What Is a Mulligan in Golf? Meaning, Origin, and Rules Status
Updated July 2026
A mulligan is a redo — you hit a bad shot, and instead of counting it, you tee it up again and play the second attempt with no penalty. It's an informal, friends-only tradition, not a real rule: mulligans are against the actual Rules of Golf and cannot be used in any round you're posting for handicap purposes or in sanctioned competition. Where you'll see them is casual weekend rounds and charity scrambles, sometimes literally sold for a few dollars each to raise money.
- A mulligan is a do-over shot, usually off the first tee, replayed with no stroke penalty by informal agreement.
- It is explicitly against the Rules of Golf — never legal in tournament play or in a round used to post a handicap score.
- The USGA traces the name to a Canadian golfer, David B. Mulligan, who played at the Country Club of Montreal in the 1920s.
- A competing origin story credits a club attendant named John "Buddy" Mulligan at a New Jersey course in the 1930s.
- The earliest documented print use is from 1931, in the Detroit Free Press.
Where Did the Term "Mulligan" Come From?
Nobody can prove it definitively, but the USGA's own account points to David B. Mulligan, a Canadian golfer who played at the Country Club of Montreal in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, during the 1920s. The story goes that after hitting a poor tee shot, he simply re-teed and played again, calling it a "correction shot" — his playing partners thought naming the practice after him was funnier. A second, unrelated story credits John "Buddy" Mulligan, a club attendant at Essex Fells Country Club in New Jersey in the 1930s, who was reportedly given an extra shot to warm up after being pulled from his duties to fill out a foursome. Either way, the earliest print reference found so far is from a 1931 Detroit Free Press article, which actually predates the Oxford English Dictionary's first citation from 1936.
Is a Mulligan Allowed Under the Rules of Golf?
No. Under the official Rules of Golf, every stroke counts, including bad ones, and there's no provision for a free redo. If you're playing a round you intend to post for your handicap, mulligans can't be part of it — the round has to reflect actual strokes played, or the posted score doesn't mean anything. This is one of the more common ways casual golfers unknowingly inflate or misrepresent their handicap.
Where Do Mulligans Actually Show Up?
Almost exclusively in casual, non-competitive golf: a friendly group agreeing to allow one "breakfast ball" off the first tee to shake off the nerves, or charity scrambles that literally sell mulligans as a fundraising gimmick — pay a few dollars, get a do-over on your worst shot of the day. In a scramble format, mulligans-for-charity are common precisely because the format is social first and competitive second.
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
- No. Sanctioned tournament play and any round used to establish or maintain a handicap follow the actual Rules of Golf, which don't allow do-overs of any kind.
- Functionally yes — "breakfast ball" is casual slang for a mulligan specifically taken on the first tee shot of the day.
- Because the event isn't sanctioned competitive golf — it's a fundraiser first. Selling do-overs is a low-effort way to raise extra money without affecting anything that matters competitively.
- Not at all — it just means you're playing a casual, social round rather than a rules-official one. Most golf, honestly, is played this way.