What is the origin of phrase "first is worst, last is best?"?

It is something we as kids used to say when some kid was about to beat you at anything and you knew you were going or ended up losing at. I can’t remember ever saying it playing golf. The origin I can’t help you with.

First is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the very hairy chest. At least that’s how I learned it on the playground.

It’s funny, but something like this just came up in conversation this morning.

I was talking to a young woman who has been dating some young men after breaking up with her boyfriend of a few years in mid-summer. She mentioned that after a number of dates with different young men, she had found “the one”. (And this young woman has a lot on the ball; she’s bright and determined and has a – well-earned and totally apropos – healthy-good opinion of herself. So when she says she has found “the one”, I figure that this guy has something on the ball, himself.)

But … there’s a problem. SHE was his first date after a breakup of his own five-and-a-half-year serious relationship. So, though she was totally smitten with him, he told her that he’s “not ready for a relationship now”, and backed off. (But he did say nice things to her, and that he “hopes their paths cross again” in the future.) So, she’s not writing him off, but she’s not going to sit by the phone and pine over him, either. My suggestion to her was to wait a month or so and then send him a mock-angry letter (on paper) detailing the way he has “ruined her life” because she can’t find anyone with his sterling qualities. She felt a lot better having that as a plan. But I digress. I almost always do that. Quite often, the digressions are way better than anything I have to say in response to the question, so you should enjoy it while you get the chance.

Her comment to me after all that (and this is where we get back to your question; see, I nearly always come back to the point, too) was, “The first figure skater never gets a 10.” I thought that was a great observation. On the other hand, I have no idea what the last figure skater gets.

That’s how my pancakes turn out.

I think it’s a reference to the following passage in the Bible:

7When he (Jesus) noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Luke 14:7–11