Teacher Discussion Forums

The phrase 'on the bubble' is defined as follows
in a dictionary:
'(of a sports player or team) last or among the last
awaiting news about qualifying for the final place in a competition'
The whole definition is Greek to me, especially 'qualifying for
the final place'.
Help me, please.
Thank you.

Suppose there is a golf tournament in which 200 people start playing. After the first 18 holes, they will "cut" 100 people. The people who are finished playing first know their scores and are put into a list. When they are in the bottom hundred, they cannot go to the next round. If some people are still playing and all the scores are not known, the people who are near the top of the bottom 100 still have a chance to get into the first 100 if some of the people who are still playing do poorly and drop into the bottom 100. Those are the people "on the bubble."

I see. Thank you very much for the
great information.