On the face of it, the crying out of ‘mashed potato’ at a golf tournament is utterly bizarre. It makes no sense. So why do people do it? Well it turns out it is precisely because it is utterly bizarre; or, rather, it was.
Various foodstuffs have become adopted as golfing terms. For example, spinach and cabbage are slang terms for thick rough; a chili dip is when you have hit the ground behind the ball in making a shot. But mashed potato is not one of these.
