Presented for your literaray golf edification and such..(or like me, you were just a tad curious about such said matters and Yancy's whatnots)
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We all know what a sand bag is, but how did bags of sand enter the golf lexicon?
First, the word doesn't derive from the type of sand bags we're all
familiar with. It's not the defensive sand bags - those used for flood control,
lining foxholes, and so on - but the offensive sand bags that give us the word
"sandbagger."
Gangs and street toughs of the 19th century used sand bags
as a weapon of choice. Take a sock or small bag, fill it with sand, wrap it
tightly, and wail away on someone (well, don't actually wail away on someone,
but imagine that you are) and you'll see how effective a weapon a small sand bag
can be.
Gang members used such weapons to intimidate their foes or
average citizens. To threaten and bully the populace.
This definition of
sandbagger - a person who uses a sand bag as a weapon - can still be found in
many dictionaries; it's the first definition for the word in most older
dictionaries.
But the word didn't go directly from its gangland origins
into golf..There was an intermediary step in its adoption by the sports world,
and golf, to mean someone who misrepresents his ability to gain an advantage.
According to the website Word-Detective.com, that intermediary step was
poker.
Say you're in a poker match and you're dealt a fantastic hand. If
you place a huge bet right off the bat, you might scare most of your poker mates
into folding. Instead, you might choose to bet small amounts, hoping to keep
your opponents in the match, increasing the pot, up until the moment you show
your cards.
As Word-Detective.com puts it, the poker meaning "...
described a player who held off raising the stakes in order to lull the other
players into a false sense of security. The poker sandbagger would pounce late
in the game, clobbering the other players with his good hand."
The poker
player, in other words, misled his opponents about how good his hand was ...
until it was time to whip out the "sand bag" and beat those same opponents with
it.
And that's how "sandbagger" came to have its golf meaning.
-- bear
ps... Before you ask, the answer is 'yes', you are now permitted to resume your life ..