golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, a gimme is a shot that the other players agree can count automatically without being played. When a player has only a very short putt left to play, other players may grant a gimme (i.e., one stroke is counted), but the ball is not played. A gimme is a time-saving convention under the

tacit assumption A tacit assumption or implicit assumption is an assumption that underlies a logical argument, course of action, decision, or judgment that is not explicitly voiced nor necessarily understood by the decision maker or judge. These assumptions may be ...

that the putt would not have been missed, e.g., when the ball is only a few inches from the hole. Gimmes are not allowed by the rules in

stroke play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...

, though the practice is common in casual matches. However, in

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

, either player may formally ''concede'' a stroke, a hole, or the entire match at any time, and this may not be refused or withdrawn. A player in match play will generally concede a tap-in or other short putt by his or her opponent. The word is a colloquial contraction of the phrase "give me".

References

*Carroll, Timothy J
"The 'gimme' still remains in play at Ryder Cup"
''The Wall Street Journal'', September 21, 2006. {{Golf-stub Golf terminology

See also

References