Bogey

"Bogey" was the first stroke scoring system developed in England at the end of the 19^th Century.  The full history is given in Robert Browning's “History of Golf”, 1955.  In 1890 Mr. Hugh Rotherham, Secretary of the Coventry Golf Club, conceived the idea of srandardizing the number of shots at each hole that a good golfer should take, which he called the 'ground score'.  Dr. Browne, Secretary of the Great Yarmouth Club, adopted the idea, and with the assent of the club’s golfers, this style of competition was introduced there for use in match play.

 

During one competition Mr. C.A. Wellman (possibly Major Charles Wellman) exclaimed to Dr. Browne that “This player of yours is a regular Bogey man”.  This was probably a reference to the eponymous subject of an Edwardian music hall song “Hush! Hush! Hush! Here Comes the Bogey Man”, which was popular at that time.  So at Yarmouth and elsewhere the ground score became known as the Bogey score.  A 'bogey' was a Scottish goblin as far back as the 16^th Century and a Bogeyman was a widely used term for a goblin or devil.  Golfers of the time considered they were playing a Mister Bogey when measuring themselves against the bogey score.

 

In 1892, Colonel Seely-Vidal, the Hon Secretary of the United Services Club at Gasport, also worked out the 'Bogey' for his course.  The United Club was a services club and all the members had a military rank.  They could not measure themselves against a 'Mister Bogey' or have him as a member, so ‘he’ was given the honorary rank of Colonel.  Thus the term 'Colonel Bogey' was born.  Bogey competitions are still played at many clubs.

 

Later Bogey was used as the term for one above Par.

Reference: http://www.doubleeagleclub.org/index.php?suffix=scoring_terms