Glossary of Frequently Used Terms

 Note: This glossary is dynamic.

Draft Day Party Hangover: Often abbreviated as DDPH in my writings and discussions concerning the National Football League Draft, this condition was first theorized by legendary college football writer Phil Steele. According to his theory, college teams that lose heavy amounts of talent to a given year's draft tend to struggle that fall. Steele first proposed it in the 1998 edition of his eponymous annual college football preview, devising a simple point system that assigns a value to each of the seven rounds of the NFL Draft (its length since 1994). The system is as follows:

• First-round picks are worth seven points each.
• Second-round picks are each five points.
• Third-round picks garner four apiece.
• Fourth-round picks assess three points each.
• Fifth-round picks cost two points each.
• Every pick in the last two rounds is one point, as Steele has felt there is little difference between a sixth-round pick, a seventh-round pick and a top undrafted free agent. (Try telling that to Tom Brady or Brock Purdy!)

The normal "goal" for DDPH is twelve points. However, if such a team still suffers less draft attrition by this metric than last year, it is excused from the condition, as such a reprieve is a way of recognizing veritable draft factories. Every year, I publish a live blog to track this condition and any reprieves.

Umcee: An abbreviation for Upper Midwest connection that takes its form from the initials of the full phrase (UMC) when pronounced as a word that sounds like "UM-see."

Upper Midwest: The definition of this region varies from case to case. Some emphasise the Great Lakes and include Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Others stress the U.S. Census' West North Central region north of Kansas and Missouri, which would imply Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas. For purposes of this blog, I have adopted the definition of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas as a compromise between these two schools of thought.

Upper Midwest connection: For this blog's purposes, my focus is on golfers, each on one or more tours, who satisfy at least one criterion of the following as it pertains to what they have to do with the Upper Midwest as I define it:

1. Nativity in the region
2. Significant residence, past or present, in the region
3. Educational background in the region, whether at the high school or college level (or both)