How adamant are you about enforcing the rules of golf on yourself, and others in your group?

**mosnas** · June 15, 2012

Not sure if this belonged here but after reading so much about rules I was wondering how you guys handle breaches in rules. Do you confront players if they broke a rule or do you just let it be and let them enjoy the round?

secondly to what point do you follow the rules when you golf on your own or with strangers?

**Golfingdad** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by mosnas

Not sure if this belonged here but after reading so much about rules I was wondering how you guys handle breaches in rules. Do you confront players if they broke a rule or do you just let it be and let them enjoy the round?

secondly to what point do you follow the rules when you golf on your own or with strangers?

Not adamant at all. Currently I do not play any competitions nor do I play for money against the people I play with. If they want to take mulligans, gimmes, preferred lies, I do not care.

Personally, I try to follow the rules fairly closely. The rules I will breach occasionally:

-If I hit one OB or lose a ball without realizing it until I get to where it landed, I do not walk back and re-hit.

-I will take short gimmes, and on some occasions if I try to putt out with an awkward stance on a short putt and miss, I sometimes don't count it.

-If I hit my first tee shot OB on a day when I didn't warm up at all on the range, I will take a mulligan.

-Not sure if this is against the rules, but I don't usually mark my ball if I'm not in somebodys way so before I go through my putting routine I will "mark" it with my putterhead and pick it up to rub dirt off it.

-Oh, and one thing I need to be more careful of is bumping my ball with the putterhead when I'm addressing the ball.

That's all I can think of for now.

**ejimsmith** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by mosnas

Not sure if this belonged here but after reading so much about rules I was wondering how you guys handle breaches in rules. Do you confront players if they broke a rule or do you just let it be and let them enjoy the round?

secondly to what point do you follow the rules when you golf on your own or with strangers?

a gentleman never accuses another gentleman of not being a gentleman.

/my game is my own, i could care less what others do. and i don't care about tournaments other than to just have fun with others.

**ejimsmith** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Not adamant at all. Currently I do not play any competitions nor do I play for money against the people I play with. If they want to take mulligans, gimmes, preferred lies, I do not care.

Personally, I try to follow the rules fairly closely. The rules I will breach occasionally:

-If I hit one OB or lose a ball without realizing it until I get to where it landed, I do not walk back and re-hit.

-I will take short gimmes, and on some occasions if I try to putt out with an awkward stance on a short putt and miss, I sometimes don't count it.

-If I hit my first tee shot OB on a day when I didn't warm up at all on the range, I will take a mulligan.

-Not sure if this is against the rules, but I don't usually mark my ball if I'm not in somebodys way so before I go through my putting routine I will "mark" it with my putterhead and pick it up to rub dirt off it.

-Oh, and one thing I need to be more careful of is bumping my ball with the putterhead when I'm addressing the ball.

That's all I can think of for now.

you sound like me because i follow the same set of rules.

**zeg** · June 15, 2012

It doesn't bother me whether the guys I'm playing with play by the rules. I generally notice one way or the other as a point of personal curiosity, but it doesn't change my opinion of them in any way. We're all just out to have fun.

As for myself, I play close to the rules but not exactly. If I'm playing by myself, I tend to stay closer to the rules. When with others, especially my Dad, I tend to relax things a bit just to give the social aspect a little more emphasis.

**mdl** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Not adamant at all. Currently I do not play any competitions nor do I play for money against the people I play with. If they want to take mulligans, gimmes, preferred lies, I do not care.

Personally, I try to follow the rules fairly closely. The rules I will breach occasionally:

-If I hit one OB or lose a ball without realizing it until I get to where it landed, I do not walk back and re-hit.

-I will take short gimmes, and on some occasions if I try to putt out with an awkward stance on a short putt and miss, I sometimes don't count it.

Sound pretty similar to me. The ones I left above are the only ones I really do. I only take really short gimmes, but like you I have been known to take a gimme but then take that rushed awkward stance swipe at the ball anyway and not actually put it in the hole, but then not count it as a miss.

**ApocG10** · June 15, 2012

I do not care what others do as long as it isn't competition.

But I get extremely angry when im playing with a stranger and they touch my ball on the green, to the point I tell every stranger I play with before hand, since early this year I hit a nice putt, about 3 inches from the cup, and the guy swings his putter, hits my ball to me, and says, 'Nice putt, I'll give you that'. I was upset, but told him politely to not touch my ball ever again, then replaced my ball to where he hit it from, and holed out.

This golfer became angry because I wasn't giving or taking 'gimmes'. Walked off the 18th, wouldn't shake my hand. Snide comments throughout the round. His friend did apologize to me for his behaviour, so at least one of them was a nice, friendly golfer.

**pixel5** · June 15, 2012

Hmm... there are some things we just don't care about. Like we allow giving ourselves a good lie (at least) when we hit the fairway because the courses here don't always have the best groundskeeping.

**mosnas** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Not adamant at all. Currently I do not play any competitions nor do I play for money against the people I play with. If they want to take mulligans, gimmes, preferred lies, I do not care.

Personally, I try to follow the rules fairly closely. The rules I will breach occasionally:

-If I hit one OB or lose a ball without realizing it until I get to where it landed, I do not walk back and re-hit.

-I will take short gimmes, and on some occasions if I try to putt out with an awkward stance on a short putt and miss, I sometimes don't count it.

-If I hit my first tee shot OB on a day when I didn't warm up at all on the range, I will take a mulligan.

-Not sure if this is against the rules, but I don't usually mark my ball if I'm not in somebodys way so before I go through my putting routine I will "mark" it with my putterhead and pick it up to rub dirt off it.

-Oh, and one thing I need to be more careful of is bumping my ball with the putterhead when I'm addressing the ball.

That's all I can think of for now.

I play very similar to you as I am sure most do. I especially like the mulligan off the first shot, as I don't warm up hardly at all before rounds.

Originally Posted by pixel5

Hmm... there are some things we just don't care about. Like we allow giving ourselves a good lie (at least) when we hit the fairway because the courses here don't always have the best groundskeeping.

This is a very good rule, and one that people don't appreciate till you play courses like my home course everyday. It is frustrating to have a perfect shot down the middle and end up in the middle of a dandelion or in a pothole.

**joekelly** · June 15, 2012

ApocG10, your comments often lead me to think that you have some 'anger control' issues. My experience is that better golf is found through a calm, unflappable, friendly personality and a smiley face.

**Ernest Jones** · June 15, 2012

I'm as strict with myself as possible, I figure it's hard enough dropping strokes that I want to know when I've actually done it! For example: shooting 96 with a couple mulligans and a few gimmes is not at all the same as shooting 96 following the rules. The one exception is stroke and distance on an OB or similar, I never walk back to hit a ball from its original spot because I don't want to hold everyone up. I think that's pretty common though.

As far as others in my group, I could care less how they follow or don't follow the rules.

**meenman** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by mosnas

Not sure if this belonged here but after reading so much about rules I was wondering how you guys handle breaches in rules. Do you confront players if they broke a rule or do you just let it be and let them enjoy the round?

secondly to what point do you follow the rules when you golf on your own or with strangers?

In my normal group, everyone comes to me with rules questions - once they ask, they have to deal with what I tell them.

They may miss or pick up a 2 footer and not count it - I am not going to harp on them - its irrelevant if they post a 113 instead of a 118.

When I golf with strangers it is in a tournament format and everyone is going to follow the rules - any questions, the pro is just a cell phone call away.

**Tuflehundon** · June 15, 2012

Don't play in any official games, so I really don't care. I never bet when I play either. A few of my friends have nice foot wedges.

**ApocG10** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by joekelly

ApocG10, your comments often lead me to think that you have some 'anger control' issues. My experience is that better golf is found through a calm, unflappable, friendly personality and a smiley face.

Im a fierce competitor. It was bred into me from the time I could walk by a sport loving family. Played hockey and baseball at fairly high levels. This may sound bad, but I wouldn't play golf if I couldn't improve constantly. There is no way I could be involved in a sport and not work to be my absolute best at it.

And dont get me wrong, I have no delusions of PGA/Nationwide/Euro tours or anything like that. But I will play competition golf provincially at a competitive level. While I wont predict any success, I will say that I would never tee off without the intention of winning.

Im in no way an 'angry person', but I generally don't compete to make friends. I practice hard and expect a lot of myself. When people do things that shock me, like hitting my ball with their putter befgore I putted out, it upsets me. I don't think anyone else gets to decide if I get a gimme. I make that decision, and its always no.

**WUTiger** · June 15, 2012

One problem I have with this is how to introduce new golfers to the rules of golf.

One advantage of golf clinics over one-on-one lessons is the clinics seem to tell newbies about the rules associated with different parts of the game.

A friend of mine started playing golf last year, and he kept forgetting that you can't carry 17 clubs when you play. Also, he didn't know how to mark a ball properly on a green. There's a chance he'll get invited to play in charity tournaments, and I don't want him to get a bad name because nobody told him the rules. But, I don't want to come off as the high school assistant principal when we play.

Any idea on how to handle rules education?

**turtleback** · June 15, 2012

Originally Posted by mosnas

Not sure if this belonged here but after reading so much about rules I was wondering how you guys handle breaches in rules. Do you confront players if they broke a rule or do you just let it be and let them enjoy the round?

secondly to what point do you follow the rules when you golf on your own or with strangers?

If we are talking about a casual round where I am not playing a match against someone then I don't really care what they do or how they count their score. The only time I would even mention a rule is when they have an option they don't seem to be aware of that would help them. For example, on my home course there is a local rule printed on the scorecard that sand areas at the base of Joshua trees are to be considered GUR and free relief taken. If someone in my group lies in one of those sand areas and they aren't taking a drop I will mention to them that the local rule entitles them to a drop.

OTOH, in a competition or if I am playing a match against someone then the rules apply - period. If it is a stroke play tournament then even if you don't care that much you have a positive obligation to protect the field. When playing a match I guess you could to not claim a hole you are entitled to because of an infraction by your opponent, but I prefer playing by the rules and would not do so.

**newtogolf** · June 15, 2012

If I'm not playing a practice round I follow all the rules I'm aware of. I don't worry about what other people in my group do, how they report their scores is on them.

**jimmizu** · June 15, 2012

On myself I'm very strict, on my buddies I'll answer their rules questions (I'm the only one who's been to a rules clinic) but don't call anyone out on anything. We are all adults, and are just playing for fun (usually) but I have noticed over the last couple years a much greater awareness of playing strictly by the rules . . . no problem with that.

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How adamant are you about enforcing the rules of golf on yourself, and others in your group?

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