If you get a hunch when your husband tells you he’s off to play golf and you’re suspicious he may be playing away, you could well be onto something.

A new piece of research reveals that telling your wife that you’re going for a few rounds of golf with your friends is the most popular excuse adulterers use when sneaking out to meet another woman.

The study found that 34 percent of unfaithful men said that they told their wife they were going to play 18 holes as a cover for their affair. Other popular excuses include “business meetings/ working late,” “going to the pub with mates,” “going to the gym” and “shopping for groceries.”

It’s a result that may surprise many, but expert Christian Grant explains why it shouldn’t.

“Saying that you’re going for a round of golf ticks all the boxes,” he said. “Firstly, it covers you for several hours, especially if you’re playing 18 holes and not 9.

“It’s also something you can do fairly consistently without raising too much suspicion. For example, your wife would eventually begin to question you if you kept citing business meetings as your excuse — how many business meetings can someone realistically have, and after work no less?”

He continued, “Thirdly, with golf a popular hobby among men, it’s much more likely that your wife will respect your space, especially if it’s your sole hobby — they’re far less likely to question their husband playing a sport than, say, going to the pub.

“And, finally, it’s also relatively weather-proof, as driving ranges still operate even when the weather is a little sour.”

A member from illicit-encounters.com, who commissioned the research, added, “It doesn’t require much effort, really. But if you do want to go the extra mile, you can dish out on some relatively low-cost golf clubs, and maybe some gloves too, and that adds enough believability to your story that you’ve nothing to worry about. “I don’t really know anything about golf, but neither does my wife, so if she ever asks me how it went, I can usually improvise my way through it by using some basic golf terminology like, ‘it was good, but the bogey on hole 15 cost me the victory.’ That usually does the trick.”

如果你丈夫说他去打高尔夫了，而直觉告诉你他可能出轨了，那你可能真有麻烦了。

一项新研究显示，男人要偷偷出门见另一个女人，最常用的借口就是告诉妻子要和朋友们去打几局高尔夫。

研究发现34%的出轨男性承认打高尔夫是他们用来搪塞妻子遮掩外遇的借口。

其他常用的借口有“开会/加班”、“和同事去酒吧”、“去健身房”和“买东西”。这个结果可能让很多人惊讶，但是专家克里斯蒂安•格兰特说这其实并不奇怪。

他说，一局高尔夫足以让谎言天衣无缝。“首先，打高尔夫要好几个小时，打标准的十八洞会比九洞时间更久。”

“而且这件事情可以持续地进行，不会引起太多怀疑。如果你一直拿开会当借口，你的妻子最终会开始怀疑：一个人怎么可能有这么多会，连下班后也不减少？”

他继续说：“第三，高尔夫是男人间流行的爱好。你的妻子更有可能因为你有这个爱好而尊重你的私人空间，尤其如果这是你唯一的爱好。如果丈夫是去运动而不是去酒吧，她们起疑心的几率会大大减少。”

“最后，打高尔夫相对更不受天气影

响。即使天气不好，练习场也是营业的。”来自illicitencounters.com网站的一位会员发起了此次研究，他补充道：“这没什么难的。如果你想装的更像一点，你可以花点钱加入相对便宜点的高尔夫俱乐部，买些不贵的球杆，或者再加几双便宜的手

套。这样你的故事就足够可信，没什么可担心的了。”

“我对高尔夫一无所知，但我的妻子也一样，所以要是她问我打得怎么样，我可以用一些基本的高尔夫术语搪塞她，比如说：‘嗯，很好，但是在15号洞打出了一个柏忌（比标准杆多一杆）’，让我错失了胜利。”(Chinadaily.com.cn)

   Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【直觉】zhíjué hunch an intuitive guess or feeling

    【更努力】gèng nǔlì go the extra mile do more and make a greater effort