Solo play and penalties

[The Flush]

I tend to treat lost balls and OB more like water hazards and just take a drop near where it dissappeared with a one stoke penalty. The leagues I used to play in had this as a rule in order to speed up play.

[Fourputt]

I tend to treat lost balls and OB more like water hazards and just take a drop near where it dissappeared with a one stoke penalty. The leagues I used to play in had this as a rule in order to speed up play.

If you are going to do that out of concern for pace of play, then you should at least add 2 strokes to make up for the distance you are also gaining (the proper penalty is stroke

and distance). But it's your choice...

[The Recreational Golfer]

Mark 'em all down. It's what you do when no one is looking that counts.

[The Flush]

I almost wrote that I knew I should have added 2 strokes instead of one, but for some reason I think the league only required a one stroke penalty.

[Dad-2-3]

Does anyone find it hard to keep yourself honest with penalties while playing by yourself?

I play 99% of my rounds solo and have no problem counting everything. I made my mind up last year that I would try to become better at this stupid game. How can you tell if you are improving or even the areas you need to improve if you don't keep track of OB off the tee, or count that duffed chip?

[ghalfaire]

I do it both ways, depending. Usually when playing by myself I use two balls and am clearly practicing so I don't record score and can ignore rules and do. But if I play a single ball and am just out to enjoy my own company, I play by the rules and record the round for handicap purposes.

[mcgriff]

I keep 2 scores...one real score and one "what if" score in the player 2 line. If I do hit OB or think I may have a lost ball I always hit a provisional. One way or the other, I will have an actual score after the round.

One HUGE handicap I have when I play solo is losing balls. I may hit a perfectly playable shot only to have trouble finding the darned thing due to a blind target area or my poor judgment on where my ball went. We've all done it....knock one down the middle and the ball simply vanishes from the face of the earth.

[Jay-Bird]

I often play alone. I don't often hit balls at the range. I use solo on-course time to practice. I rarely keep and turn in a score from a solo round. On the occasion that I play a real round alone, I count my penalty strokes.