Picking the ball up and walking off the green!

Last night 2 golfers in my golf league who were in my  playing group had what I think is a violation of a rule. I am sure it is a violation, I just dont know which rule and what the penalty is.

my league play goes as follows, 2 golfers play a match. The match consists of both Stroke & match play.

2 points match play, 2 points stroke play.

Golfers tend to give "gimmies" when they are with in the putter grip (but not everyone concedes the putts)

Last night Golfer A was playing B in a match.

Golfer A reached the green in 2 (par 5), but had a 10ft uphill putt.

Golfer A made 4 attempts at putting. Each time the ball rolled down to its starting position.

Golfer A then without being conceded the putt by Golfer B, knocked the ball off the green.

Golfer A then walked off the green to his ball and threw the ball into the woods.

Golfer A scored it a 6 (on in 2, 4 putts). Golfer B did not argue it and allowed it to stand on the score card.

Being a friendly golf league there is no reason to argue with someone when they are ticked off, especially when it was not my match.

If it was my match I would have called him on it. However I am not sure how to score it and what rule was violated?

is it a 2 stroke penalty to put up your ball?

Therefore should have been an 8 not a 6?

I have to imagine you forfeit the hold in match play

If it was one of those holes were it is on the critical slope and the ball doesn't stay near the hole with in 3 feet then I would give him the putt after the 2nd attempt, max at a 3 putt. I can't stand those type of pin placements.

First the rules of Golf do not allow Stroke play and Match Play to be played at the same time.  Lot of reasons for this.  Your league has a format the rules do not allow, therefore it's somewhat difficult to correctly answer rules questions.

However,

As far as what happened, the player should have lost the hole in Match Play, but because an agreement was reached the hole stands as agreed upon, In Stroke play the player was disqualified for not finishing the hole. (holing out before he teed off from the next tee.)

My opponent and myself we both above the hole. We made an agreement if we missed and rolled down we would both be "good", luckily we both made the puts.

I am nice enough that I would have given the guy the put to end his misery, however since he took it upon himself to concede the putt I would have called him on it. That to me is presumptuous

Yes, yes, yes....my golf league does not play exactly by the rules of golf as written so, therefore we are not really playing golf and we are not really golfers. Then again my league along with all the leagues on the course and most the leagues in the area all play by a bastardized version of golf.

However

I guess it would be tough to score stroke play since you cant just add a stroke penalty.

I just dont know how you would write that the guy lost the hole, when he gave himself a 6 if I had a 7.

I know that there is a guy who wont give a single 6" putt, but will give himself a gimme.

But I guess since I am trying to fit my non-conforming golf league into some non-bending rules, it is a tough to do.

My league is horrible about their nonconformity to the rules. Fluffing lies, illegal drops aka foot wedge from under trees, treating OB/lost balls with a drop like water hazards, lots of gimmes etc. I just do my best top play by the real rules of golf while they do what they want. I don't know how many times I've had a slight argument with someone because they were trying to make me break the rules "because we all do it"... If it wasn't for this being about the only time I get to spend time with my father I would have quit long ago, as it is I just use it as practice and enjoy the time with my father. I stopped trying to figure a way to fit what we do into the rules of golf and it made me much happier

I've seen it in stroke play in our league because we post ESC for weekly play.

What you post has no bearing on your stroke play score ..... I hate to admit, but my group will often play a combo of stroke play (usually stableford) throughout a large, multi-group field, and a 4-ball match play within individual groups. I understand the reasons it's not allowed, but we do so and make it work nonetheless.

@Elmer , I think the question you are trying to ask is different from the question that you are actually asking.

A player who picks up his ball in the middle of hole during a stroke play event, and moves on to the next tee without holing out is disqualified. Those are the rules of stroke play. If a two stroke penalty were my only consequence for not holing out, I'd pick up my ball after every tee shot, record nothing but 3's on every hole and enjoy my course record 54. But I have to assume you knew that....

If you are trying to ask what other posters would have done in that scenario, that's a different question altogether. Honestly, I probably would have done exactly what your group did. Say nothing, give the guy his 6 and move onto the next. From the sound of your description, it was obviously a circus pin position, so I would understand his frustration.

Technically speaking, you would have to play two games simultaneously, keeping two cards, because the treatment of the rules is so different between the two modes of play.  if you play a wrong ball in a match, you lose the hole, so it is finished at that point.  But in stroke play, you just get hit with a 2 stroke penalty and go back and play the hole correctly.

In your case, Dormie gave the right answer.  For the match, you had the option of letting it go, or making him replace the ball and putt out with a one stroke penalty.  If it had any bearing on the state of the match, I'd have taken some sort of action.  If not I wouldn't have worried about it.  For the stroke, he either replaces his ball with a one stroke penalty and finishes, or he is disqualified for failing to hole out.

You can say that your leagues play a different set of rules all you want, but when you ask the question on the rules forum, you will get a rules answer.  If you don't want the answer according to the Rules of Golf, then we can't really give an answer.  You would have to take it up with the league committee.

In this league where you end up using ESC is your league score for weekly play, I didn't mean what we post on GHIN, tournaments are the exception. A little odd but I don't run the league. As a result guys will pick it up when they exceed the maximum because it has no bearing on what they submit for league.

I hate to say it but you and your opponent should probably have both been DQed under Rule 1-3 since you made a prior agreement to circumvent the rules.  Just as you are not allowed to make an agreement with your opponent to each conceded all putts under X feet.

As turtleback says.  Rule 2-4 permits you to concede only  the next stroke, not the one after it.

Generally, it seems to me that the muddle you got into is a good illustration of why you are not allowed to mix stroke play and match play but if you must do it, you need to sort out in advance what you do about concessions which can be made in match play and the requirement to hole out in stroke play.

I play that way all the time.. Why not just stipulate that there are no concessions? So, you are literally playing stroke play, and then match play is easy to calculate after and there are no conflicts left :)

That's simple.

No concessions.

You putt out and play the match also.

I know it's simple - my point being that it is important to determine that in advance to avoid get into a muddle during the game.

Yes, but the point is that if you've got two people playing a match and stroke play at the same time and you even have to have the discussion to remind each other that there are no gimmes it says it all.

It would be like saying in a stroke round. "Hey guys, we have to putt out."

There are no gimmes in stroke play. Period.   (I know you know that, but some "golfers" think they can make up their own rules and make really simple things complicated.)

Well that just takes us back to the fact that they shouldn't be mixing stroke and match play in the first instance.  And if we apply the rules properly,  by agreeing to do  so they are agreeing to waive a rule of golf and are liable to disqualification.

Clearly I have much to learn about the difference in my understanding of what league golf is over here as opposed to over there.

My league has only a few rules that are course specific and meant to speed up play.

We do allow for lifting and improving lie, simply because we play a beat up unmaintainted course which has alot of hardpan with no grass. There is also alot of shale sticking through the ground.

Say what you will, but no one wants to bust up their clubs or get hurt playing this game. We are all blue collar guys who dont need to buy more equipment.

We also are allowed to ignore "lose of distance" on OB shorts. simply go to the point of entry, drop and take a stroke. This was institutied by the course, to speed up play. When you have 50 golfers in a league playing in a 2 hour window, not every hacker is a quick one.

However just this week I put my tee shot into the woods and I teed up and took my stroke and loss of distance.

We dont allow foot wedges

I understand I am asking how many apples are in a bunch of bananas, but I was trying to get a better idea of how to handle it. Since it was not my match I should not have been concerned. But if It had been, and say for argument sake that my opponent picks up and walks off with a 6 and I am still on the green putting and end up with a 8.

How the heck do I lose that hole. I guess I was just trying to think ahead.

According to 1-3 in Stroke play - Disqualification of competitors concerned. However, we were both lying 7, we had watched a guy in the group ahead of us 5 put it from below the hole. We watched the guy in our group 4 put from below the hill. Play was backing up because of the previous group 5 putt, we were not about to add 5 putts to already 7. Luckily we made it and we moved on and got a beer.

Now as far as DQ, while we do score on stroke play & match play, it only counts towards the match. So the only people our score affects is the 2 people in the match.
To DQ both of us for a hole, we would have just split the hole, which we did anyway.

To DQ us from the match leaves us both forfeiting the match and honestly this is not the PGA, this is a blue collar, beer league. We are out there having fun, using GPS and wearing shorts and if 2 people decide that they are not going to hold everyone up and split the hole by conceding the putts, so be it.

We also ask each other for shot/course advice which is prohibited by rules 8-1,

But back to my point, our score only counts for towards our match and not against anyone elses score for the week. This is not a big tournament were all competitors are completing against one another. This is just a 2 man match.

I should also note that most people I know locally who play in Weekly golf leagues have a very similar match/stroke set up.

but yes I know it is not 100% by PGA rules so we are not "real" golfers!