible; but there are more tales to consider.

Was the term “mulligan” an ethnic slur to mock Irish-Americans who were making their way into the country clubs of the Northeast and whose play wasn’t quite up to par?  Was Thomas Mulligan, a minor Irish aristocrat living at the turn of the 19th Century, responsible for the logical deduction of the mulligan as being the irrelevant shot made “before play is properly commenced with a satisfactory drive on the first tee?”  They all sound plausible, don’t they?

How about a possible derivation coming “from a saloon [practice] that, back in the day, would place a free bottle of booze on the bar for customers to imbibe from?  It’s a fact that many golfers drink.  So, could there be a connection?  Of course there is.  That free bottle on the bar was appropriately called a Mulligan.  It’s a stretch for a pure golf connection but many clubs have a bar, no?

Like the signs that read “George Washington slept here,” there are people that will debate the origins of the term mulligan.  Just like there are those compelled to debate the theory of evolution and creationism there are those that claim that they know the true origin of the mulligan.  You might have guessed that I’m personally not convinced of any of the stories.  But, I like them all.  One thing is sure, they are all good tales worthy of telling and help to create the myth and mystery that makes golf so much fun to play.

© 2009 The iQuest Group, LLC

allan@iquestgolf.com

www.iquestgolf.com