The official size of a golf hole is 4.25 inches.
All golf holes have been required to be the same size since 1891.
In 1829, someone at the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club in Scotland invented a hole cutter.
The size of this hole cutter was precisely 4.25 inches, likely because that was the size of the drainage pipe used to make the hole cutter.
It’s crazy to think that the current golf hole size was created in such an arbitrary manner almost 200 years ago.
In 1891, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews made this hole size official in its new rule book. When the USGA was formed, they adopted this hole size, and it has remained unchanged since.
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Golf Hole Diameter (Width)
The official diameter of a golf hole is 4.25 in (10.795 cm).
Golf Hole Depth
The depth of a golf hole must be a least 4 inches, but there is no maximum.
Compared To Golf Ball Size
The diameter of a golf ball is 1.68 inches which means about 2.5 golf balls could fit in a golf hole side by side.
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