What Does The Term ‘Up And Down’ In Golf Mean?

What Does The Phrase ‘Up And Down’ In Golf Mean?

The term up and down in golf means to get up on the green and then getting the subsequent putt down into the hole from wherever the ball is currently lying on the course by taking only a single shot for each part of this equation. 

Therefore technically an up and down in golf means to get an approach shot up onto the green and then holing the first putt. But it has come to be used more often as relating in particular to a chip from a greenside position – quite often a bunker – which gets onto the green and then the putt is holed in one further shot.

Thus when a commentator asks “can such-and-such golfer get up and down from here?” what he or she is in effect asking is "can the golfer hole the ball in two more shots from here with the second one of these shots being a putt played from on the putting surface."

An up and down does not relate to the score for a hole itself, so someone can be described as making an up and down for, for instance, a birdie, just as they could for a bogey or worse.

As noted, there is no official definition of the term up and down in golf. But any one-putt played from on the green will have been part of an up and down. However making a birdie on a par-3 hole which involves a putt is not generally counted as being an up and down.