The word "birdie" is correct in informal contexts.
It is commonly used in sports, particularly golf, to refer to a score that is one stroke under par on a hole.
Example: "He made a birdie on the 7th hole, which helped him take the lead."
Alternatives: "Eagle" or "Under par."
Then, on the 17th, Leonard drained that snaking 40-foot birdie putt and all hell broke loose.
His opponent, José María Olazábal, who could still halve the hole with a birdie putt of his own, was left waiting on the green while the Americans celebrated their presumed victory.
"That's a loud little birdie," she says, perturbed by a nearby sparrow.
He bogeyed the par five 11th but regained focus to birdie 13 before his monster effort on 15.
Van Pelt was in terrific form on the front nine with a birdie on the third followed up consecutive under par scores from five through to nine.
When Justin Leonard holed a 40ft birdie on the 17th, he looked to have sealed the comeback.
"The balls just weren't rolling out, and as a group we really struggled on getting the pace right and hitting the putts hard enough," said Woods, who came back with a birdie at the 2nd, made with the first of several fine shots from the edge of the green, to four feet from the pin.
Matsuyama got his round going with a birdie on the par four second and followed it up with another on three.
American Jason Dufner and Scot Russell Knox are a further two shots back are posting opening rounds of 66. Starting on the back nine, Knox was consistent over his first nine holes with three birdies and his form continued with a birdie on the second.
So why don't you do it more often?It is theoretically possible to birdie every hole.
Evidence from a huge database of near-identical putts shows that, along with all the other golfers studied, Tiger Woods is more likely to hole a putt if it is to save par (in golf, an over-par hole feels like a failure) than if he had the identical putt to make a birdie (a gain).
