Stick

A “stick” in golf is a casual term with more than one meaning. Most often, it refers to the flagstick, the pole marking the hole on the green. It can also mean a golf club. And as a compliment, it describes a skilled player.

What is a stick in golf?

The reason “stick” trips people up is that golfers use the same short word for three different things, and the meaning comes entirely from context. On the green, it points to a piece of equipment. In the bag, it points to clubs. About a person, it points to skill.

The flagstick meaning is the one a newcomer hears most. When a playing partner asks for the yardage “to the stick,” they want the distance to the flag, not to anything else. The clubs meaning is older slang, a holdover from the days when shafts were literally wooden sticks. And calling someone “a stick” has nothing to do with gear at all. It is praise.

None of these uses are official terms in the Rules of Golf. They belong to the everyday language golfers speak on the course, which is why a definition has to cover all three rather than pick one. Once the context is clear, the right meaning usually is too.

The stick as the flagstick

When a golfer says “aim at the stick” or “what’s the number to the stick,” they mean the flagstick. This is the tall, thin pole topped with a flag that sits in the cup on every green, and it doubles as both a marker for the hole and a target to aim at from a distance. The pin is another word for the same thing.

The term shows up across the whole hole. A player on a par 3 tee might check the yardage to the stick. From the fairway, a caddie might suggest aiming a few feet left of it. On the green, a player whose ball is far from the hole might ask a partner to “tend the stick,” meaning hold it and pull it out as the ball rolls close.

How the flagstick is treated when putting changed in 2019. Under the previous Rules of Golf, a ball putted from on the green could not strike the flagstick while it stood in the hole without a penalty, so players removed it. USGA and R&A Rule 13.2, effective January 1, 2019, now lets players leave the flagstick in while putting with no penalty if the ball hits it. Some golfers, including Bryson DeChambeau early on, started leaving it in as a matter of routine.

The stick as a golf club

Used loosely, “sticks” means golf clubs, and a single “stick” means one club. A golfer admiring a friend’s new driver might say “nice stick,” and “a new set of sticks” simply means a new set of clubs. Asking “what stick are you hitting?” is the same as asking which club someone has chosen for the shot.

This sense is one of the oldest pieces of slang still in regular use, traced back at least to the 1850s according to Golf Compendium. The reason is literal: early clubs had wooden shafts, with hickory becoming the favorite, and those wooden shafts stayed in the professional and top amateur game until the 1930s. The clubs were, in a real sense, sticks.

A related bit of slang sits in the same family. A “flat stick” is the putter, named for its nearly flat face. According to The DIY Golfer, a putter carries only about 4 degrees of loft, far less than any other club in the bag, which is what makes the nickname fit.

The stick as a skilled golfer

The third meaning describes a person rather than an object. To call someone “a stick” is to say they play golf at a high level, and it ranks among the better compliments a player can earn from peers. “Watch out for Dave, he’s a real stick” means Dave can play.

The phrase often overlaps with the idea of a scratch golfer, a player whose handicap is around zero and who tends to shoot par. It can also describe a hot streak rather than a permanent label. A golfer striping drives and holing putts on a given day might hear “you’ve got the stick going today,” meaning they are in form right then. Golf Digest lists “stick” among the slang markers of low-handicap players, the kind of word that signals someone belongs in that group.

Stick vs. flagstick vs. flat stick

These three are easy to mix up because they share the same root word but point to different things.

Term	What it refers to	Where it is used
Stick	Flagstick, a golf club, or a good player	Depends entirely on context
Flagstick (the pin)	The pole and flag marking the hole	On and around the green
Flat stick	The putter specifically	On the green when putting

The single word “stick” is the flexible one. “Flagstick” and “flat stick” are fixed: the flagstick is always the pin, and the flat stick is always the putter.

Related Golf Terms

Starter — The person at a golf course who manages the first tee and tee times.
Stableford — A scoring system where points are awarded based on performance relative to par.
Spin rate — The number of revolutions per minute the ball makes after being struck.
Stance — The position and width of the feet at address.
Square — When the clubface is aligned perpendicular to the target line at impact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a stick the same as a golf club?

Sometimes. “Sticks” is informal slang for golf clubs, so a single stick can mean one club. But “the stick” on the green means the flagstick, and “a stick” describing a person means a skilled golfer.

What does “flat stick” mean?

It is slang for the putter, named for its nearly flat face. A putter has roughly 4 degrees of loft, much less than other clubs.

What does it mean to call someone a stick?

It is high praise. The word means they play golf at a high level, often a scratch or low-handicap player.

Why are golf clubs called sticks?

Because early clubs had wooden shafts. Hickory shafts remained standard at the top level until the 1930s, so the clubs were literally sticks.

Can you leave the stick in while putting?

Yes. Since the Rules of Golf changed on January 1, 2019, a player may leave the flagstick in the hole while putting with no penalty if the ball strikes it.

Sources

Golf Compendium. “Lingo: Golf Clubs Are ‘Sticks’.” Accessed May 2026.
The DIY Golfer. “What does ‘Flat Stick’ mean in golf?” Accessed May 2026.
Caddie HQ. “What Is a Stick on the Golf Course?” Accessed May 2026.
Golf Digest. “The scratch golfer glossary.” Accessed May 2026.
USGA. “Rule 13.2 – The Flagstick.” Accessed May 2026.