How do you switch up the rules of play?

[The Turlock Kid]

I think we have all played with a mulligan or two in our golfing careers. I'm sure the lower handicappers know the value of strict rule adherence (as do I), but I also know that time or conditions sometimes permit us to change the rules a bit.

I was just wondering what are some of the more interesting or crazy rules people have adopted from circumstance?

My buddies and I usually have the "no hitting it if your club can get damaged" (i.e. rocks, cart path, etc) rule. Anyone else play like that?

Also, if someone is playing into us, we don't wait for others to putt before putting. We just putt when we can get it off. It speeds up play a lot (btw, if we're using this rule, someone in the group sucks and is slowing us down...).

And if you're really out for fun, try playing by the original 13 rules of golf one day: ( http://www.•••••••••••••••••••••/rules_of_golf.php ) You have to score it match play. No lifting and cleaning. Have to "play it as it lies" from OB conditions (including adjoining fields and holes). It's a fun time.

[Naruto]

i have a single digit buddy that i play with most always....he and I have a strict adherence to the rules and we play mulligans from the tee, but we call them something different....we call it hitting three from the tee......

...we most definitely play the rule that if the club could be damaged at or right around impact we can move it on the line as far back as is the nearest releif....if there are trees impeding the backswing tough luck, we shouldn't have hit it there to begin with....but if there are roots or rocks, or cartpath we definitely move it.....sorry 2500 and change invested....I'm not banging my forgings off concrete, aint happenin.....

one minor rule infraction that we may make from time to time is the "NOT SO CASUAL LEAVES" rule....our local spot has oaks galore....and every fall they turn all the best colors of dead they can and plummit to the ground...to which the ground crew, in lieu of global warming waits till they have all fallen to remove them.....here comes the issue.....they have a tendancy (always) to rake them into huge piles that are about 1 foot deep or more and cover usually a 50 square yard area.....where do they leave these piles of leaves???? right dead center of the fairways about 260 out......BRILLIANT I KNOW.... so if we hit a drive that is destined for the fairway and we are unable to locate it with a fair amount of certainty that it is beneath the pile then we can drop in a rough approximation of where we assume it may have come to rest....we well kick a clear spot in the leaves so that the ball rests nicely on the fairway and no leaves are impeding the swing......

****WE ONLY GET THE FREE DROP IF IT'S IN THE FAIRWAY.....ROUGH AND ITS PLAYED LIKE A LATERAL WATER HAZARD******.....why a lateral hazard??? we walk most always and time constraints would hardly allow for returning to retee....generally we don't hit a provisional because of the leaf density....no sense trying to find two balls in the leaves....

aside from this it's strict adherence down to two stroke penalties for grounding in bunkers or anything else to include when playing a match play format....marking those little should be gimmie 18 inchers......but we only play match play formats on mondays when the course is empty...

anyone else have any interesting little deviations with some justification????

good thread i might add

[The Turlock Kid]

Yeah amen to the "HITTING THREE FROM THE TEE" rule. We call it the "First Tee Jitters" rule. If you don't take the mulligan on the first tee it carries over as the only mulligan you can use for the day (mulligan credit).

I like your leaves as a lateral water hazard rule, I might need to rip that off! The whole idea of going back to retee is sort of funny to me on a public course. Unless you shoot provisional balls all over, you have to treat the "retee" rule the same as lateral hazards and stick 'em closes to where it went out. Does anyone actually go back and retee? (assuming your walking) I've never met anyone who did.

I'm sure there are variations on this next one too, but we have the rule that you have to drop your pants and hit your second shot if your first one doesn't go past the women's tees. Anyone else do this?

[golfchief]

We play ready golf, if your closer and ready and the other person is trying to decide what they want to hit, we hit first. No slow play in our group. that goes on the tee also if you have the honors be ready to play when you get there.