Woman golfing

A golfer taking a swing, so it means golf, plain and simple. People send it to set up a round, to say where they are on a Sunday morning, to celebrate a good shot or a lucky putt, and to follow the big tournaments. It also carries golf's reputations: leisure, retirement, business deals done on the course and the stereotype of the golf-obsessed dad, so it turns up in jokes about all of those.

If golf is new to you: players hit a small ball from a starting spot (the tee) across grass toward a hole marked by a flag, trying to need as few strokes (hits) as possible. A full round is usually 18 holes and takes several hours, which is why a tee time (a booked start) is a real commitment. "Fore!" is the shout that warns people a ball is heading their way, and the "19th hole" is the clubhouse bar afterwards. Mini golf and driving ranges often borrow the same emoji.

What does it mean when someone sends it to you?

Usually a plan, a report or a brag about golf. With a time, it is an invitation or a confirmation: "Saturday 8am 🏌️". With a score or a photo, it is how the round went, good or terrible; golf is a sport people love complaining about, so 🏌️ next to an angry face is most likely a bad day on the course, not anger at you. From a retiree or a boss it often just means "out enjoying myself". Its tone is usually friendly, and it suits most chats with people who play.

Where did the golfer picture come from?

It was carried over from an older icon font. A 2012 Unicode conversion table maps a golfer picture from Webdings, a Microsoft symbol font, into standard text so the icon would survive moving between systems. The game is far older: Scotland's earliest written mention of golf is a 1457 Act of Parliament banning it, because it was keeping men from their required archery practice.