In golf, even rarer than a hole in one, is a dunzee. This is when a ball is sent from tee to the
cup, without ever touching a blade of grass. The number of shots required to get to the
cup does not matter. An eagle, birdie or a bogey can all be dunzees, as the only requirement is the ball can not touch grass.
The ball must thus land in the
cup, on the fly, either from the tee or a sand trap, or another surface that is not grass, such as pine needles or clay. If this is the case, the
player may claim to have earned a "dunzee" which is among the rarest accomplishments in golf.
A dunzee holds no significance other than to
mark an exceptionally bizarre occurrence.
The origin of the "dunzee" is believed to be the first documented account of the feat during a tournament in Pittsburgh, PA in the early 1980s. The late,
Donald Dunzee Wolff,
Jr., a
local golf icon, managed to win a tournament while hitting his tee shot into a fairway bunker, his second shot into a greenside bunker, and his third shot into the
cup, on the fly. It earned him a birdie, but the means by which he did it was quickly dubbed a "dunzee."
He had effectively
hit his ball over 435 yards, into a cup, without ever touching a blade of grass.
The dunzee is so rare it is almost
never seen in tournament play, especially among professionals, for obvious reasons - they are intent of the ball landing in the grass. And even if their ball did land in a bunker, the thought of hitting the cup on the fly is technically a bad shot, though a lucky one. It almost
never happens, but when it does, it is referred to as a "dunzee."