Rules Changes for "Funzies" Rounds

[David in FL]

18 minutes ago, Golf With John said:

haha thats awesome! This is exactly how my friends and I would start the round. Get to the tee box right on time or couple minutes late. No warm up. No stretching. Hit a straight hook into the woods and boom there is our first shot first mulligan of the day 😆

First time hearing group retee. I like that as well. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity when I'm with my friends

 

I agree, most course I've played at are in good shape, but I'll still move it an inch or so out to give myself the best lie I can. This includes if the ball if a little stuck, a little divot, a little mark on the ball i'll wipe, a little uneven lie, etc. It's the little things that will really get you.

You should really try playing golf sometime.  It’s a fun game!  

[mcanadiens]

Normally, I'm done with posting rounds by October one way or the other, despite the geniuses at the Miami Valley Golf Association holding it open until Nov. 30. This year has been such a mess, I bagged the whole thing after my stab at the club championship back in July. So I've essentially been playing "winter rules" since October.

By that I:

1. Roll the ball everywhere. They really aren't cutting grass anymore. 

2. Don't count penalties if I lose a ball to leaves when I'm reasonably sure it was playable. Free drop closest to where I think it ended up.

3. If the bunkers are dodgy (and they often are by now), I'll drop behind it. 

I'm really not taking anything too seriously. Maybe I'm marking numbers on a card and can derive some meaning from them at the end of the round. Maybe not. There will be plenty of time to try to gear back up in the spring before I'd play in something that matters and the handicap needs to mean anything.

 

 

 

[ChetlovesMer]

I think the only rule we change don't obey or whatever for "funzie" rounds is we allow extra practice on the greens. What I mean is if you miss a 6 footer for par and tap in for bogey, we will often go back and re-hit the 6 footer. As long as we aren't holding up play, which my group almost never is. We count the original putt of course, but we may give it another go or two and we don't take a penalty for that. In a tournament round I wouldn't dream of trying that. 

[klineka]

17 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I think the only rule we change don't obey or whatever for "funzie" rounds is we allow extra practice on the greens. What I mean is if you miss a 6 footer for par and tap in for bogey, we will often go back and re-hit the 6 footer. As long as we aren't holding up play, which my group almost never is. We count the original putt of course, but we may give it another go or two and we don't take a penalty for that. In a tournament round I wouldn't dream of trying that. 

IIRC, you are allowed to do that in match play rounds, just not in stroke play. 

[ChetlovesMer]

1 minute ago, klineka said:

IIRC, you are allowed to do that in match play rounds, just not in stroke play. 

👍

[klineka]

1 minute ago, ChetlovesMer said:

👍

Actually, based on how I'm reading this, it might not matter what kind of scoring it is, I think you're allowed even in tournaments.

[ChetlovesMer]

4 minutes ago, klineka said:

Actually, based on how I'm reading this, it might not matter what kind of scoring it is, I think you're allowed even in tournaments.

Very interesting.

Maybe my "funzie" rule is all good even during tournaments?

[DaveP043]

8 minutes ago, klineka said:

Actually, based on how I'm reading this, it might not matter what kind of scoring it is, I think you're allowed even in tournaments.

 

Yeah, you're allowed to do that limited practice in any type of event, unless its specifically disallowed by local rule.  I've never seen it on the PGA Tour, so I have to assume that the tour has instituted the local rule.  You do see it in Ryder Cup matches (run by the PGA of America), and I'm sure I've seen it in US Amateur (USGA), but I don't remember seeing it in a US Open (also USGA).  

[dennyjones]

On that same line of rule.  

3 hours ago, klineka said:

Actually, based on how I'm reading this, it might not matter what kind of scoring it is, I think you're allowed even in tournaments.

Between two holes, a player must not make a practice stroke.

Exception being the teeing area of the next hole.    Am I reading this right that if four guys pull up to a tee box and all four pull out their clubs and start swings them while only one is in the tee box, the other three are committing a breach of the rules?  

[David in FL]

2 hours ago, dennyjones said:

On that same line of rule.  

Between two holes, a player must not make a practice stroke.

Exception being the teeing area of the next hole.    Am I reading this right that if four guys pull up to a tee box and all four pull out their clubs and start swings them while only one is in the tee box, the other three are committing a breach of the rules?  

No.  A “stroke” is not a “swing”...

 

From the definitions in The Rules...

Stroke

The forward movement of the club made to strike the ball.

But a stroke has not been made if the player:
    •    Decides during the downswing not to strike the ball and avoids doing so by deliberately stopping the clubhead before it reaches the ball or, if unable to stop, by deliberately missing the ball.

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by David in FL

[Bonvivant]

I try to play as close to the rules year round as possible. I am sure that I miss things, but without playing in competition or keeping an official handicap, I'm not too pressed about it if I mess up. If I ever feel like I had something in question during a round, I will talk about it on here later.

The only notable exception to this is bunkers. My home courses have abysmal bunkers. Some are marked GUR, but many are not, though they still house a pond or small lake in them. We play choice of play it as it lies, rolling it, or pulling it back in line from the flagstick, and this extends to any bets that I place while on the course. The local group game I used to play in went from this style to only as it lies or rolling it, but never full relief. I stopped playing in that game when the rule changed. 

Credit to @mcanadiens for making me remember the rule I actually break on a regular basis. Luckily, my course did so well this year that they are supposedly going to redo the bunkers this coming year. I don't think that it was worth closing the other 4 courses that were part of the system, but at least I will be able to go back to playing by the rules.

[mcanadiens]

7 hours ago, Bonvivant said:

Credit to @mcanadiens for making me remember the rule I actually break on a regular basis. Luckily, my course did so well this year that they are supposedly going to redo the bunkers this coming year. I don't think that it was worth closing the other 4 courses that were part of the system, but at least I will be able to go back to playing by the rules.

Well, that's the very least the City of Dayton can do. 

Those crappy sand traps are one thing I definitely don't miss about Kittyhawk, Madden and Community. It's funny how many different local rules we implemented over the years. Kittyhawk Men's Association used a rake and place rule for a few years. We'd try to scratch up enough sand/dirt to actually play a conventional bunker shot. In certain traps, even that was hopeless.

My new home course, Miami Shores, has proper sand. If nothing else, I've become much better at the sand-blast shot and have a lot less fear hitting shots over the traps. 

[iacas]

19 hours ago, klineka said:

IIRC, you are allowed to do that in match play rounds, just not in stroke play. 

Glad someone corrected this one. Common misconception.

19 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

Yeah, you're allowed to do that limited practice in any type of event, unless its specifically disallowed by local rule.  I've never seen it on the PGA Tour, so I have to assume that the tour has instituted the local rule.  You do see it in Ryder Cup matches (run by the PGA of America), and I'm sure I've seen it in US Amateur (USGA), but I don't remember seeing it in a US Open (also USGA).  

The PGA Tour disallows it on their hard card, yeah.

And… the U.S. Open does too, though I think at one point awhile ago (decades) it was still possible/allowed. You see it all the time in the Ryder Cup, but there isn’t a pace of play concern there like there is at the U.S. Open.

15 hours ago, dennyjones said:

Between two holes, a player must not make a practice stroke.

Exception being the teeing area of the next hole.    Am I reading this right that if four guys pull up to a tee box and all four pull out their clubs and start swings them while only one is in the tee box, the other three are committing a breach of the rules?  

Someone already replied but… basically, please look up definitions.

You’re “between two holes” when you’ve holed out on the previous hole (and sometimes when your partner has) and not yet teed off (i.e. made a stroke at a ball) on the next hole. A stroke is at a ball with the intent to hit it, not a practice swing. You can chip and putt and do various things “between” two holes almost always.

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Not to get too far off topic, but the specially styled words in the Rules of Golf are links to their definitions, and I encourage you to click on them. The Rules are written in words, and those words have specific definitions.