title: Moment of inertia

text: where vectors formula_324 in the body fixed coordinate frame have coordinates formula_307 in the inertial frame. Then, the inertia matrix of the body measured in the inertial frame is given by


title: Moment of inertia

text: Measured in the body frame, the inertia matrix is a constant real symmetric matrix. A real symmetric matrix has the eigendecomposition into the product of a rotation matrix formula_329 and a diagonal matrix formula_330, given by


title: Moment of inertia

text: The columns of the rotation matrix formula_329 define the directions of the principal axes of the body, and the constants formula_334, formula_335, and formula_336 are called the principal moments of inertia. This result was first shown by J. J. Sylvester (1852), and is a form of Sylvester's law of inertia. The principal axis with the highest moment of inertia is sometimes called the figure axis or axis of figure.


title: Moment of inertia

text: A toy top is an example of a rotating rigid body, and the word "top" is used in names the types of types of rigid bodies. When all principal moments of inertia are distinct, the principal axes through center of mass are uniquely specified and the rigid body is called an asymmetric top. If two principal moments are the same, the rigid body is called a symmetric top and there is no unique choice for the two corresponding principal axes. If all three principal moments are the same, the rigid body is called a spherical top (although it need not be spherical) and any axis can be considered a principal axis, meaning that the moment of inertia is the same about any axis.


title: Moment of inertia

text: The principal axes are often aligned with the object's symmetry axes. If a rigid body has an axis of symmetry of order formula_3, meaning it is symmetrical under rotations of about the given axis, that axis is a principal axis. When formula_338, the rigid body is a symmetric top. If a rigid body has at least two symmetry axes that are not parallel or perpendicular to each other, it is a spherical top, for example, a cube or any other Platonic solid.


title: Moment of inertia

text: The motion of vehicles is often described in terms of yaw, pitch, and roll which usually correspond approximately to rotations about the three principal axes. If the vehicle has bilateral symmetry then one of the principal axes will correspond exactly to the transverse (pitch) axis.


title: Moment of inertia

text: A practical example of this mathematical phenomenon is the routine automotive task of balancing a tire, which basically means adjusting the distribution of mass of a car wheel such that its principal axis of inertia is aligned with the axle so the wheel does not wobble.


title: Moment of inertia

text: Rotating molecules are also classified as asymmetric, symmetric, or spherical tops, and the structure of their rotational spectra is different for each type.


title: Moment of inertia

text: The moment of inertia matrix in body-frame coordinates is a quadratic form that defines a surface in the body called Poinsot's ellipsoid. Let formula_330 be the inertia matrix relative to the center of mass aligned with the principal axes, then the surface


title: Moment of inertia

text: Let a point formula_307 on this ellipsoid be defined in terms of its magnitude and direction, formula_345, where formula_290 is a unit vector. Then the relationship presented above, between the inertia matrix and the scalar moment of inertia formula_347 around an axis in the direction formula_290, yields


title: Charlie Crist

text: Charles Joseph Crist Jr. (; born July 24, 1956) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 and as the U.S. representative for from 2017 to 2022. Crist has been a member of the Democratic Party since 2012; he was previously a Republican before becoming an independent in 2010.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist served in the Florida Senate from 1993 to 1999, vacating his seat to run unsuccessfully against incumbent Bob Graham for the U.S. Senate in 1998. He won a 2000 special election to serve as Florida Education Commissioner from 2001 to 2003 and a 2002 election to serve as Florida Attorney General from 2003 to 2007. He was elected Governor of Florida in 2006 after winning against Democrat Jim Davis.


title: Charlie Crist

text: While he was governor, Crist again ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010. He initially led in polls in the race for the Republican nomination, but was later overtaken by Marco Rubio. In April of that year, he left the Republican Party to run in the general election as an independent, losing to Rubio in a three-way race. He took 30% of the vote to Rubio's 49% and Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek had 20%. Crist's term as governor ended in January 2011.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On December 7, 2012, Crist joined the Democratic Party, having endorsed President Barack Obama for reelection in 2012. On November 1, 2013, he announced that he was running for governor in the 2014 election. Crist lost to Republican Governor Rick Scott, his successor, by a 1% margin. In 2016, Crist was elected to Congress from his home district, the St. Petersburg-based 13th, defeating incumbent Republican David Jolly, 52%–48% and becoming the first Democrat to represent this district since 1955. In the 117th Congress, Crist was the only former governor serving in the House.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election, resigning from the House in August 2022 to focus on his campaign. He was defeated in a landslide by incumbent governor Ron DeSantis.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on July 24, 1956, to Charles Joseph Crist, an American physician of Greek Cypriot and Lebanese descent, and Nancy (née Lee), of Scots-Irish, Swiss, and Welsh descent. His family name is adapted from the original Greek name "Christodoulos". As a child, Crist moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he attended Riviera Middle School and St. Petersburg High School, from which he graduated in 1974. He is the second of four children and has three sisters: Margaret Crist Wood, Elizabeth Crist Hyden, and Catherine Crist Kennedy. He attended Wake Forest University for two years. While at Wake Forest, Crist was a walk-on quarterback for the Demon Deacons during his freshman and sophomore years, before transferring to Florida State University in Tallahassee. Crist earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State, where he was elected vice president of the student body and joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He received his J.D. from Samford University Cumberland School of Law.


title: Charlie Crist

text: After graduating from Cumberland School of Law in 1981, and passing the bar on his third attempt, Crist was hired as general counsel to Minor League Baseball, which was headquartered in St. Petersburg. Drawn to politics, Crist was a candidate for public office for the first time in 1986, in the Republican primary for a state Senate seat in Pinellas County. After losing in a runoff, Crist joined his brother-in-law in private practice in St. Petersburg, but soon returned to politics as an aide on the successful 1988 United States Senate campaign of Connie Mack III, whom he has since described as his political mentor.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 1992, Crist was elected to a two-year term to the Florida Senate from the 20th district, which encompassed parts of St. Petersburg and South Tampa. He defeated longtime incumbent Democratic State Senator Helen Gordon Davis of Tampa, 58.3 to 41.7%. Crist was able to unseat Gordon Davis following the 1992 decennial redistricting process, which significantly reconfigured the districts in the Tampa Bay area. His victory was credited with helping to end the Democratic Party's 128-year control of the Florida Senate, as the Republicans netted three seats in 1992, resulting in a 20–20 tie between the parties.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist was known as a law-and-order senator, sponsoring legislation requiring inmates to serve at least 85% of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole. He supported teacher salary increases, charter schools, and a specialty license plate for Everglades conservation. With Crist as chairman, the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee investigated actions of then-governor Lawton Chiles amid allegations that Chiles's campaign had made "scare calls" to senior citizens days before the 1994 gubernatorial election. Chiles testified before the committee and admitted that his campaign had made the calls.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 1994, Crist was reelected to a four-year term in the Senate, defeating Democrat Dana Lynn Maley with 63.3% of the vote.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist gained recognition in 1998 as the Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Graham. Crist campaigned conservatively on taxation, crime, and the ongoing Lewinsky scandal, but agreed with Graham on issues such as healthcare and statehood for Puerto Rico. Crist also campaigned on being younger, more energetic, and more able to address Floridians' needs. He lost to Graham by 26 percentage points, but gained significant name recognition, and was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to serve as the Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in 1999 upon the conclusion of his Senate service. He served until 2000, when he ran for Florida Education Commissioner in a November special election created by the resignation of incumbent Commissioner Tom Gallagher. He won by over 500,000 votes and assumed the office in January of 2001. Crist would ultimately be the last statewide elected education commissioner, as a 1998 amendment to the Constitution of Florida turned the position into one appointed by the Governor of Florida after his departure. Crist left the office after he was elected attorney general in 2002.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2002, Crist was elected Florida Attorney General. His candidacy was supported by the host of "America's Most Wanted", John Walsh. Walsh and other supporters cited his work with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Civil rights and consumer groups praised Crist for expanding the attorney general's powers during his time in office. These powers enabled him and future attorneys general to have greater power to prosecute civil rights and fraud cases. Crist also worked to combat email spam, freeze utility rates, end telecom deception, and protect the environment.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist was elected to the governorship of Florida in the 2006 election, defeating Democrat Jim Davis 52-45%. In his inaugural pledge to the people of Florida, he promised to lower taxes, improve the state education system, reduce crime, lower drug costs, expand access to health insurance, assist senior citizens, and protect the environment. However, his promise to lower taxes would prove to be difficult to keep during the Great Recession, and he eventually relented in 2009 after being sent a budget by the Florida legislature which included a 2.2 billion dollar raise in taxes and fees. He also had a mixed record on environmental issues. Nonetheless, Crist remained widely popular with Floridians during his term, and an April 2009 poll showed him with a 68 percent approval rating among Republicans and independents and a 66 percent approval rating among Democrats. Crist drew criticism from the right for supporting the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan. In 2010, rather than seek reelection as governor, he left the Republican Party to run for the Senate as an Independent. Shortly thereafter, Crist announced that he had moderated his views against LGBT adoption and marriage.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In February 2006, Crist attended a fundraiser at Mar-A-Lago, hosted by Donald Trump, with guests paying $500 to attend. Two of the guests became subjects of controversy. Crist returned $1,000 in campaign contributions to one of those guests as a result.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2009, Crist saw the man he had chosen as Florida GOP finance chairman, his former fraternity brother, oil magnate Harry Sargeant III, forced to step down. One of Sargeant's employees, Ala'a al-Ali of the Dominican Republic, was indicted in Los Angeles for organizing $5,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Crist, as well as $50,000 to presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Senator John McCain endorsed Crist's 2006 campaign for governor, traveling the state to campaign with him. The day before the general election, Crist held a campaign event with McCain in Jacksonville. Later, when the Republican presidential primary debates were held in St. Petersburg, Crist embraced McCain. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had also campaigned for Crist during the gubernatorial election, had sought his endorsement.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In May 2007, Crist signed legislation moving the date of Florida's presidential primary to January 29, 2008, contrary to national political party rules. Crist joined Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm in asking that their states' delegates be seated. Both national conventions ended up seating all delegates, but with only a half vote each for the sanctioned states.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On January 26, 2008, Crist endorsed McCain in the Republican primary. McCain won the Florida primary by five percentage points.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On October 28, 2008, Crist extended early voting hours of operation and declared that a "state of emergency exists", due to record voter turnout and resultant hours-long waits at locations throughout the state.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On November 12–14, 2008, Crist hosted the Republican Governors Association (RGA) annual meeting in Miami. Held the week after the Democratic Party victories in the 2008 election, there was speculation about the meeting's tone. Then Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the defeated 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, was a featured participant and speaker.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist's speech at the RGA conference, "Listen to the Voters and Serve", included his sentiments on how the GOP should evolve:


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist held a joint interview with Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina in which they discussed the split in the Republican Party over where to direct the party's efforts to gain more voters.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On May 12, 2009, Crist announced that he would not run for reelection as governor in 2010, making him the first Florida governor not to run for reelection since 1964. Instead he ran for the US Senate. His two main opponents were former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, and U.S. Representative Kendrick Meek.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist announced his intent to run as an unaffiliated candidate in the election, while at the same time, according to a press release from his campaign, he remained a registered Republican. Crist officially changed his registration status to "non party affiliated" on May 13, 2010. He did not return campaign contributions made while he was a Republican. Crist lost the general election, receiving 29.7% of the vote to Rubio's 48.9% and Meek's 20.2%.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In April 2011, as part of a settlement of a copyright lawsuit brought by musician David Byrne, Crist apologized for his Senate campaign's use of Byrne's song "Road to Nowhere" without permission.


title: Charlie Crist

text: By the spring of 2015, there was speculation that Crist would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida. This would have been his third run for the seat (he lost in 1998 and 2010). In March 2015, Crist said he would not seek the nomination. In the same month he endorsed U.S. Congressman Patrick Murphy's Senate candidacy.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In January 2011, Crist joined the Tampa office of national personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan after expressing an interest in returning to the legal field during his final week in office as governor of Florida. Crist worked primarily in the firm's class-action sector as a complex-litigation attorney, serving as a "rainmaker" for the firm. In November 2016, after almost six years with the firm, he was elected to represent Florida's 13th congressional district. In February 2018, Brad Slager of "Sunshine State News", cited evidence that Morgan & Morgan was "attempting to purge all evidence" of its relationship with Crist now that he was a "rookie congressman" with "little-to-no power".


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2013, Crist performed paid consulting work for Coastal Construction, a Miami-based construction firm owned by Crist's longtime friend Tom Murphy, the father of former U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist has been a part-time guest lecturer at Stetson University College of Law, with the title of Distinguished Professorial Lecturer.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In August 2012, Crist endorsed President Obama in his campaign for reelection over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, saying that the Republican Party "pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people." Crist was a speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, saying, "I didn't leave the Republican Party; it left me."


title: Charlie Crist

text: On December 7, 2012, Crist announced that he had joined the Democratic Party. In July 2013, Crist began writing a book, with "Newsday" columnist Ellis Henican, about his political transition. The book, "The Party's Over: How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat", was released in February 2014. In the book, Crist claimed that his career in the Republican Party was destroyed by a hug between him and Obama at a Fort Myers town hall on February 10, 2009. "It was the kind of hug I'd exchanged with thousands and thousands of Floridians over the years", Crist wrote. "I didn't think a thing about it as it was happening." But it "ended my viable life as a Republican politician. I would never have a future in my old party again. My bipartisan hopes and dreams, I would discover soon enough to my shock and disappointment, were vastly overstated and hopelessly out of date."


title: Charlie Crist

text: In May 2014, Crist told Fusion's Jorge Ramos that he had left the Republican Party because of its racial attitudes. "I couldn't be consistent with myself and my core beliefs, and stay with a party that was so unfriendly toward the African-American president—I'll just go there", Crist said. "I was a Republican and I saw the activists and what they were doing. It was intolerable to me." "The Washington Post" Chris Cillizza rejected this claim, citing "Tampa Bay Times" political editor Adam Smith as saying that Crist "was happy as a Republican when the polls showed him leading Marco Rubio by 20 points." Cilizza wrote that Crist's party switch "epitomized for many within the Republican base that Crist lacked any core principles or beliefs and, instead, simply went with whatever was popular at the moment."


title: Charlie Crist

text: In a review in "The New Republic", Isaac Chotiner called "The Party's Over" "a dishonest and boring memoir" by "a man with no convictions". Writing in "Rolling Stone" magazine in 2014, Jeb Lund described Crist as "a Republican conveniently converted to Democrat", adding, "what made Crist dynamic as a Republican ... was a vaguely populist nose-thumbing at Republican orthodoxy", and that "Charlie Crist is a Democrat only if you are a Republican."


title: Charlie Crist

text: On November 1, 2013, Crist filed to run for governor as a Democrat. He won the Democratic nomination but was defeated in the general election by Republican incumbent Rick Scott. Crist holds the rare distinction of losing a statewide general election in Florida as a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On October 20, 2015, Crist announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Florida's 13th congressional district, his home district, in the 2016 U.S. House of Representatives elections. He had previously announced on Twitter that he would not run for political office in 2016. Republican incumbent David Jolly, who succeeded 43-year incumbent Bill Young in a 2014 special election, was vacating the seat to run for the same Senate seat for which Crist ran in 1998 and 2010.


title: Charlie Crist

text: But when Senator Marco Rubio decided to run for reelection, Jolly dropped out of the Senate race and sought reelection to the House, even though the 13th district had become significantly friendlier to Democrats when a court tossed out Florida's original congressional map. The new map drew nearly all of St. Petersburg, along with most of the more Democratic southern portion of Pinellas County, into the 13th. The district had been in Republican hands without interruption since 1955, and had been one of the first areas of Florida to turn Republican. However, it had become more of a swing district at the presidential level since the 1990s; it has supported a Democrat for president in all but one election since 1992.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In the general election, Crist defeated Jolly 52–48%, becoming the first Democrat to win the seat in 62 years.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2018, Crist was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund, which called him "a leader on protecting Florida from and planning for the impacts of climate change during his time as Governor and in Congress." Crist won a second term with 57 percent of the vote.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist was sworn in on January 3, 2017. He was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, the New Democrat Coalition, the Climate Solutions Caucus and the U.S.-Japan Caucus.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On January 13, 2021, Crist voted in favor of the single article of impeachment against President Trump during the second impeachment of Donald Trump.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist introduced H.R. 305, which presented the Congressional Gold Medal to Officer Eugene Goodman for his valor during the January 6 United States Capitol attack.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On May 4, 2021, Crist announced his intention to run for the Democratic nomination in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election against incumbent Ron DeSantis. "[I'm] running on decency and mutual respect," Crist explained. "I love people. And I feel for ’em right now. Gay people. Women. Blacks. They’re getting the crap kicked out of ’em by this guy. It’s wrong. Somebody has to stop him." Crist won the primary election on August23, 2022, and advanced to face DeSantis in the general election on November 8, 2022. Crist's running mate for lieutenant governor was union leader Karla Hernández-Mats, president of the United Teachers of Dade. However, Crist was defeated by DeSantis, receiving 40% of the vote compared to DeSantis's 59%.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 1995, while in the Florida Senate, Crist joined with two Democrats in the Senate Health Care Committee in voting against a proposal for a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before a woman could have an abortion, resulting in a 3–3 tie vote and the bill's defeat.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 1998, while running for the U.S. Senate, Crist wrote in a "Tampa Bay Times" questionnaire: "I believe that a woman has the right to choose, but would prefer only after careful consideration and consultation with her family, her physician and her clergy; not her government." In a debate that year, he said he did not support a constitutional amendment banning abortion. In 2006, while running for governor, Crist said he did not support overturning "Roe v. Wade" and opposed a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before a woman could have an abortion.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In early 2010, Crist said he would "fight for pro-life legislative efforts" and described himself as "pro-life".


title: Charlie Crist

text: By March 2010, however, as rumors swirled that he would leave the Republican Party and become an independent, Crist reiterated that he did not support overturning "Roe v. Wade" and told a Christian Family Coalition group, "We ought to, instead of change laws, change hearts."


title: Charlie Crist

text: In June 2010, after leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent, Crist vetoed a bill that would have required, at patient cost, an ultrasound in order to receive an abortion. He called the measure "punitive" and "almost mean-spirited". The bill also included language barring abortion coverage "under a contract toward which any tax credit or cost-sharing credit is applied."


title: Charlie Crist

text: As governor, Crist supported capital punishment, and he reiterated his support for it in October 2022.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In May 2014, Crist publicly supported lifting the United States embargo against Cuba, arguing it has not helped to change the Cuban government. He had supported the embargo earlier as both a Republican and independent. Also in 2014, he announced he had requested the Department of State's permission to travel to Cuba with a delegation of business, academic and economic development officials. In June, Crist indefinitely postponed the trip.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2019, Crist quietly visited Cuba to meet with Cuban officials, despite high bilateral tensions due to alleged Cuban support for the Maduro regime in Venezuela. The three-day trip was not announced by his congressional office and was disclosed due to required filings in the House of Representatives Committee on Ethics, with no details about it on Crist's House website. The trip was sponsored by the Center for Democracy in the Americas, an organization that "promotes a U.S. policy toward Cuba based on engagement and recognition of Cuba's sovereignty", according to its website. Photos of Crist smiling during a meeting with Cuban officials, including Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, were published in the official newspaper of Cuba's Communist Party during his stay.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In June 2008, Crist proposed that Florida buy from the United States Sugar Corporation for $1.75 billion. The proposed purchase would have removed about 187,000 acres of sugar farming for Everglades restoration efforts. A fairness commission found that price to be too high by $400 million and, ultimately, the purchase was reduced to of not only sugar, but also citrus for about $590 million in 2010, greatly setting back the originally touted restoration effort.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2007, Crist signed executive orders to impose stricter air pollution standards in Florida, with an aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In his gubernatorial campaign, he opposed offshore oil drilling. He altered that position in June 2008, when oil reached peak prices, saying, "I mean, let's face it, the price of gas has gone through the roof, and Florida families are suffering, and my heart bleeds for them."


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist supported President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a stimulus package in response to the Great Recession. Fellow Republicans were angered by Crist's support for the stimulus.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist called the act a "godsend", maintaining that it had saved the jobs of nearly 20,000 Florida schoolteachers and other school workers in 2009–2010.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In a February 12, 2018, "USA Today" op-ed, Crist wrote that Florida was "one of only three states that permanently bans non-violent, ex-felons from voting" and that this "disenfranchisement of 1.5 million of our fellow citizens is shameful."


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2008, Crist signed a provision preventing employers from prohibiting employees from bringing firearms to the workplace, as long as the weapons are secure and the employees have a concealed carry license.


title: Charlie Crist

text: After the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Crist announced a reversal of some of his previous stances on gun control. Before 2012, he had sometimes accused his opponents of not supporting gun rights strongly enough. He was endorsed by the NRA in 2006. In 2012, Crist announced that he supported reinstating the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, banning high-capacity magazines, and instating more extensive background checks. In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, he announced his support for additional measures, including a ban on bump stocks, and also said he did not support arming teachers.


title: Charlie Crist

text: When he left office as governor in 2011, Crist had an A rating from the NRA. In 2016, he received an F rating from the NRA.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In June 2017, Crist was one of 24 House Democrats to vote for Kate's Law. The next month, he was one of five Democrats to vote to fund President Trump's border wall, and the next day, issued a statement saying that he opposed the wall.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2006, as a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions was headed to the ballot in Florida, Crist said that such an amendment was unnecessary because state law already barred same-sex marriages. But in September 2005, he had signed a petition for the amendment during the Republican primary at the Christian Coalition's request. Crist said in campaign materials at the time that he supported "traditional marriage". In 2008, he said he voted for the amendment, which passed.


title: Charlie Crist

text: As governor, Crist downplayed the marriage issue, saying in a late 2007 CNN appearance: "It's not an issue that moves me. I'm just a live-and-let-live kind of guy."


title: Charlie Crist

text: For some time Crist supported Florida's ban on same-sex adoption, which had been in place since 1977. He publicly expressed support for the ban beginning when he was attorney general in 2006.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2008, Crist again announced his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment. Also that year, he told the "Orlando Sentinel" that the issue was not "top-tier" for him, even as he supported a Florida ballot measure to amend the state constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage that passed later that year.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Also in 2008, in the case of "In re Gill", a Miami-Dade judge struck down the ban on same-sex couple adoption. As the case proceeded through appeals, Crist expressed support for the adoption ban as late as February 2010, but by June 2010, expressed openness to changing Florida law to allow same-sex adoption, saying a better approach "would be to let judges make that decision on a case-by-case basis."


title: Charlie Crist

text: In September 2010, Crist said that he had had an "appropriate evolution" on gay rights and was considering dropping the state's appeal of to block gay adoption. Days later, after an appeals court affirmed gay couples had a right to adopt, Crist hailed the ruling "a very good day for Florida" and "a great day for children" and announced that the state would no longer seek to enforce the ban. In a Senate debate the next month, he attributed his shift in positions to "the convergence of life experience and wisdom", saying he had become more tolerant and become less judgmental with age.


title: Charlie Crist

text: At about the same time in 2010, he declared his support for civil unions encompassing "the full range of legal protections" including "access to a loved one in the hospital, inheritance rights, the fundamental things people need to take care of their families." The voter-enacted 2008 state constitutional amendment Crist supported may nonetheless have prohibited them.


title: Charlie Crist

text: On May 9, 2013, Crist announced that he supports same-sex marriage: "I most certainly support marriage equality in Florida and look forward to the day it happens here."


title: Charlie Crist

text: In January 2014, Crist apologized for his support for the 2008 same-sex marriage ban and for the same-sex adoption ban, telling an Orlando LGBT publication: "I'm sorry I did that. It was a mistake. I was wrong. Please forgive me."


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist said "fully legalizing marijuana" would bring about "true justice in our state and in our country" in announcing his candidacy for governor in 2021. He also voted for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act to legalize cannabis at the federal level and expunge cannabis convictions in 2020. In 2018, he introduced the Fairness in Federal Drug Testing Under State Laws Act to limit the firing of federal workers and denial of applicants for cannabis use.


title: Charlie Crist

text: After claims that computerized voting machines undercounted votes in black communities, Crist endorsed legislation requiring paper records of all ballots cast in elections.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In April 2010, Crist vetoed an education bill that would have linked teacher pay to test scores, a piece of legislation conservatives strongly supported.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist supported increased regulation of the insurance industry, including property insurance rates (in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina) and health insurance. The Citizen's Property Insurance Corp and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund had been described as risky and underfunded. Standing next to former football star Dan Marino (whose son, Michael, is autistic and inspired the Dan Marino Foundation), Crist signed a law expanding health coverage statewide for autism disorders and legislation expanding low-income coverage and creating public and private insurance options in Florida.


title: Charlie Crist

text: The abortion hurdles bill Crist vetoed in June 2010 also included some provisions "intended to thwart" the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care reform legislation championed by President Obama.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In April 2022, Crist said he opposed the repeal of the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, arguing that it would hurt Florida's economy and tourism.


title: Charlie Crist

text: Crist became engaged to Carole Rome on July 3, 2008, after nine months of dating, and they married on December 12 of that year at the First Methodist Church of St. Petersburg, of which Crist is a member. In February 2017, Crist announced that he had filed for divorce, and the divorce was completed that year.


title: Charlie Crist

text: In 2022, while running for governor again, Crist said he was engaged to a woman he met in 2017, who is a mother of six children and a medical sonographer.


title: Ross Lynch

text: Ross Shor Lynch (born December 29, 1995) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He was the lead vocalist of the pop rock band R5 and is one half of the band the Driver Era, with his brother, Rocky Lynch. As an actor, he rose to recognition for his debut role as Austin Moon on Disney Channel's comedy television series "Austin & Ally", and for his role as Brady on the network's "Teen Beach Movie" film series.


title: Ross Lynch

text: In 2017, Lynch branched into film, starring in the biopic "My Friend Dahmer," where he played a teenage Jeffrey Dahmer. In 2018, Lynch also starred in "Status Update", playing the character of Kyle. Between 2018 and 2020, he starred as Harvey Kinkle on the Netflix television series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina".


title: Ross Lynch

text: Lynch was born and raised in the Denver suburb of Littleton, Colorado. He has four siblings, sister Rydel, and brothers Riker, Rocky, and Ryland. He was educated at home starting in the fourth grade when he learned to sing and play the guitar and piano. Lynch is a second cousin of entertainers Derek Hough and Julianne Hough, their maternal grandmothers being sisters. Lynch and his family moved to Los Angeles in 2007.


title: Ross Lynch

text: Lynch made a cameo appearance in the 2014 film "Muppets Most Wanted". In 2016, he voiced the role of Piers in the English dub of the animated French adventure film "Snowtime!" The film centers around a group of children who plan and stage a giant snowball fight during the Christmas holiday.


title: Ross Lynch

text: Lynch starred as Mark Anthony in the Hollywood Bowl's production of "A Chorus Line", which ran for three performances over the weekend of July 29, 2016. The musical, about dancers auditioning for a Broadway musical, was directed and choreographed by Baayork Lee, who starred in the original Broadway production.


title: Ross Lynch

text: In May 2016, it was announced that Lynch would be starring in his feature film debut, "Status Update", a comedy that began filming in Vancouver in June and wrapped in July 2016. Lynch stars as a teenager who stumbles upon a magical app that causes his social media status updates to come true. In July, he was cast as a teenage Jeffrey Dahmer in "My Friend Dahmer", a film based on the 2012 graphic novel of the same name by Derf Backderf.


title: Ross Lynch

text: Lynch has appeared on the television shows "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Moises Rules!", and in the 2010 short film "Grapple". He was in Kidz Bop, appearing in a 2009 Kidz Bop video. He was also in Cymphonique's music video for "Lil' Miss Swagger".


title: Ross Lynch

text: In early 2011, Lynch was cast in the pilot for the Disney Channel sitcom "Austin & Ally", playing the lead male role of Austin Moon, a teenage singer who becomes an overnight sensation after a music video featuring him performing is uploaded to the Internet. He later forms a partnership with Ally, played by Laura Marano. The pilot was later picked up for a full season's production; the show debuted in December 2011, and was renewed for a second season in March 2012. After four seasons, the series ended on January 10, 2016. Lynch guest starred with the "Austin & Ally" cast in a crossover episode with "Jessie", and also he guest starred with his co-star Laura Marano on "Girl Meets World", where he reprised his role as Austin Moon.


title: Ross Lynch

text: In early 2012, Lynch began working on the Disney Channel Original Movie "Teen Beach Movie", playing the male lead role, Brady. The film was directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and premiered July 19, 2013, earning around 8.4 million viewers. Lynch also starred in the sequel, "Teen Beach 2", which premiered on the Disney Channel on June 26, 2015, earning 7.5million total viewers.


title: Ross Lynch

text: In 2018, Lynch was cast in the role of Harvey Kinkle, Sabrina Spellman's boyfriend, on the Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina".


title: Ross Lynch

text: Lynch plays piano, drums, and bass; he specializes in guitar. He has danced for the Rage Boyz Crew, a group founded by a dance company in Southern California.


title: Ross Lynch

text: His debut single, "A Billion Hits", was released on April 2, 2012. On July 13, 2012, Lynch released his second soundtrack single, "Heard It on the Radio", which reached number 196 on UK Singles Chart. Lynch has recorded a multitude of songs for "Austin & Ally". He sang all 14 songs for the TV show's soundtrack, which was released on September 12, 2012. These songs include "Can't Do It Without You" (the theme song for the series), "A Billion Hits", "Heard It on the Radio", and two songs with his band R5. The album peaked at #27 on the "Billboard" 200, one on the "Billboard's" Top Soundtracks and one on the "Billboard's" Kid Albums.


title: Ross Lynch

text: Lynch also sang most of the songs from "", the show's second soundtrack. He recorded songs for "Teen Beach Movie", the soundtrack of which was the fourth best-selling soundtrack of 2013 in the United States with 407,000 copies sold. He also sang two songs on the "" EP. In 2015, Lynch recorded songs for "Teen Beach 2", the soundtrack of which debuted at number 10 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Ross Lynch

text: In 2016, Lynch contributed vocals to Tritonal's song "I Feel the Love" from their album "Painting With Dreams".


title: Ross Lynch

text: In March 2010, R5 self-released an EP, "Ready Set Rock" and in April 2012, they signed with Hollywood Records. Their second EP, "Loud", was released on February 19, 2013, which featured the lead single and title track "Loud". The band's first full-length album, "Louder", was released on September 24, 2013, and the album includes the four songs from "Loud" as well as seven new songs. The second single from the album, "Pass Me By", premiered on Radio Disney on August 16, 2013. The music video premiered on August 29 on Disney Channel and is available for public viewing on the band's Vevo channel. The third single, "(I Can't) Forget About You", was released on December 25, 2013, and reached number 47 on the "Billboard" Digital Pop Songs chart, and the fourth single "One Last Dance" was released on May 29, 2014. The third extended play, "Heart Made Up on You", was released on July 22, 2014, and the self-titled single was released on August 1, 2014.


title: Ross Lynch

text: On November 16, 2014, the band released the first single from second album, "Smile". "Let's Not Be Alone Tonight", the second single, was released on February 13, 2015. "All Night" was released as the third single on June 2, 2015, along with the album's iTunes pre-order. The band released their second full-length album on July 10, 2015, titled "Sometime Last Night", and debuted at number 6 on the "Billboard" 200, number 1 on the "Billboard" Top Pop Albums, number 3 on the "Billboard" Top Digital Albums, and number 4 on the "Billboard" Top Album Sales.


title: Ross Lynch

text: On February 1, 2018, R5 posted on their YouTube a video called "The Last Show". On March 1, R5's Instagram and Twitter handles were changed to "the Driver Era" and all of R5's previous posts were deleted. On March 2, it was reported that the Driver Era would be a band consisting only of Ross and Rocky.


title: Golf

text: Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.


title: Golf

text: Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping with the varied terrains encountered on different courses is a key part of the game. Courses typically have either 18 or 9 "holes", regions of terrain that each contain a "cup", the hole that receives the ball. Each hole on a course contains a teeing ground to start from, and a putting green containing the cup. There are several standard forms of terrain between the tee and the green, such as the fairway, rough (tall grass), and various "hazards" such as water, rocks, or sand-filled "bunkers". Each hole on a course is unique in its specific layout.


title: Golf

text: Golf is played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes in a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play. Stroke play is the most commonly seen format at all levels, especially at the elite level.


title: Golf

text: The modern game of golf originated in 15th century Scotland. The 18-hole round was created at the Old Course at St Andrews in 1764. Golf's first major, and the world's oldest tournament in existence, is The Open Championship, also known as the British Open, which was first played in 1860 at the Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland. This is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, the other three being played in the United States: The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship.


title: Golf

text: While the modern game of golf originated in 15th century Scotland, the game's ancient origins are unclear and much debated.


title: Golf

text: Some historians trace the sport back to the Roman game of paganica, in which participants used a bent stick to hit a stuffed leather ball. One theory asserts that paganica spread throughout Europe as the Romans conquered most of the continent, during the first century BC, and eventually evolved into the modern game.


title: Golf

text: Others cite chuiwan (捶丸; "chui" means striking and "wan" means small ball) as the progenitor, a Chinese game played between the eighth and fourteenth centuries. A Ming Dynasty scroll by the artist Youqiu dating back to 1368 entitled "The Autumn Banquet" shows a member of the Chinese Imperial court swinging what appears to be a golf club at a small ball with the aim of sinking it into a hole. The game is thought to have been introduced into Europe during the Middle Ages.


title: Golf

text: Another early game that resembled modern golf was known as cambuca in England and chambot in France. The Persian game chowkan is another possible ancient origin, albeit being more polo-like. In addition, kolven (a game involving a ball and curved bats) was played annually in Loenen, Netherlands, beginning in 1297, to commemorate the capture of the assassin of Floris V, a year earlier.


title: Golf

text: The modern game originated in Scotland, where the first written record of golf is James II's banning of the game in 1457, as an unwelcome distraction to learning archery. James IV lifted the ban in 1502 when he became a golfer himself, with golf clubs first recorded in 1503–1504: "For golf clubbes and balles to the King that he playit with". To many golfers, the Old Course at St Andrews, a links course dating to before 1574, is considered to be a site of pilgrimage. In 1764, the standard 18-hole golf course was created at St Andrews when members modified the course from 22 to 18 holes. Golf is documented as being played on Musselburgh Links, East Lothian, Scotland as early as 2 March 1672, which is certified as the oldest golf course in the world by "Guinness World Records". The oldest surviving rules of golf were compiled in March 1744 for the Company of Gentlemen Golfers, later renamed The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which was played at Leith, Scotland. The world's oldest golf tournament in existence, and golf's first major, is The Open Championship, which was first played on 17 October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club, in Ayrshire, Scotland, with Scottish golfers winning the earliest majors. Two Scotsmen from Dunfermline, John Reid and Robert Lockhart, first demonstrated golf in the U.S. by setting up a hole in an orchard in 1888, with Reid setting up America's first golf club the same year, Saint Andrew's Golf Club in Yonkers, New York.


title: Golf

text: A golf course consists of either 9 or 18 holes, each with a teeing ground or "tee box" that is set off by two markers showing the bounds of the legal tee area, fairway, rough and other hazards, and the putting green surrounded by the fringe with the pin (normally a flagstick) and cup.


title: Golf

text: The levels of grass are varied to increase difficulty, or to allow for putting in the case of the green. While many holes are designed with a direct line-of-sight from the teeing area to the green, some holes may bend either to the left or to the right. This is commonly called a "dogleg", in reference to a dog's knee. The hole is called a "dogleg left" if the hole angles leftwards and "dogleg right" if it bends right. Sometimes, a hole's direction may bend twice; this is called a "double dogleg".


title: Golf

text: A regular golf course consists of 18 holes, but nine-hole courses are common and can be played twice through for a full round of 18 holes.


title: Golf

text: Early Scottish golf courses were primarily laid out on links land, soil-covered sand dunes directly inland from beaches. The word "links" derives from the Scots language and the Old English word "hlinc" ("rising ground, ridge"): traditionally these are coastal sand dunes but sometimes open parkland. This gave rise to the term "golf links", particularly applied to seaside courses and those built on naturally sandy soil inland.


title: Golf

text: The first 18-hole golf course in the United States was on a sheep farm in Downers Grove, Illinois, in 1892. The course is still there today.


title: Golf

text: Every round of golf is based on playing a number of holes in a given order. A "round" typically consists of 18 holes that are played in the order determined by the course layout. Each hole is played once in the round on a standard course of 18 holes. The game can be played by any number of people, although a typical group will have 1–4 people playing the round. The typical amount of time required for pace of play is two hours for a 9-hole round and four hours for an 18-hole round.


title: Golf

text: Playing a hole on a golf course is initiated by putting a ball into play by striking it with a club on the teeing ground (also called the tee box, or simply the tee). For this first shot on each hole, it is allowed but not required for the golfer to place the ball on a tee prior to striking it. A tee is a small peg that can be used to elevate the ball slightly above the ground up to a few centimetres high. Tees are commonly made of wood but may be constructed of any material, including plastic. Traditionally, golfers used mounds of sand to elevate the ball, and containers of sand were provided for the purpose. A few courses still require sand to be used instead of peg tees, to reduce litter and reduce damage to the teeing ground. Tees help reduce the interference of the ground or grass on the movement of the club making the ball easier to hit, and also places the ball in the very centre of the striking face of the club (the "sweet spot") for better distance.


title: Golf

text: When the initial shot on a hole is intended to move the ball a long distance, typically more than , the shot is commonly called a "drive" and is generally made with a long-shafted, large-headed wood club called a "driver". Shorter holes may be initiated with other clubs, such as higher-numbered woods or irons. Once the ball comes to rest, the golfer strikes it again as many times as necessary using shots that are variously known as a "lay-up", an "approach", a "pitch", or a "chip", until the ball reaches the green, where the golfer then "putts" the ball into the hole (commonly called "sinking the putt" or "holing out"). The goal of getting the ball into the hole ("holing" the ball) in as few strokes as possible may be impeded by obstacles such as areas of longer grass called "rough" (usually found alongside fairways), which both slows any ball that contacts it and makes it harder to advance a ball that has stopped on it; "doglegs", which are changes in the direction of the fairway that often require shorter shots to play around them; bunkers (or sand traps); and water hazards such as ponds or streams.


title: Golf

text: In stroke play competitions played according to strict rules, each player plays their ball until it is holed no matter how many strokes that may take. In match play it is acceptable to simply pick up one's ball and "surrender the hole" after enough strokes have been made by a player that it is mathematically impossible for the player to win the hole. It is also acceptable in informal stroke play to surrender the hole after hitting three strokes more than the "par" rating of the hole (a "triple bogey" – see below); while technically a violation of Rule 3–2, this practice speeds play as a courtesy to others, and avoids "runaway scores" and excessive frustration.


title: Golf

text: The total distance from the first teeing ground to the 18th green can be quite long; total yardages "through the green" can be in excess of , and when adding in the travel distance between the green of one hole and the tee of the next, even skilled players may easily travel or more during a round. At some courses, electric golf carts are used to travel between shots, which can speed-up play and allows participation by individuals unable to walk a whole round. On other courses players generally walk the course, either carrying their bag using a shoulder strap or using a "golf trolley" for their bag. These trolleys may or may not be battery assisted. At many amateur tournaments including U.S. high school and college play, players are required to walk and to carry their own bags, but at the professional and top amateur level, as well as at high-level private clubs, players may be accompanied by caddies, who carry and manage the players' equipment and who are allowed by the rules to give advice on the play of the course.


title: Golf

text: The rules of golf are internationally standardised and are jointly governed by The R&A, spun off in 2004 from The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (founded 1754), and the United States Golf Association (USGA). With the aim of simplifying the rules, in 2017 the USGA and R&A undertook a complete rewrite. The new rule book came into effect in January 2019.


title: Golf

text: The underlying principle of the rules is fairness. As stated on the back cover of the official rule book:


title: Golf

text: There are strict regulations regarding the amateur status of golfers. Essentially, anybody who has ever received payment or compensation for giving instruction, or played golf for money, is not considered an amateur and may not participate in competitions limited solely to amateurs. However, amateur golfers may receive expenses that comply with strict guidelines and they may accept non-cash prizes within the limits established by the Rules of Amateur Status.


title: Golf

text: In addition to the officially printed rules, golfers also abide by a set of guidelines called golf etiquette. Etiquette guidelines cover matters such as safety, fairness, pace of play, and a player's obligation to contribute to the care of the course. Though there are no penalties for breach of etiquette rules, players generally follow the rules of golf etiquette in an effort to improve everyone's playing experience.


title: Golf

text: Penalty strokes are incurred in certain situations and are counted towards a player's score as if there were extra swing(s) at the ball. Either one or two strokes are added for most rule infractions or for taking relief from various situations, with the "general penalty" defined as two-strokes, and disqualification for severe or repeated rule breaches. Examples include:


title: Golf

text: Golf clubs are used to hit the golf ball. Each club is composed of a shaft with a lance (or "grip") on the top end and a club head on the bottom. Long clubs, which have a lower amount of degree loft, are those meant to propel the ball a comparatively longer distance, and short clubs a higher degree of loft and a comparatively shorter distance. The actual physical length of each club is longer or shorter, depending on the distance the club is intended to propel the ball.


title: Golf

text: Golf clubs have traditionally been arranged into three basic types. Woods are large-headed, long-shafted clubs meant to propel the ball a long distance from relatively "open" lies, such as the teeing ground and fairway. Of particular importance is the "driver" or "1-wood", which is the lowest lofted wood club, and in modern times has become highly specialized for making extremely long-distance tee shots, up to , or more, in a professional golfer's hands. Traditionally these clubs had heads made of a hardwood, hence the name, but virtually all modern woods are now made of metal such as titanium, or of composite materials. Irons are shorter-shafted clubs with a metal head primarily consisting of a flat, angled striking face. Traditionally the clubhead was forged from iron; modern iron clubheads are investment-cast from a steel alloy. Irons of varying loft are used for a variety of shots from virtually anywhere on the course, but most often for shorter-distance shots approaching the green, or to get the ball out of tricky lies such as sand traps. The third class is the putter, which evolved from the irons to create a low-lofted, balanced club designed to roll the ball along the green and into the hole. Putters are virtually always used on the green or in the surrounding rough/fringe. A fourth class, called hybrids, evolved as a cross between woods and irons, and are typically seen replacing the low-lofted irons with a club that provides similar distance, but a higher launch angle and a more forgiving nature.


title: Golf

text: A maximum of 14 clubs is allowed in a player's bag at one time during a stipulated round. The choice of clubs is at the golfer's discretion, although every club must be constructed in accordance with parameters outlined in the rules. (Clubs that meet these parameters are usually called "conforming".) Violation of these rules can result in disqualification.


title: Golf

text: The exact shot hit at any given time on a golf course, and which club is used to accomplish the shot, are always completely at the discretion of the golfer; in other words, there is no restriction whatsoever on which club a golfer may or may not use at any time for any shot.


title: Golf

text: Golf balls are spherical, usually white (although other colours are allowed), and minutely pock-marked by dimples that decrease aerodynamic drag by increasing air turbulence around the ball in motion, which delays "boundary layer" separation and reduces the drag-inducing "wake" behind the ball,


title: Golf

text: thereby allowing the ball to fly farther. The combination of a soft "boundary layer" and a hard "core" enables both distance and spin.


title: Golf

text: A tee is allowed only for the first stroke on each hole, unless the player must hit a provisional tee shot or replay their first shot from the tee.


title: Golf

text: Many golfers wear golf shoes with metal or plastic spikes designed to increase traction, thus allowing for longer and more accurate shots.


title: Golf

text: A golf bag is used to transport golf clubs and the player's other or personal equipment. Golf bags have several pockets designed for carrying equipment and supplies such as tees, balls, and gloves. Golf bags can be carried, pulled on a trolley or harnessed to a motorized golf cart during play. Golf bags usually have both a hand strap and shoulder strap for carrying, others may be carried over both shoulders like a backpack, and often bags have retractable legs that allow the bag to stand upright when at rest.


title: Golf

text: The golf swing is outwardly similar to many other motions involving swinging a tool or playing implement, such as an axe or a baseball bat. However, unlike many of these motions, the result of the swing is highly dependent on several sub-motions being properly aligned and timed. These ensure that the club travels up to the ball in line with the desired path; that the clubface is in line with the swing path; and that the ball hits the centre or "sweet spot" of the clubface. The ability to do this consistently, across a complete set of clubs with a wide range of shaft lengths and clubface areas, is a key skill for any golfer, and takes a significant effort to achieve.


title: Golf

text: Stance refers to how the golfer positions themselves in order to play a stroke; it is fundamentally important in being able to play a stroke effectively. The stance adopted is determined by what stroke is being played. All stances involve a slight crouch. This allows for a more efficient striking posture whilst also isometrically preloading the muscles of the legs and core; this allows the stroke to be played more dynamically and with a greater level of overall control. When adopting their stance golfers start with the non-dominant side of the body facing the target (for a right-hander, the target is to their left). Setting the stance in regard to the position of the ball, and placing the clubhead behind the ball, is known as being at address; when in this position the player's body and the centerline of the club face are positioned parallel to the desired line of travel, with the feet either perpendicular to that line or slightly splayed outward. The feet are commonly shoulder-width apart for middle irons and putters, narrower for short irons and wider for long irons and woods. The ball is typically positioned more to the "front" of the player's stance (closer to the leading foot) for lower-lofted clubs, with the usual ball position for a drive being just behind the arch of the leading foot. The ball is placed further "back" in the player's stance (toward the trailing foot) as the loft of the club to be used increases. Most iron shots and putts are made with the ball roughly centered in the stance, while a few mid- and short-iron shots are made with the ball slightly behind the centre of the stance to ensure consistent contact between the ball and clubface, so the ball is on its way before the club continues down into the turf.


title: Golf

text: Having chosen a club and stroke to produce the desired distance, the player addresses the ball by taking their stance to the side of it and (except when the ball lies in a hazard) grounding the club behind the ball. The golfer then takes their backswing, rotating the club, their arms and their upper body away from the ball, and then begins their swing, bringing the clubhead back down and around to hit the ball. A proper golf swing is a complex combination of motions, and slight variations in posture or positioning can make a great deal of difference in how well the ball is hit and how straight it travels. The general goal of a player making a full swing is to propel the clubhead as fast as possible while maintaining a single "plane" of motion of the club and clubhead, to send the clubhead into the ball along the desired path of travel and with the clubhead also pointing that direction.


title: Golf

text: Accuracy and consistency are typically stressed over pure distance. A player with a straight drive that travels only will nevertheless be able to accurately place the ball into a favourable lie on the fairway, and can make up for the lesser distance of any given club by simply using "more club" (a lower loft) on their tee shot or on subsequent fairway and approach shots. However, a golfer with a drive that may go but often does not fly straight will be less able to position their ball advantageously; the ball may "hook", "pull", "draw", "fade", "push" or "slice" off the intended line and land out of bounds or in the rough or hazards, and thus the player will require many more strokes to hole out.


title: Golf

text: A golf stroke uses the muscles of the core (especially erector spinae muscles and latissimus dorsi muscle when turning), hamstring, shoulder, and wrist. Stronger muscles in the wrist can prevent them from being twisted during swings, whilst stronger shoulders increase the turning force. Weak wrists can also transmit the force to elbows and even neck and lead to injury. (When a muscle contracts, it pulls equally from both ends and, to have movement at only one end of the muscle, other muscles must come into play to stabilize the bone to which the other end of the muscle is attached.) Golf is a unilateral exercise that can break body balances, requiring exercises to keep the balance in muscles.


title: Golf

text: Putting is considered to be the most important component of the game of golf. As the game of golf has evolved, there have been many different putting techniques and grips that have been devised to give golfers the best chance to make putts. When the game originated, golfers would putt with their dominant hand on the bottom of the grip and their weak hand on top of the grip. This grip and putting style is known as "conventional". There are many variations of conventional including overlap, where the golfer overlaps the off hand index finger onto off the dominant pinky; interlock, where the offhand index finger interlocks with the dominant pinky and ring finger; double or triple overlap and so on. Recently, "cross handed" putting has become a popular trend amongst professional golfers and amateurs. Cross handed putting is the idea that the dominant hand is on top of the grip where the weak hand is on the bottom. This grip restricts the motion in your dominant hand and eliminates the possibility of wrist breakdowns through the putting stroke.


title: Golf

text: Other notable putting styles include "the claw", a style that has the grip directly in between the thumb and index finger of the dominant hand while the palm faces the target. The weak hand placed normally on the putter. Anchored putting, a style that requires a longer putter shaft that can be anchored into the player's stomach or below the chin; the idea is to stabilize one end of the putter thus creating a more consistent pendulum stroke. This style has been banned on professional circuits since 2016.


title: Golf

text: A hole is classified by its par, which gives an indication of the number of strokes a skilled golfer may be expected to need to complete play of the hole. The primary factor for classifying the par of a relatively straight, hazard-free hole is the distance from the tee to the green, and calculates the number of strokes a skilled golfer is expected to require to reach the green with an additional allowance of 2 putts. As such, the minimum par of any hole is 3; one stroke for the tee shot and two putts. Par 3, 4 and 5 holes are commonplace on golf courses; far more rarely, courses may feature par-6 and even par-7 holes.


title: Golf

text: For men, a typical par-3 hole is less than in length, with a par-4 hole ranging between , and a par-5 hole being longer than ; for women these boundaries are lower, and for professionals they are much increased. The rare par-6s can stretch well over . These distances are based on the typical scratch golfer's drive distance of between . Although length is the primary factor in calculating par, other factors are taken into account; however the number of strokes a scratch golfer should take to make the green remains foremost. Factors affecting the calculation include altitude, gradient of the land from the tee to green, and forced "lay-ups" due to dog-legs (sharp bends) or obstacles (e.g. bunkers, water hazards).


title: Golf

text: Getting the ball onto the green in two strokes less than par, and hence meeting the par calculation criteria, is called making "green in regulation" or GIR. Missing a GIR does not necessarily mean a golfer will not make par, but it does make doing so more difficult as it reduces the number of putts available; conversely, making a GIR does not guarantee a par, as the player might require three or more putts to "hole out". Professional golfers typically make between 60% and 70% of greens in regulation.


title: Golf

text: Eighteen-hole courses typically total to an overall par score of 70 to 72 for a complete round; with most holes having a par of 4, and a smaller number of par-3 and par-5 holes. Additionally, courses may be classified according to their play difficulty, which may be used to calculate a golfer's handicap. The two primary difficulty ratings in the U.S. are the Course Rating, which is the expected score for a zero-handicap "scratch golfer", and the Slope Rating, which is a measure of how much worse a "bogey golfer" (handicap around 20) would be expected to play than a "scratch golfer" relative to their handicap.


title: Golf

text: The goal is to play as few strokes per round as possible. A golfer's number of strokes in a hole, course, or tournament is compared to its respective par score, and is then reported either as the number that the golfer was "under-" or "over-par", or if it was "equal to par". A hole in one (or an "ace") occurs when a golfer sinks their ball into the cup with their first stroke from the tee. Common scores for a hole also have specific terms.


title: Golf

text: In a typical professional tournament or among "scratch" amateur players, "birdie-bogey" play is common; a player will "lose" a stroke by bogeying a hole, then "gain" one by scoring a birdie. Eagles are uncommon but not rare; however, only 18 players have scored an albatross in a men's major championship. One of the rarest feats in golf is the condor, which has never occurred in a professional tournament. Only five condors have been verified to have ever occurred, although none of the courses involved were professionally accredited.


title: Golf

text: Two players (or two teams) play each hole as a separate contest against each other in what is called match play. The party with the lower score wins that hole, or if the scores of both players or teams are equal the hole is "halved" (or tied). The game is won by the party that wins more holes than the other. In the case that one team or player has taken a lead that cannot be overcome in the number of holes remaining to be played, the match is deemed to be won by the party in the lead, and the remainder of the holes are not played. For example, if one party already has a lead of six holes, and only five holes remain to be played on the course, the match is over and the winning party is deemed to have won "6 & 5". At any given point, if the lead is equal to the number of holes remaining, the party leading the match is said to be "dormie", and the match is continued until the party increases the lead by one hole or ties any of the remaining holes, thereby winning the match, or until the match ends in a tie with the lead player's opponent winning all remaining holes. When the game is tied after the predetermined number of holes have been played, it may be continued until one side takes a one-hole lead.


title: Golf

text: The score achieved for each and every hole of the round or tournament is added to produce the total score, and the player with the lowest score wins in stroke play. Stroke play is the game most commonly played by professional golfers. If there is a tie after the regulation number of holes in a professional tournament, a playoff takes place between all tied players. Playoffs either are sudden death or employ a pre-determined number of holes, anywhere from three to a full 18. In sudden death, a player who scores lower on a hole than all of their opponents wins the match. If at least two players remain tied after such a playoff using a pre-determined number of holes, then play continues in sudden death format, where the first player to win a hole wins the tournament.


title: Golf

text: There are many variations in scoring and playing formats in the game of golf, some officially defined in the Rules of Golf. Variations include the popular Stableford scoring system, and various team formats. Some common and popular examples are listed below.


title: Golf

text: There are also variations on the usual starting procedure where everyone begins from the first tee and plays all holes in order, through to the eighteenth. In large field tournaments, especially on professional tours, a two tee start is commonplace, where the field will be split between starting on the first tee and the tenth tee (sometimes the eighth or eleventh depending on proximity to the clubhouse). Shotgun starts are mainly used for amateur tournament or society play. In this variant, each of the groups playing starts their game on a different hole, allowing for all players to start and end their round at roughly the same time. For example, a group starting on hole 5 will play through to the 18th hole and continue with hole 1, ending their round on hole 4.


title: Golf

text: A bogey or par competition is a scoring format sometimes seen in informal tournaments. Its scoring is similar to match play, except each player compares their hole score to the hole's par rating instead of the score of another player. The player "wins" the hole if they score a birdie or better, they "lose" the hole if they score a bogey or worse, and they "halve" the hole by scoring par. By recording only this simple win–loss–halve score on the sheet, a player can shrug off a very poorly-played hole with a simple "-" mark and move on. As used in competitions, the player or pair with the best win–loss differential wins the competition.


title: Golf

text: The Stableford system is a simplification of stroke play that awards players points based on their score relative to the hole's par; the score for a hole is calculated by taking the par score, adding 2, then subtracting the player's hole score, making the result zero if negative. Alternately stated, a double bogey or worse is zero points, a bogey is worth one point, par is two, a birdie three, an eagle four, and so on. The advantages of this system over stroke play are a more natural "higher is better" scoring, the ability to compare Stableford scores between plays on courses with different total par scores (scoring an "even" in stroke play will always give a Stableford score of 36), discouraging the tendency to abandon the entire game after playing a particularly bad hole (a novice playing by strict rules may score as high as an 8 or 10 on a single difficult hole; their Stableford score for the hole would be zero, which puts them only two points behind par no matter how badly they played), and the ability to simply pick up one's ball once it is impossible to score any points for the hole, which speeds play.


title: Golf

text: The USGA and R&A sanction a "Modified Stableford" system for scratch players, which makes par worth zero, a birdie worth 2, eagle 5 and double-eagle 8, while a bogey is a penalty of −1 and a double-bogey or worse −3. As with the original system, the highest score wins the game, and terrible scores on one or two holes will not ruin a player's overall score, but this system rewards "bogey-birdie" play more than the original, encouraging golfers to try to make riskier birdie putt or eagle chipshots instead of simply parring each hole.


title: Golf

text: A handicap is a numerical measure of a golfer's potential scoring ability over 18 holes. It is used to enable players of widely varying abilities to compete against one another. Better players are those with the lowest handicaps, and someone with a handicap of 0 or less is often referred to as a "scratch golfer". Handicap systems vary throughout the world and use different methods to assess courses and calculate handicaps. In order to address difficulties in translating between these systems the USGA and The R&A, working with the various existing handicapping authorities, devised a new "World Handicap System" which was introduced globally starting in 2020.


title: Golf

text: Golf courses are assessed and rated according to the average good score of a scratch golfer, taking into account a multitude of factors affecting play, such as length, obstacles, undulations, etc. A player's handicap gives an indication of the number of strokes above this course rating that the player will make over the course of an "average best" round of golf, i.e. scoring near their potential, above average. Lower handicap players are generally the most consistent, so can be expected to play to this standard or better more often than higher handicappers. Some handicap systems also account for differences in scoring difficulty between low and high handicap golfer. They do this by means of assessing and rating courses according to the average good score of a "bogey golfer", a player with a handicap of around 20. This is used with the course rating to calculate a slope rating, which is used to adjust golfer's handicap to produce a "playing handicap" for the course and set of tees being used.


title: Golf

text: Handicap systems have potential for abuse by players who may intentionally play badly to increase their handicap (sandbagging) before playing to their potential at an important event with a valuable prize. For this reason, handicaps are not used in professional golf, but they can still be calculated and used along with other criteria to determine the relative strengths of various professional players. Touring professionals, being the best of the best, have negative handicaps; they can be expected, more often than not, to score lower than the Course Rating on any course.


title: Golf

text: In 2005 "Golf Digest" calculated that the countries with most golf courses per capita, in order, were: Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England (countries with fewer than 500,000 people were excluded).


title: Golf

text: The number of courses in other territories has increased, an example of this being the expansion of golf in China. The first golf course in China opened in 1984, but by the end of 2009, there were roughly 600 in the country. For much of the 21st century, the development of new golf courses in China has been officially banned (with the exception of the island province of Hainan), but the number of courses had nonetheless tripled from 2004 to 2009; the "ban" has been evaded with the government's tacit approval simply by not mentioning golf in any development plans.


title: Golf

text: In the United States, women made up 25 percent of golfers in 2021, which was up from 19 percent since 2011 and junior female golfers account for 35 percent or 1.1 million golfers.


title: Golf

text: In the United States, the number of people who play golf twenty-five times or more per year decreased from 6.9 million in 2000 to 4.6 million in 2005, according to the National Golf Foundation. The NGF reported that the number who played golf at all decreased from 30 to 26 million over the same period.


title: Golf

text: In February 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first person to golf anywhere other than Earth. He smuggled a golf club and two golf balls on board Apollo 14 with the intent to golf on the Moon. He attempted two drives. He shanked the first attempt, but it is estimated his second went more than .


title: Golf

text: The majority of professional golfers work as club or teaching professionals ("pros"), and only compete in local competitions. A small elite of professional golfers are "tournament pros" who compete full-time on international "tours". Many club and teaching professionals working in the golf industry start as caddies or with a general interest in the game, finding employment at golf courses and eventually moving on to certifications in their chosen profession. These programs include independent institutions and universities, and those that eventually lead to a Class A golf professional certification. Touring professionals typically start as amateur players, who attain their "pro" status after success in major tournaments that win them either prize money and/or notice from corporate sponsors. Jack Nicklaus, for example, gained widespread notice by finishing second in the 1960 U.S. Open to champion Arnold Palmer, with a 72-hole score of 282 (the best score to date in that tournament by an amateur). He played one more amateur year in 1961, winning that year's U.S. Amateur Championship, before turning pro in 1962.


title: Golf

text: Golf instruction involves the teaching and learning of the game of golf. Proficiency in teaching golf instruction requires not only technical and physical ability but also knowledge of the rules and etiquette of the game. In some countries, golf instruction is best performed by teachers certified by the Professional Golfers Association. Some top instructors who work with professional golfers have become quite well known in their own right. Professional golf instructors can use physical conditioning, mental visualization, classroom sessions, club fitting, driving range instruction, on-course play under real conditions, and review of videotaped swings in slow motion to teach golf to prepare the golfer for the course.


title: Golf

text: There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run by a Professional Golfers Association or an independent tour organization, which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Typically a tour has "members" who are entitled to compete in most of its events, and also invites non-members to compete in some of them. Gaining membership of an elite tour is highly competitive, and most professional golfers never achieve it.


title: Golf

text: Perhaps the most widely known tour is the PGA Tour, which tends to attract the strongest fields, outside the four Majors and the four World Golf Championships events. This is due mostly to the fact that most PGA Tour events have a first prize of at least 800,000 USD. The European Tour, which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America, ranks second to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige. Some top professionals from outside North America play enough tournaments to maintain membership on both the PGA Tour and European Tour. Since 2010, both tours' money titles have been claimed by the same individual three times, with Luke Donald doing so in 2011 and Rory McIlroy in 2012 and 2014. In 2013, Henrik Stenson won the FedEx Cup points race on the PGA Tour and the European Tour money title, but did not top the PGA Tour money list (that honour going to Tiger Woods).


title: Golf

text: The other leading men's tours include the Japan Golf Tour, the Asian Tour (Asia outside Japan), the PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Sunshine Tour (based in southern Africa, primarily South Africa). The Japan, Australasian, Sunshine, PGA, and European Tours are the charter members of the trade body of the world's main tours, the International Federation of PGA Tours, founded in 1996. The Asian Tour became a full member in 1999. The Canadian Tour became an associate member of the Federation in 2000, and the Tour de las Américas (Latin America) became an associate member of the Federation in 2007. The Federation underwent a major expansion in 2009 that saw eleven new tours become full members – the Canadian Tour, Tour de las Américas, China Golf Association, the Korea Professional Golfers' Association, Professional Golf Tour of India, and the operators of all six major women's tours worldwide. In 2011, the Tour de las Américas was effectively taken over by the PGA Tour, and in 2012 was folded into the new PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Also in 2012, the Canadian Tour was renamed PGA Tour Canada after it agreed to be taken over by the PGA Tour. All men's tours that are Federation members, except the India tour, offer points in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) to players who place sufficiently high in their events.


title: Golf

text: Golf is unique in having lucrative competition for older players. There are several senior tours for men aged fifty and over, arguably the best known of which is the U.S.-based PGA Tour Champions.


title: Golf

text: There are six principal tours for women, each based in a different country or continent. The most prestigious of these is the United States-based LPGA Tour. All of the principal tours offer points in the Women's World Golf Rankings for high finishers in their events.


title: Golf

text: All of the leading professional tours for under-50 players have an official developmental tour, in which the leading players at the end of the season will earn a tour card on the main tour for the following season. Examples include the Korn Ferry Tour, which feeds to the PGA Tour, and the Challenge Tour, which is the developmental tour of the European Tour. The Korn Ferry and Challenge Tours also offer OWGR points.


title: Golf

text: The major championships are the four most prestigious men's tournaments of the year. In chronological order they are: The Masters, the U.S. Open, The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open) and the PGA Championship.


title: Golf

text: The fields for these events include the top several dozen golfers from all over the world. The Masters has been played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, since its inception in 1934. It is the only major championship that is played at the same course each year. The U.S. Open and PGA Championship are played at courses around the United States, while the Open Championship is played at courses around the United Kingdom.


title: Golf

text: Prior to the advent of the PGA Championship and The Masters, the four Majors were the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the Open Championship, and the British Amateur.


title: Golf

text: Women's golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors. The list of majors recognised by the dominant women's tour, the LPGA Tour in the U.S., has changed several times over the years, with the most recent changes occurring in 2001 and 2013. Like the PGA Tour, the (U.S.) LPGA tour long had four majors, but now has five: the Chevron Championship (previously known by several other names, most recently the ANA Inspiration), the Women's PGA Championship (previously known as the LPGA Championship), the U.S. Women's Open, the Women's British Open (which replaced the du Maurier Classic as a major in 2001) and The Evian Championship (added as the fifth major in 2013). Only the last two are also recognised as majors by the Ladies European Tour. However, the significance of this is limited, as the LPGA is far more dominant in women's golf than the PGA Tour is in mainstream men's golf. For example, the BBC has been known to use the U.S. definition of "women's majors" without qualifying it. Also, the Ladies' Golf Union, the governing body for women's golf in Great Britain and Ireland, stated on its official website that the Women's British Open was "the only Women's Major to be played outside the U.S." (this was before the elevation of The Evian Championship to major status).


title: Golf

text: For many years, the Ladies European Tour tacitly acknowledged the dominance of the LPGA Tour by not scheduling any of its own events to conflict with the three LPGA majors played in the U.S., but that changed beginning in 2008, when the LET scheduled an event opposite the LPGA Championship. The second-richest women's tour, the LPGA of Japan Tour, does not recognise any of the U.S. LPGA or European majors as it has its own set of majors (historically three, since 2008 four). However, these events attract little notice outside Japan.


title: Golf

text: Senior (aged fifty and over) men's golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors. The list of senior majors on the U.S.-based PGA Tour Champions has changed over the years, but always by expansion. PGA Tour Champions now recognises five majors: the Senior PGA Championship, The Tradition, the Senior Players Championship, the United States Senior Open, and The Senior (British) Open Championship.


title: Golf

text: Of the five events, the Senior PGA is by far the oldest, having been founded in 1937. The other events all date from the 1980s, when senior golf became a commercial success as the first golf stars of the television era, such as Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, reached the relevant age. The Senior Open Championship was not recognised as a major by PGA Tour Champions until 2003. The European Senior Tour recognises only the Senior PGA and the two Senior Opens as majors. However, PGA Tour Champions is arguably more dominant in global senior golf than the U.S. LPGA is in global women's golf.


title: Golf

text: Golf was featured in the Summer Olympic Games official programme in 1900 and 1904. After a 112-year absence, golf returned for the 2016 Rio Games. The International Golf Federation (IGF) is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the world governing body for golf.


title: Golf

text: It was not until 1552 that the first woman golfer played the game. Mary Queen of Scots commissioned St. Andrew's Links. However, it was not until the 20th century that women were taken seriously and eventually broke the "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden" rule. Many men saw women as unfit to play the sport due to their supposed lack of strength and ability.


title: Golf

text: In 1891 the newly built Shinnecock Hills nine-hole course in Southampton, New York became the first club to offer membership to women golfers. Four years later, in 1895, The U.S. Golf Association held the first Women's Amateur Championship tournament.


title: Golf

text: Just like professional golfer Bobby Jones, Joyce Wethered was considered to be a star in the 1920s. Jones praised Wethered in 1930 after they had played an exhibition against each other. He doubted that there had ever been a better golfer, man or woman. However, Bobby Jones' comment was not enough for others to change their views on women golfers.


title: Golf

text: The Royal Liverpool's club refused entry of Sir Henry Cotton's wife into the clubhouse in the late 1940s. The secretary of the club released a statement saying, "No woman ever has entered the clubhouse and, praise God, no woman ever will." However, American golfer and all-around athlete Babe Zaharias did not have to enter the clubhouse. She was able to prove herself on the course, going on to become the first American to win the British Women's Amateur title in 1947. The following year she became the first woman to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, but her application was rejected by the USGA. They stated that the event was intended to be open to men only.


title: Golf

text: The Ladies Professional Golf Association was formed in 1950 as a way to popularize the sport and provide competitive opportunities for golfers. The competitions were not the same for the men and women. It was not until 1972 that U.S. Congress passed the Title IX of the Education Amendments. "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activities receiving Federal financial assistance." American Renee Powell moved to the UK in the 1970s to further her career, and became the first woman to play in a British men's tournament in 1977.


title: Golf

text: As of 2016, women golfers were still fighting to have the same opportunities as male golfers. There is still a significant pay gap in the USGA. The USGA has a long history of awarding more prize money to winners of the men's U.S. Open than the U.S. Women's Open.


title: Veronica Mars

text: Veronica Mars is an American teen noir mystery drama television series created by screenwriter Rob Thomas. The series is set in the fictional town of Neptune, California, and stars Kristen Bell as the eponymous character. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW, airing for three seasons total. "Veronica Mars" was produced by Warner Bros. Television, Silver Pictures Television, Stu Segall Productions, and Rob Thomas Productions. Joel Silver and Thomas were executive producers for the entire run of the series, while Diane Ruggiero was promoted in the third season.


title: Veronica Mars

text: The character Veronica Mars is a student who progresses from high school to college while moonlighting as a private investigator under the tutelage of her detective father. In each episode, Veronica solves a different stand-alone case while working to solve a more complex mystery. The first two seasons of the series each had a season-long mystery arc, introduced in the first episode of the season and solved in the season finale. The third season took a different format, focusing on smaller mystery arcs that would last several episodes.


title: Veronica Mars

text: Thomas initially wrote "Veronica Mars" as a young adult novel, which featured a male protagonist; he changed this because he thought a noir piece told from a female point of view would be more interesting and original. Filming began in March 2004, and the series premiered in September to 2.49 million American viewers. The critically acclaimed first season's run of 22 episodes garnered an average of 2.5 million viewers per episode in the United States. The series appeared on several fall television best lists and garnered awards and nominations. During the series' run, it was nominated for two Satellite Awards, four Saturn Awards, five Teen Choice Awards and was featured on AFI's TV Programs of the Year for 2005.


title: Veronica Mars

text: Following cancellation, Thomas wrote a feature film script continuing the series. Warner Bros. opted not to fund the project at the time. On March 13, 2013, Bell and Thomas launched a fundraising campaign to produce the film through Kickstarter and attained the $2 million goal in less than 11 hours. They accumulated over $5.7 million on Kickstarter. The film was released on March 14, 2014. An eight-episode fourth season was released on July 19, 2019 on Hulu.


title: Veronica Mars

text: Season 1 revolves around Veronica Mars, a high school student and private investigator in the fictional Southern California seaside town of Neptune. As the daughter of well-respected County Sheriff Keith Mars, Veronica's biggest life problem was getting dumped by her boyfriend, Duncan Kane, until the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane. After Lilly's murder, Veronica's life falls apart. Keith mistakenly accused Lilly's father, popular software billionaire Jake Kane, of involvement. When Mr. Kane is proven to be innocent, he has Keith ousted as sheriff in a recall election, who the corrupt Don Lamb then replaces. Veronica's mother, Lianne, develops a drinking problem and leaves town, never to return. Veronica's "09er" friends—wealthy students from the fictional 90909 ZIP Code—demand that she choose between them and her father; Veronica chooses her father. After losing the election for sheriff and ostracized by the entire community, Keith opens a private investigation agency, Mars Investigations, where Veronica works part-time. Veronica helps her father solve cases and conducts her investigations on behalf of schoolmates.


title: Veronica Mars

text: Veronica discovers evidence suggesting that Abel Koontz, the man imprisoned after confessing to Lilly's murder, is innocent. Veronica explores the murder case; she also works on other investigations, seeks her estranged mother's whereabouts, and copes with being raped during an 09er party after her drink was spiked. Veronica, no longer part of the school's wealthy and elite "in-crowd," makes some new friends: Wallace Fennel, Neptune High basketball star and new student; Eli "Weevil" Navarro, leader of the PCHers, a Latino biker gang; and Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie, Neptune High's resident computer genius. Using her friends' resources and those provided by her father and his contacts, Veronica gains a reputation for sleuthing and finds her skills in increasingly high demand at her school and the community. Things get more complicated when Veronica falls into a relationship with Lilly's ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls, who for a time held Veronica partly responsible for Lilly's death and went out of his way to harass her. It is eventually revealed that the one who killed Lilly was Aaron Echolls, Logan's father.


title: Veronica Mars

text: The second season begins with introducing two new cases: a bus accident that kills several of Veronica's classmates and the death of PCH gang member Felix Toombs. A school bus carrying six Neptune High students and a teacher plunges off a cliff, killing all but one passenger. Veronica, who was supposed to be on the bus, makes it her mission to discover why the bus crashed and who is responsible. Logan picks a fight with Weevil and the PCHers and ends up accused of killing Felix (a charge he denies). Through the season, Weevil becomes convinced of Logan's innocence, and they team up to find the real killer. This season shows Veronica's life returning to much the way it had been before Lilly's death: having broken up with Logan during the summer, she reunites with Duncan and is somewhat accepted by the 09ers. Her sleuthing sideline and tough persona keep her from fully assimilating into the wealthy crowd. 09ers Dick Casablancas and Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas deal with a gold-digging stepmother, Kendall Casablancas, with whom they are left when their father flees the country while under investigation for real estate fraud. Wallace discovers that his biological father is alive and takes a romantic interest in Jackie Cook, the daughter of baseball legend Terrence Cook who is investigated for the bus accident. Veronica discovers that the town mayor, who years ago coached a little league baseball team, sexually molested several team members, including Cassidy. In the finale, it is discovered that Cassidy is responsible for the bus accident and Veronica's rape, as well as a plane crash that kills the mayor (Veronica's dad was supposed to be on the plane, so she thinks he is dead). Veronica confronts Cassidy on the roof of the Neptune Grand hotel, where he tries to kill her. Logan saves her, but Cassidy dies by suicide.


title: Veronica Mars

text: Veronica, Logan, Wallace, Mac, and Dick are freshmen at Neptune's Hearst College in the third season. Two new regular main characters are introduced: Stosh "Piz" Piznarski and Parker Lee, Wallace and Mac's respective roommates. The first mystery is established when Parker becomes a victim of the Hearst serial rapist, a storyline carried over from the second season. Feeling guilty for not helping her and remembering her rape, Veronica works to catch the rapist. The next mystery, the murder of the College's Dean, commences in the same episode that the rapist is caught. Keith begins an adulterous affair with a married client, Wallace struggles to balance academics and sports, Mac begins dating again after previous failed relationships, and Dick has a breakdown and appeals to Logan for help. The season chronicles Veronica and Logan's failing attempts to maintain their relationship in the face of Veronica's increasing mistrust.


title: Veronica Mars

text: The fourth season opens in 2019, twelve years after the series finale and five following the film. Veronica is living with Logan in Neptune and still solving mysteries with Keith. A significant case arises when several Spring Break locations are bombed, with suspects including a State Congressman to a Mexican cartel.


title: Veronica Mars

text: The first season had seven regular characters. Kristen Bell portrayed the title character Veronica Mars, a high school junior and skilled private detective. Teddy Dunn played Duncan Kane, Veronica's ex-boyfriend and Lilly's brother. Jason Dohring played Logan Echolls, the "bad-boy" 09er, the son of an A-list actor. Percy Daggs III portrayed Wallace Fennel, Veronica's best friend and frequent partner in solving mysteries. Francis Capra portrayed Eli "Weevil" Navarro, the leader of the PCH Biker gang and Veronica's friend. Enrico Colantoni played Veronica's father Keith Mars, a private investigator and former Balboa County Sheriff. Sydney Tamiia Poitier played Mallory Dent, Veronica's journalism teacher at Neptune High. Although she was given series regular billing, Poitier appeared in only four episodes, but was given credit for seven. Poitier's removal from the series was rumored to be due to budget issues.