In golf, to hit a ball clumsily or to strike it with the back of the club head; to mishit a shot.
From Scots or Northern English, possibly imitative of the sound of a clumsy hit. The word appears in golf terminology starting in the 18th-19th centuries.
Golf has its own hidden vocabulary of slang terms—'baff' is a Scottish golfing term that shows how different regions and activities develop their own specialized languages, and many golf terms come from Scots because of Scotland's role in inventing the game!
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