Mulligan
Encyclopedia
A mulligan, in a game, happens when a player gets a second chance to perform a certain move or action. The practice is also sometimes referred to as a "do-over."
, a mulligan is a retaken shot on the first tee
box, usually due to a previously errant one. Traditionally, mulligans are allowed only on the first tee shot (one per round) and are not just taken at any time of the golfer's choosing. It is sometimes called a "Finnegan" when the second shot is worse than the first. Golf tournaments held for charity may even sell mulligans to collect more money for the charity.
Some social golf games also allow one mulligan per nine holes (thus two for a round of 18).
(USGA) cites three stories explaining that the term derived from the name of a Canadian
golfer, David Mulligan, one time manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City
, who played at the Country Club of Montreal
golf course, in Saint-Lambert
near Montreal
during the 1920s. One version has it that one day after hitting a poor tee shot, Mulligan re-teed and shot again. He called it a "correction shot," but his friends thought it more fitting to name the practice after him. David Mulligan then brought the concept from Canada to the famous U.S. golf club Winged Foot. A second version has the extra shot given to Mulligan due to his being jumpy and shaky after a difficult drive over the Victoria Bridge
to the course. The final version of the David Mulligan story gives him an extra shot after having overslept, rushing to get ready to make the tee time.
An alternate, later etymology credits a different man named Mulligan — John A. "Buddy" Mulligan, a locker room attendant at Essex Fells C.C., New Jersey
. In the 1930s, he would finish cleaning the locker room and, if no other members appeared, play a round with the asst. pro, Dave O'Connell and a club reporter/member, Des Sullivan (later Golf editor for The Newark Evening News). One day his first shot was bad and he beseeched O'Connell and Sullivan to allow another shot since they "had been practicing all morning" and he had not. Once the "OK" had been given and the round finished, Mulligan proudly exclaimed to the members in his locker room for months how he had gotten an extra shot from the duo. The members loved it and soon began giving themselves "Mulligans" in honor of John "Buddy" Mulligan. Shortly, Des Sullivan began using the term in his golf articles in The Newark Evening News. The TV "Today Show" ran this story about 2005 and has it in their archives. Mulligan was located in the '70s at a VA Hospital on Long Island.
According to the author Henry Beard
, the term comes from Thomas Mulligan, a minor Anglo-Irish aristocrat and passionate golfer who was born on May 1, 1793 and lived near Lough Sclaff, on the Shannon estuary, in a modest manor house called Duffnaught Hall, which was totally destroyed in a mysterious fire one week after his death on April 1, 1879. Mulligan is said to have written, "Inasmuch as strokes taken after play is concluded on the 18th hole do not count towards the total entered on one's tally card, it seems to me eminently reasonable that any shots struck before play is properly commenced with a satisfactory drive on the first tee, should be of no more consequence to one's score than those swings which one has made by way of practice in the course of hitting balls upon the driving ground." In short, the player's first tallied stroke for a game is the first playable drive from the first tee, and any shots made beforehand are not scored.
Yet another anecdote goes back to old terminology referring to a "mull," a small hill of grass or dirt used to tee the golf ball for easier striking prior to modern tees. When a bad shot was played, the player told his caddy "I'll have a mull-again" to play another shot.
According to the USGA, the term first achieved widespread use in the 1940s.
s, meaning any minor blunder which is allowed to pass unnoticed or without consequence. In both senses, it is implied that a mulligan is forgiven because it was either made by a rank beginner, or it is unusual and not indicative of the level of play or conduct expected of the person who made the mulligan.
Although certain players may wish to bank their shots, this is deemed un-sportsman like and is generally frowned upon, with the exception of ladies golf.
Often though in the realm of a fantasy sport
, especially baseball, certain team owners who drop a player only to regret it several hours later, call on their respective commissioners to undo
or grant a mulligan in order to reverse the transaction, even though the player is in the waiver pool. While mulligans are typically reserved to the sound discretion of the league commissioner, they should be used extremely sparingly and only in such instances of legitimate human error, rather than in cases of mistake resulting from carelessness, laziness, or inexcusable neglect.
The word can also be used in instances outside of sports, in real-life situations. For example, it has been used commonly in relationships to describe a situation where one partner, having damaged the relationship through some foolish action, then regrets his or her mistake and wishes for a mulligan having realized how ridiculous the initial action was. Much like the pressure of the first tee shot in front of strangers to start a round of golf, the first stab at a serious relationship is similarly pressure-packed; however, as with a golfing mulligan, a relationship mulligan allows the person to be much more relaxed and focused on the second attempt, having understood what went wrong on the first attempt.
Another example is in politics, where the losing candidate in a party primary may be able to run again in the general election on another ballot line. In the 2006 Connecticut US Senate race, many Ned Lamont
supporters accused Senator Joseph Lieberman of running a mulligan race as an independent, since he had lost the Democratic Party primary. In the 2008 American Democratic primary elections
, the term mulligan has been used to describe the possible redo elections in Michigan
and Florida
, after their results were declared invalid due to the early scheduling of the contests, against Democratic party rules.
In certain circles, especially among binge drinkers, individuals have been known to "take a mulligan" in regards to their actions while drinking. The term has also been used to refer to "deemed cure" clauses in loan facility documentation, popular with sponsors at the height of the credit boom in 2006/07, which effectively allowed sponsors to "cure" covenant breaches after the event by adding equity.
, a player may declare a mulligan after drawing his initial hand at the beginning of each game. If such a declaration is made, the player puts his cards back into his deck, shuffles, and draws a new hand with one fewer card. A common reason for declaring a mulligan would be getting a hand with no mana sources, that is, a hand that has no playable cards. The player may repeat this until he is satisfied, or the number of cards in his hand reaches zero.
This mulligan style is known as the Paris mulligan, although it was first used in 1997 at the L.A. Pro Tour tournament as a test for the new system. It was mistakenly left in the Paris Pro Tour player's packet and this is where it finally got its name. Before that, the mulligan functioned differently. If a player had either 0 or 7 lands in his starting hand, that player could show his or her hand to the opponent, shuffle, and draw a new hand of seven cards. This was only allowed once. The new rule removed the requirement of revealing the hand to the opponent and made the mulligan a much more strategic part of the game, creating trade-off and risk where before there was none.
Unlike golf, mulligans in Magic are legal under game and tournament rules, and are more frequently associated with poor luck than lack of skill.
Upper Deck Entertainment
's VS System
employs a mulligan rule similar to the rule in Magic: The Gathering and also in "Myths and Legends".
In the Pokémon TCG, a player must declare a mulligan when during their draw they have no Basic Pokémon in their hand (as one of the victory conditions is to reduce one player's stock of pokemon to zero). At this point they must show the hand to their opponent, shuffle the cards back in to the deck and draw seven new cards. Their opponent then has the option to draw one extra card per mulligan. There is no limit to the number of mulligans that can be declared. The card draw part of the rule is not applied in the Game Boy version of the game
.
In UFS
the rules are a bit different. "After drawing their hands players may decide to take what is called a mulligan. The player who will be taking the first turn has the opportunity to take a mulligan first. Then the player who will take the second turn has the opportunity to mulligan. Players may only take one mulligan at the beginning of the game. If a player decides to mulligan all the cards currently in their hand are removed from the game and they draw a number of cards equal to their character’s printed hand size."
because the first movement die roll is so crucial, and because certain numbers are perceived as much worse than others, a player is given one chance to re-roll the movement die if unsatisfied with the result.
A number of card-driven wargames include a Magic
-style mulligan where a poor hand can be discarded to draw a new hand with one less card.
Mulligan in golf
In golfGolf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, a mulligan is a retaken shot on the first tee
Tee
A tee is a stand used to support a stationary ball so that the player can strike it, particularly in golf, tee ball, American football, and rugby.- Etymology :...
box, usually due to a previously errant one. Traditionally, mulligans are allowed only on the first tee shot (one per round) and are not just taken at any time of the golfer's choosing. It is sometimes called a "Finnegan" when the second shot is worse than the first. Golf tournaments held for charity may even sell mulligans to collect more money for the charity.
Some social golf games also allow one mulligan per nine holes (thus two for a round of 18).
Origin
There are many theories about the origin of the term. The United States Golf AssociationUnited States Golf Association
The United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...
(USGA) cites three stories explaining that the term derived from the name of a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
golfer, David Mulligan, one time manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, who played at the Country Club of Montreal
Country Club of Montreal
The Country Club of Montreal is a private 18 hole golf course located in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada. Originally dedicated to polo, the club's vocation changed to golf on November 17th, 1910, making it the second oldest golf course in Greater Montreal...
golf course, in Saint-Lambert
Saint-Lambert, Quebec
Saint-Lambert is a Canadian city in the province of Quebec located opposite Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. Saint-Lambert was named for either the early French Canadian hunter Lambert Closse or for Roman Catholic Bishop Lambert of Maastricht...
near Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
during the 1920s. One version has it that one day after hitting a poor tee shot, Mulligan re-teed and shot again. He called it a "correction shot," but his friends thought it more fitting to name the practice after him. David Mulligan then brought the concept from Canada to the famous U.S. golf club Winged Foot. A second version has the extra shot given to Mulligan due to his being jumpy and shaky after a difficult drive over the Victoria Bridge
Victoria Bridge (Montreal)
Victoria Bridge , formerly originally known as Victoria Jubilee Bridge, is a bridge over the St. Lawrence River, linking Montreal, Quebec, to the south shore city of Saint-Lambert....
to the course. The final version of the David Mulligan story gives him an extra shot after having overslept, rushing to get ready to make the tee time.
An alternate, later etymology credits a different man named Mulligan — John A. "Buddy" Mulligan, a locker room attendant at Essex Fells C.C., New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. In the 1930s, he would finish cleaning the locker room and, if no other members appeared, play a round with the asst. pro, Dave O'Connell and a club reporter/member, Des Sullivan (later Golf editor for The Newark Evening News). One day his first shot was bad and he beseeched O'Connell and Sullivan to allow another shot since they "had been practicing all morning" and he had not. Once the "OK" had been given and the round finished, Mulligan proudly exclaimed to the members in his locker room for months how he had gotten an extra shot from the duo. The members loved it and soon began giving themselves "Mulligans" in honor of John "Buddy" Mulligan. Shortly, Des Sullivan began using the term in his golf articles in The Newark Evening News. The TV "Today Show" ran this story about 2005 and has it in their archives. Mulligan was located in the '70s at a VA Hospital on Long Island.
According to the author Henry Beard
Henry Beard
Henry N. Beard is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine National Lampoon and the author of several best-selling books.-Biography:...
, the term comes from Thomas Mulligan, a minor Anglo-Irish aristocrat and passionate golfer who was born on May 1, 1793 and lived near Lough Sclaff, on the Shannon estuary, in a modest manor house called Duffnaught Hall, which was totally destroyed in a mysterious fire one week after his death on April 1, 1879. Mulligan is said to have written, "Inasmuch as strokes taken after play is concluded on the 18th hole do not count towards the total entered on one's tally card, it seems to me eminently reasonable that any shots struck before play is properly commenced with a satisfactory drive on the first tee, should be of no more consequence to one's score than those swings which one has made by way of practice in the course of hitting balls upon the driving ground." In short, the player's first tallied stroke for a game is the first playable drive from the first tee, and any shots made beforehand are not scored.
Yet another anecdote goes back to old terminology referring to a "mull," a small hill of grass or dirt used to tee the golf ball for easier striking prior to modern tees. When a bad shot was played, the player told his caddy "I'll have a mull-again" to play another shot.
According to the USGA, the term first achieved widespread use in the 1940s.
Other uses
The term has found a broader acceptance in both general speech and other gameGame
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s, meaning any minor blunder which is allowed to pass unnoticed or without consequence. In both senses, it is implied that a mulligan is forgiven because it was either made by a rank beginner, or it is unusual and not indicative of the level of play or conduct expected of the person who made the mulligan.
Although certain players may wish to bank their shots, this is deemed un-sportsman like and is generally frowned upon, with the exception of ladies golf.
Often though in the realm of a fantasy sport
Fantasy sport
A fantasy sport is a game where participants act as owners to build a team that competes against other fantasy owners based on the statistics generated by the real individual players or teams of a professional sport...
, especially baseball, certain team owners who drop a player only to regret it several hours later, call on their respective commissioners to undo
Undo
Undo is a command in many computer programs. It erases the last change done to the document reverting it to an older state. In some more advanced programs such as graphic processing, undo will negate the last command done to the file being edited....
or grant a mulligan in order to reverse the transaction, even though the player is in the waiver pool. While mulligans are typically reserved to the sound discretion of the league commissioner, they should be used extremely sparingly and only in such instances of legitimate human error, rather than in cases of mistake resulting from carelessness, laziness, or inexcusable neglect.
The word can also be used in instances outside of sports, in real-life situations. For example, it has been used commonly in relationships to describe a situation where one partner, having damaged the relationship through some foolish action, then regrets his or her mistake and wishes for a mulligan having realized how ridiculous the initial action was. Much like the pressure of the first tee shot in front of strangers to start a round of golf, the first stab at a serious relationship is similarly pressure-packed; however, as with a golfing mulligan, a relationship mulligan allows the person to be much more relaxed and focused on the second attempt, having understood what went wrong on the first attempt.
Another example is in politics, where the losing candidate in a party primary may be able to run again in the general election on another ballot line. In the 2006 Connecticut US Senate race, many Ned Lamont
Ned Lamont
Edward Miner "Ned" Lamont, Jr. is a businessman and heir and most recently an unsuccessful candidate for the 2010 Democratic nomination for Governor of Connecticut. On May 22, 2010, Lamont received more than fifteen percent of the vote at the state Democratic convention, and appeared on the...
supporters accused Senator Joseph Lieberman of running a mulligan race as an independent, since he had lost the Democratic Party primary. In the 2008 American Democratic primary elections
Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008
The 2008 Democratic presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 U.S. presidential election...
, the term mulligan has been used to describe the possible redo elections in Michigan
Michigan Democratic primary, 2008
The Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary took place January 15, 2008. Originally, the state had 156 delegates up for grabs that were to be awarded in the following way: 83 delegates were to be awarded based on the winner in each of Michigan's 15 congressional districts while an additional 45...
and Florida
Florida Democratic primary, 2008
The Florida Democratic Presidential primary took place on January 29, 2008. Originally, the state had 185 delegates up for grabs that were to be awarded in the following way: 121 delegates were to be awarded based on the winner in each of Florida's 25 congressional districts while an additional 64...
, after their results were declared invalid due to the early scheduling of the contests, against Democratic party rules.
In certain circles, especially among binge drinkers, individuals have been known to "take a mulligan" in regards to their actions while drinking. The term has also been used to refer to "deemed cure" clauses in loan facility documentation, popular with sponsors at the height of the credit boom in 2006/07, which effectively allowed sponsors to "cure" covenant breaches after the event by adding equity.
Collectible card games
In Magic: The GatheringMagic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
, a player may declare a mulligan after drawing his initial hand at the beginning of each game. If such a declaration is made, the player puts his cards back into his deck, shuffles, and draws a new hand with one fewer card. A common reason for declaring a mulligan would be getting a hand with no mana sources, that is, a hand that has no playable cards. The player may repeat this until he is satisfied, or the number of cards in his hand reaches zero.
This mulligan style is known as the Paris mulligan, although it was first used in 1997 at the L.A. Pro Tour tournament as a test for the new system. It was mistakenly left in the Paris Pro Tour player's packet and this is where it finally got its name. Before that, the mulligan functioned differently. If a player had either 0 or 7 lands in his starting hand, that player could show his or her hand to the opponent, shuffle, and draw a new hand of seven cards. This was only allowed once. The new rule removed the requirement of revealing the hand to the opponent and made the mulligan a much more strategic part of the game, creating trade-off and risk where before there was none.
Unlike golf, mulligans in Magic are legal under game and tournament rules, and are more frequently associated with poor luck than lack of skill.
Upper Deck Entertainment
Upper deck
Upper deck may refer to :* The Upper Deck Company, an American trading card business* The upper deck is the highest level internal deck on a ship, i.e. just below the superstructure and open deck....
's VS System
VS System
Vs. System , also written as VS System and abbreviated as VS, is a collectible card game designed by Upper Deck Entertainment . In the game, players build and play a deck of Vs. System cards in an attempt to win a game against their opponent. It was first published in 2004 and is set in the...
employs a mulligan rule similar to the rule in Magic: The Gathering and also in "Myths and Legends".
In the Pokémon TCG, a player must declare a mulligan when during their draw they have no Basic Pokémon in their hand (as one of the victory conditions is to reduce one player's stock of pokemon to zero). At this point they must show the hand to their opponent, shuffle the cards back in to the deck and draw seven new cards. Their opponent then has the option to draw one extra card per mulligan. There is no limit to the number of mulligans that can be declared. The card draw part of the rule is not applied in the Game Boy version of the game
Pokémon Trading Card Game (video game)
Pokémon Trading Card Game, originally released in Japan as is a video game adaptation of the original tabletop trading card game of the same name, which in turn was based on the Pokémon role-playing video game series...
.
In UFS
Universal Fighting System
The Universal Fighting System is a collectible card game originally designed by Sabertooth Games. The themes of the cards are drawn from a multitude of licensed gaming universes, principally Fighting game licenses...
the rules are a bit different. "After drawing their hands players may decide to take what is called a mulligan. The player who will be taking the first turn has the opportunity to take a mulligan first. Then the player who will take the second turn has the opportunity to mulligan. Players may only take one mulligan at the beginning of the game. If a player decides to mulligan all the cards currently in their hand are removed from the game and they draw a number of cards equal to their character’s printed hand size."
Board Games
In TitanTitan (game)
Titan is a fantasy board game for two to six players, designed by Jason McAllister and David A. Trampier. It was first published in 1980 by Gorgonstar, a small company created by the designers. Soon afterward, the rights were licensed to Avalon Hill, which made several minor revisions and...
because the first movement die roll is so crucial, and because certain numbers are perceived as much worse than others, a player is given one chance to re-roll the movement die if unsatisfied with the result.
A number of card-driven wargames include a Magic
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
-style mulligan where a poor hand can be discarded to draw a new hand with one less card.