Feherty and Carton Interview - Carton about Purists

[McGolf-Doggie]

Would hav loved to have heard more of the Feherty and Carton interview on WFAN, new York this morning but had to get into the office. Feherty was a hoot, and I didn;t get to hear his response.

One thing —•Craig Carton, in his typically grating way, referred to "this purist golf community" with the implication that the rules are solely for a minority of pros and high-level players or stuffed shirts.

I dunno about you but, I embrace the concept of playing it how it lies, to me it's the essential spirit of the game pure and simple. It's fun to add a new shot to the repertoire such as a long and low 7-iron chop to get you under branches and out of trouble and a ways up the fairway — when you pull them off, it's as gratifying as rolling a lob to within a couple of feet of the cup.

And, if I wind up with a tricky shot I have to play, of difficult decisions, under and between the trees or in some other curious or freaky nook of the course, well although it may add to my handicap, but it also adds to the interest, variety and challenge of the game, and gives me more value for the dollar I paid to get on the course in the first place.

Maybe it goes back to some of my cantankerous Sctos ancestors and having partaken of the delectable haggis and grown up in the miserable British climate, but it's golf.

your thoughts...?

[Zeph]

If people don't want to play by the rules, fine, but then they can't compete against others or have a legal handicap.

[DavidFehertysBike]

I dont really understand. Is this guy raging agaist the mulligan or something? Nearly everyone plays the ball where it lies. Its not like you got an epidemic of golfers taking mulligans after every shot.

[WUTiger]

  DavidFehertysBike said:

I dont really understand. Is this guy raging agaist the mulligan or something? Nearly everyone plays the ball where it lies. Its not like you got an epidemic of golfers taking mulligans after every shot.

At least not since the 2000 presidential election.

[ITgolfHack]

When I'm playing league, I like to follow the rules and expect others to do so as well or at least as close as we can without impeding play. When I'm playing with friends that don't take it as seriously, yea, I'll hit a mulligan to see what I could have done with a second chance, but I'll usually play my first ball, assuming I can find it of course.

[McGolf-Doggie]

No I think the supremely annoying Carton was generally decrying the purists in golf who respect playing by the rules -- Carton typically always looking for an exception for himself, or a foot wedge or whatever...

[Chief Broom]

  Zeph said:

If people don't want to play by the rules, fine, but then they can't compete against others or have a legal handicap.

This really doesn't bother me. I play in a league that uses a modified stableford format where they maintain handicaps for each player. Most of the players take a lot of liberties with the rules. Everyone rolls the ball, and it's also very common for guys to move their ball out from behind a tree or go in the bushes, etc. and pull their ball out and put it in play. Now a purist would have a heart attack to see such a thing, but the thing is the guys who do that you see that reflected in the amount of points they have to pull each time they play. So in the end whether they cheat or not as long as they do it consistantly it all evens out and I'm not at any disadvantage when I follow the rules of golf (which is also reflected in the number of points I've got to pull). This applies to handicaps too. In fact if someone who has a lower handicap than they should suddenly finds themself in a situation where they can't take their liberties they are going to be at a severe disadvantage. The only real thing I watch out for in this league is when some guy actually cheats about the number of strokes he took on a hole. That will skew the results and that is a guy who needs to be watched and then booted out of the league.