You must know what a mulligan is if you want to play golf. Can you imagine walking into a cinema theatre and not knowing what popcorn is? Not knowing Mulligan would be like that if you are not aware of the term mulligan than hop right on the train because we’re taking you precisely to your location.
So what is Mulligan? Well, Mulligan is a second chance to perform an action. Like if you happened to mess up your first action due to a blunder or a stroke of bad luck, you can get a chance to take that action again. But obviously, to do that, you have to follow some steps and regulations that I will explain later. The formal rules of golf don’t allow a second stroke what-so-ever, but you can get a chance to repeat your action by using Mulligan.
A mulligan in golf is a stroke that is replayed for the previous one. And this is without any penalty. By applying a mulligan, you basically get to re-do the last strike as if the previous strike never occurred in reality.
This practice is actually not allowed in formal plays at all. This action is strictly not permitted in any sort of traditional games. And doing these kinds of training in the standard games can get you disqualified from the tournament as well. So, my friend, you have to be careful about where to Mulligan, where not to Mulligan. You can Mulligan in casual games. And you can Mulligan in friendly golf games but not in formal games only.
Using Mulligan can be very fun in golf games. Mulligan increases the speed of the game, and you won’t have to worry about finding the lost ball again and again, which makes the golf game even quicker and more exciting. You don’t want to waste your time in arranging everything for the game you actually want to play the game. And using Mulligan helps you keep the game from getting boring and dull. Using Mulligan decreases your frustration while playing golf, and you can quickly reach over your last bad shot.
Because there are not many of rules in Mulligan as it isn’t even allowed casual games, there are different rules in Mulligan in other places. The rules are a little bit different everywhere. Like in casual, friendly golf, there is 18 mulligan allowed per round. And in some areas, nine Mulligan is permitted in the first hole, and nine Mulligan is permitted in the second hole.
Traditionally, you are allowed to Mulligan only for tee shots only because they are incredibly notorious for being difficult to make accurately. And this helps them a little bit to perfect their tee shots. You can take Mulligan in the first tee shot. And you can take multiple tee shots till you reach to you are satisfied with your shot. But you have to do it by its other names such as Finnegan, Branagan, Flanagan, and Craig.
Many don’t consider a mulligan sportsman-like. And many think that taking Mulligan to re-do these shots is not fair at all. But as long as you are playing with your friends and they are okay with it, there’s nothing to worry about.
There is another thing we know as Gilligan. What do you think this means? What is it? What does it do? Is this related to Mulligan?
Well, Gilligan is ultimately the same but opposite of Mulligan. A Gilligan is an extremely beneficial chance to make your opponent re-do a successful shot. And this is also not allowed in a formal golf play.
How does it originate?
How does Mulligan originate? There is no accurate answer to that because nobody actually surely knows the real origin of Mulligan. But there are a few theories and guesses of how did the Mulligan originate.
The Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms stated the origins of “mulligan” as “obscure”. There are multiple theories or stories or rumors about the head of Mulligan. But there is something that we can be sure about, and that is the term mulligan is not very old or traditional. It is reasonable, very new. This term was used around at least the 1940s on golf courses.
Let’s discuss some of the most talked theories of the origin of Mulligan. But remember that not even one theory from this article is conformed of being accurate. One of them may be real, or maybe none of them are real.
So, let’s jump into the theories.
1. Named after a golf
This theory is the most possible one to be real. This name mulligan is considered to be originated from a golfer whose name was Mulligan. Basically, the golfer Mulligan was known for re-doing his strikes. And they named this practice after his name. The Occam’s Razor believes that the most straightforward explanations are always more likely to be true. But many different golfers state that they are the “Mr. Mulligan” in their stories. The USGA Museum mentions a guy named David Mulligan who frequented St. Lambert Country Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the 1920s. He wasn’t happy with his tee shot one day and decided to re-do the shot a few times. He first called it the correction shot, but his co-golfing buddies were not her for the name and thus changed the name into Mulligan. And that’s how the name Mulligan originated at least by this theory.
2. The Ethnic slur
This theory is related to the website StraightDope.com. They have stated, “Another origin theory ties to the period when Irish-Americans were joining fancy country clubs and were derided as incompetent golfers. That would make the term basically an ethnic slur that caught on, like ‘Indian summer’ or ‘Dutch treat.” They believe that this term is just another ethnic term because, at that time, the Northeastern United States was heavily Irish near the early parts of the 20th century.
There are many other theories, but I’ve covered the most likely to be real theories and presented to you. They may or may not be accurate.
How to take a mulligan?
Taking a mulligan is relatively easy than what it may seem like. It feels to be quite tricky, but in reality, it is just as easy as difficult it looks like.
It is just a do over. If you have a terrible stroke, just re-do the strike. Take a mulligan and re-do it. Drop the ball on the spot where the ball was before the strike and re-do it. The first lousy strike won’t be counted.
Is it professional?
From my point of view, it is not so professional, and many do actually think that taking a mulligan is a non-sportsman behavior. But recently, there has been some news that has been shocking the whole golf world. I have mentioned earlier that Mulligan is not allowed to take place in traditional golf. Still, in 2019, some talks were going around that Jesper Parnevik had to give a penalty for not taking a mulligan. What actually happened was that one of his shots hit his legs, and by rules, he had to re-do the strike, but he didn’t re-did the strike. And that’s how he had to give the penalty. So, you can’t re do any strikes by the rules unless you hit a power line or something.
Uses in different sports and conditions
The term mulligan is not only used in golf but also in other sports and events. But in not only games and events, Mulligan is also used in our everyday language as well. Even in our language, Mulligan means the same thing. A mulligan is a chance to re-do something which happened unwanted and unexpectedly and properly happened for the circumstances. So, it is applicable in your daily language or anything as well as golf.
Collectible card games:
There are no specific rules for Mulligan in card games. It is just the process of adjusting the cards in player’s hands.
In magic, there also can be Mulligan. If a player is not satisfied with their cards, they can declare Mulligan and reshuffle the cards until they are happy with the results.
There are many uses of Mulligan in many games, and many also use them. I’ve only talked about two that are the most ones that stick out to me.
Politics:
Mulligan is also used in politics and other events, but taking a mulligan in politics is not an excellent idea. It is not considered to be an honorable thing to do. A losing party can run again in the election by going to general from the primary.
There have been many uses of Mulligan in politics and finance before and not only in politics but also in other categories as well.
Conclusion
By now, you must have known what a Mulligan is entire. And its uses in golf and if you can use it everywhere and all the time you want or not. I hope that you have found all the answers to your questions by reading this article. I hope you have reached your correct location using the train which you had hoped on by clicking on this article.