Your Favorite Rules Incident (that happened to you)

[iacas]

Another thread prompted me to post this thread... the idea is to post one of the more favorable things that's ever happened to you under the rules.

I've had my fair share of "hey, look, it's a hole made by a burrowing animal right under my stance as I pitch out from behind this tree." And other rules things that benefit me, but aren't really noteworthy. Standard, stock rules.

My favorite is a standard, stock rule that I still find somewhat amusing...

I was playing in a high school match against our arch rival Corry (our football teams hated each other, so the golf teams did by extension, I suppose). I had lost the 10th hole and tied the 11th, but arrived at the 12th tee, a par three, first and hit my shot to 25 feet or so. My opponent had seen me hit, and after I'd done so, said "you hit out of turn, so I'm going to ask that you replay your shot."

Perfectly within the rules.

But I'm not a fan of gamesmanship, and so I stuck my second attempt - the one that counted - to three feet.

Thanks for the mulligan!

Ended up winning all four points that day (nassau match play + stroke total was how we played it back then). Booya.

[jamo]

I'm going to quote myself in another recent thread (though i edited it slightly)

This actually happened to me in a high school match play match. It was in league play on a nine-hole course built on a dump and an old apple orchard. It was late October so it was 20* and windy, and i was coming off a double bogey on a par 5.

[MrKadash]

Pretty much on the same level as Erik's incident. I was playing match-play in a county event a few years ago and mistakenly hit from the wrong set of tees. It wasn't a terrible drive, into the rough, but my competitor made me re-hit from the correct set of tees. I blistered it down the middle and won the hole when my 20 ft birdie putt rolled in. He hit a decent drive also but missed the green - he did get up and down. Needless to say he was a little irked...

[michaeljames92]

Pretty much on the same level as Erik's incident. I was playing match-play in a county event a few years ago and mistakenly hit from the wrong set of tees. It wasn't a terrible drive, into the rough, but my competitor made me re-hit from the correct set of tees. I blistered it down the middle and won the hole when my 20 ft birdie putt rolled in. He hit a decent drive also but missed the green - he did get up and down. Needless to say he was a little irked...

Haha I actually almost did the excact same thing, except my first drive was in the fairway but my second was longer and I also made birdie! Gotta love it when your opponent asks you to rehit a shot and you get a better result!

[Lefty-Golfer]

One of the first rounds i played as a member of my club. I had only met a few guys and was playing with 3 I guys i had just met. we are playing $10 nassau with automatics. we are on 15 and I am doing quite well. My oppenent that I am riding with hits his drive left but it stays in bounds. we get up to the ball and a fence, the OB fence, on the property line is directly over his ball. he looks at me and says he gets free drop from the man made fence....WTF. I must have made a face because he quickly says it is a local rule...hmm. I am a new guy, just met him...WHATEVER. The golf gods looked down on him and laughed. he hit his next shot into the stream that crosses the fairway!! LOL Won the hole, won the match, bought the drinks!!

Best part is he has turned into a good friend, we play regular together, has never again come up with something so stupid and EVERYTIME one of us is near that fence I always comment on the free drop rule!! All i ever get back is a little smirk!!

[rjfan91]

Not sure sure if this is entirely within the spirit of the thread, but it did benefit me.

Playing in one of our golf associations singles tournament. I'm in 2nd place by 1 shot to one of the guys in my 4some. On the 17th hole, the guy leading hits his put to about 7 inches. One of the other guys in my 4some baits him and says "That's good". The guy scoops it up with his putter! One of other guys ribs him with a "nice bogey" comment. He marks it on his scorecard as a par and we play out the rest of the round. We get in, sign our scorecards. The guy that said "it's good" calls him on the hole and he gets disqualified for incorrect scorecard. I win!

[Fourputt]

One of my best stories is the rule I didn't use. Playing the second round of a two day stroke play tournament, with the other 3 leaders of my flight. 11th hole is a par 5. One of the other competitors and I both yank our tee shots left, and both balls come to rest on a gravel maintenance road, with rough on both sides, and a row of tall trees on our line to the hole. his ball is about 10 yards back of mine. He takes relief from the road, doing everything correctly, and drops into an inevitable bad lie in matted grass. All he can do is chop the ball out to the fairway, still about 230 yards from the green.

I look over my options and just pull out a 6I, make a good pass at the ball, clip it cleanly from the road, and knock it over the tree line and into the middle of the fairway about 100 yards out. I make par to his bogey, then he complains that I was in breach because I was required to take relief from the road. I explain that under Rule 24 (or any other rule allowing relief) you are never required to take relief unless it's stated so for the protection of the course. and he still protests. Needless to say, he was so flustered by the incident that he dropped out of contention with the other three of us. Then he even took his protest to the committee after the round and was shown the rule in black and white before he believed it. I ended up in second place, but he dropped down well out of the money.

It pays to know the rules, but it also pays to know when not to take advantage of them.