Fairway
The closely mown strip of a golf hole between the teeing area and the green.
Definition
The fairway is the central, closely mown area of a golf hole that runs from the teeing area toward the green. Because the grass is cut short, the ball sits up cleanly and is generally easier to strike well from the fairway than from the longer grass beside it.
On either side of the fairway is the rough, where the grass is left longer and shots become harder to control. Keeping the ball on the fairway is therefore a common aim off the tee.
Where you’ll hear “fairway”
Sports that use this term:
Golf
A precision target sport played across an outdoor course, blending skill, strategy and a long walk in the open air.
Disc Golf
A relaxed, low-cost target sport where players throw flying discs toward chain baskets across an outdoor course.
Explore across the knowledge base
Follow the threads that connect Fairway to the rest of SocialSportHub.
Equipment
Rules
Skills
Facilities
Go deeper with Fairway
Everywhere else on the platform that covers Fairway — assembled from what actually references it, so nothing here is a dead end.
Take it away
Open data and the whole-platform view of this subject.
How this page is maintained
- Content type
- Term
- Provenance
- Tier A — evergreen educational
- Verified external sources
- 0
- Content updated
- 2026-09-01
Evergreen, first-party explanation — it makes no claim that needs an external source. How we handle sources and reviews.