How adamant are you about enforcing the rules of golf on yourself, and others in your group?

[vanpooten]

I adhere as close to the rules as I can based on my knowledge of them. One shortcut I see posted above is when you hit a ball that is possibly OB and can't find it, you don't go back and re-tee for your third. I do this as well. I drop as close to where I think the ball went out and hit my 4th shot from there. This is the best option given the pace of play, and correct on stroke count? It would be the 4th shot, because you're simulating your 3rd tee shot and not giving yourself a perfect lie in the fairway for your 4th either.

Although if you hit a provisional quickly I suppose it would sidestep this issue.

[mosnas]

Originally Posted by WUTiger

One problem I have with this is how to introduce new golfers to the rules of golf.

One advantage of golf clinics over one-on-one lessons is the clinics seem to tell newbies about the rules associated with different parts of the game.

A friend of mine started playing golf last year, and he kept forgetting that you can't carry 17 clubs when you play. Also, he didn't know how to mark a ball properly on a green. There's a chance he'll get invited to play in charity tournaments, and I don't want him to get a bad name because nobody told him the rules. But, I don't want to come off as the high school assistant principal when we play.

Any idea on how to handle rules education?

How good of friends are you with him? If you are good friends and golf with him on occasion then I would say gently mentioning some basic rules when you play would be good.  You don't need to lay into him and charge him a stroke just casually mention it.  Kind of the same way you tell someone there fly is down, you don't want to embarrass him but sometimes it is better that he be embarrassed in front of you than 30 people.

[PhillyMac]

There are few instances that really test me with following the rules. Would like to know how some of you guys handle it.

1: Is when you hit a ball that is clearly in play, and you are unable to locate it. This happens alot during the Fall, when there are leaves on the ground. Or when you hit into thick bermuda rough and ball nestles down and you can't see it. Yesterday, I hit a shot left and it went through a tree, I never heard any solid contact and I was unable to locate it, but I know for a fact there was no way possible it couldn't have went OB due to the fact there is no OB. What I did was take a drop and play it as a hazard and play it from the closest spot I thought it went into the small tree line. Now on the other hand, when playing in the Fall, and I hit a shot into the leaves, and am unable to rake up all the leaves to locate it, I will take a free drop closest to where I last spotted it going in.

2: Some of the course I play are not plush like many others in the area. So there is some hardpan you will have to play from, in which I will play from the hard pan. But there are a few spots in the rough where there is gravel/rocks, in which I will normally move a few inches over (with no penalty so I don't damage my clubs).

[mosnas]

Originally Posted by PhillyMac

There are few instances that really test me with following the rules. Would like to know how some of you guys handle it.

1: Is when you hit a ball that is clearly in play, and you are unable to locate it. This happens alot during the Fall, when there are leaves on the ground. Or when you hit into thick bermuda rough and ball nestles down and you can't see it. Yesterday, I hit a shot left and it went through a tree, I never heard any solid contact and I was unable to locate it, but I know for a fact there was no way possible it couldn't have went OB due to the fact there is no OB. What I did was take a drop and play it as a hazard and play it from the closest spot I thought it went into the small tree line. Now on the other hand, when playing in the Fall, and I hit a shot into the leaves, and am unable to rake up all the leaves to locate it, I will take a free drop closest to where I last spotted it going in.

2: Some of the course I play are not plush like many others in the area. So there is some hardpan you will have to play from, in which I will play from the hard pan. But there are a few spots in the rough where there is gravel/rocks, in which I will normally move a few inches over (with no penalty so I don't damage my clubs).

I play rule 1 the same as you.  My way of reasoning is that If I was with a group of 4 people they would find it, or if I was on tour or in a tournament someone would be able to find it.  Sounds stupid but I am not charging myself a stroke for losing a ball in the fairway.

as for your 2 anything that may damage a club or hurt myself I take a free drop.

[Shorty]

If you are scoring you play by the rules.

If you are taking gimmes, dropping balls, giving yourself good lies, that's fine, but you shouldn't be scoring, just playing. You don't say you had x score, because you didn't.

That's why we have "10" handicappers here saying they are suddenly snap hooking and wondering why and "5" markers asking how to spin the ball etc. etc.

Not to mention the "15" markers who've been playing for 3 months.

[PhillyMac]

Shorty, You are absolutely correct and I can't argue with you on that. There is one course that is really close to me that I play often after work, this course is just not kept in same shape as most courses in the area. There are some places that are clearly in play that even if you declare an "unplayable" due to damaging your clubs you will have to drop a few club lengths left or right to do so. It's so bad that the course is attempting to cover it with mulch. I am not sure why they stopped filling it in, but they did. IMO, its just not fair to be penalized when you miss the fairway by a 5 feet and have to declare an uplayable because of crappy maintenance. Its the same course I was referring to as well about the leaves. During the Fall, they will blow all the leaves from the fairlway and leave them piled in the rough. This is the only course I will do this, and its rare that I or my playing partners will even do it, but there has been a few instances where we have. I know I am going to open the floodgates on this one.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by PhillyMac

Shorty, You are absolutely correct and I can't argue with you on that.

Do people play tennis and say they won 6-1, 6-3 and hit 7 aces when they really won 6-5, 6-4 and served 1 ace?

Is a serve that missed by a few inches deemed close enough?

Seriously, what's the difference?

I had 7 but I'm calling it 4 because I normally don't 3 putt and duff those chips. Crazy!

I truly just don't get how someone can say they had 83 or 75 when they have ignored rules and not counted shots.

It's one thing to be unsure about certain rules when you've only ever played socially with your friends, but to take mulligans and rake putts from 3 feet is not playing golf.

In another thread a guy said he played with a guy who just did whatever he wanted, probably didn't break 90 and said he had 75.

This is why I get irritated by threads where people say a certain club is aimed at a certain handicap, when people who think they play off 10 can't play to 25.

[PhillyMac]

Originally Posted by Shorty

Do people play tennis and say they won 6-1, 6-3 and hit 7 aces when they really won 6-5, 6-4 and served 1 ace?

Is a serve that missed by a few inches deemed close enough?

Seriously, what's the difference?

I had 7 but I'm calling it 4 because I normally don't 3 putt and duff those chips. Crazy!

I truly just don't get how someone can say they had 83 or 75 when they have ignored rules and not counted shots.

It's one thing to be unsure about certain rules when you've only ever played socially with your friends, but to take mulligans and rake putts from 3 feet is not playing golf.

In another thread a guy said he played with a guy who just did whatever he wanted, probably didn't break 90 and said he had 75.

This is why I get irritated by threads where people say a certain club is aimed at a certain handicap, when people who think they play off 10 can't play to 25.

If you get so irritated over it, then why do you bother to put your 2 cents worth in? Move on to another thread............

[Timmy]

Originally Posted by Shorty

Do people play tennis and say they won 6-1, 6-3 and hit 7 aces when they really won 6-5, 6-4 and served 1 ace?

Is a serve that missed by a few inches deemed close enough?

Seriously, what's the difference?

I had 7 but I'm calling it 4 because I normally don't 3 putt and duff those chips. Crazy!

I truly just don't get how someone can say they had 83 or 75 when they have ignored rules and not counted shots.

It's one thing to be unsure about certain rules when you've only ever played socially with your friends, but to take mulligans and rake putts from 3 feet is not playing golf.

In another thread a guy said he played with a guy who just did whatever he wanted, probably didn't break 90 and said he had 75.

This is why I get irritated by threads where people say a certain club is aimed at a certain handicap, when people who think they play off 10 can't play to 25.

That's why I never keep score.  I consider everything a practice round for myself.  If i hit a terrible shot, I'll drop another ball, take the shot again to try to improve and then go play the first one assuming I can find it and just pick up the second.  Granted, I'm new to the game, and I know this is against the rules if i were to try to post a score.  But I don't, so I just get to go relax and have fun!

[Shorty]

That's why I never keep score.  I consider everything a practice round for myself.  If i hit a terrible shot, I'll drop another ball, take the shot again to try to improve and then go play the first one assuming I can find it and just pick up the second.  Granted, I'm new to the game, and I know this is against the rules if i were to try to post a score.  But I don't, so I just get to go relax and have fun!

You are doing the right thing. When you reach the point where you want to score, your handicap and scores will be legitimate.

[PhillyMac]

Originally Posted by Timmy

That's why I never keep score.  I consider everything a practice round for myself.  If i hit a terrible shot, I'll drop another ball, take the shot again to try to improve and then go play the first one assuming I can find it and just pick up the second.  Granted, I'm new to the game, and I know this is against the rules if i were to try to post a score.  But I don't, so I just get to go relax and have fun!

Everytime I play this course, its for fun with friends or just  to practice. I  have never posted any scores from this course. But I assume I will get blasted for that as well.

[Shorty]

That's why I never keep score.  I consider everything a practice round for myself.  If i hit a terrible shot, I'll drop another ball, take the shot again to try to improve and then go play the first one assuming I can find it and just pick up the second.  Granted, I'm new to the game, and I know this is against the rules if i were to try to post a score.  But I don't, so I just get to go relax and have fun!

You are doing the right thing. When you reach the point where you want to score, your handicap and scores will be legitimate. You will also understand why you seem to be a better player than half the "6" handicappers you play with when your handicap is 18.

[B-Con]

I don't care what my partners do at all. It isn't my game. For myself, I let myself by on a [i]few[/i] minor infractions here and there that don't really effect anything. For example, I once played a round with 15 conforming clubs in my bag, but one of them wasn't a part of my set and I never used it. I didn't feel like walking it back to the car, so I noted it as "not available for use" and just left it. If I just barely touch the ball on the green I don't penalize myself. If the wind moves my ball, regardless of my position, I don't penalize myself. I occasionally graze the ball with my ball marker when I lift it, and I don't penalize myself. Things you would probably have to call if you were playing competitively , but I don't and they have zero impact on the game I play. I play similarly to PhillyMac's #1 above. Like today I hit a decent drive down the right side of the fairway. I saw it land, bounce, then take a small bounce (maybe a foot high) on the cart path, and then disappear. It clearly had almost no energy left in it and couldn't have gone much farther. I got up there and couldn't find it. I walked 150 yards worth of the carpath area and looked at both side and couldn't find it. A couple golfers from the adjacent fairway had come through and I didn't notice them hitting or taking any balls, but it's the only explanation I could come up with. It was a yellow ball, right in the flat green grass, it simply couldn't have gone that far. I went back to about where I thought it had originally been and dropped another. But no fluffed up lies. No "relief" from trees that are on my line of play. (Some of my proudest moments have been hitting good shots around obstructions.) No foot wedges out of divots. Absolutely no gimmes. I don't keep an official handicap, but what you see listed here is extremely close to what it would be if it were 100% legit.

[mosnas]

Originally Posted by Shorty

In another thread a guy said he played with a guy who just did whatever he wanted, probably didn't break 90 and said he had 75.

Why does that matter though? hell I have a friend that gave himself a "blackout hole" where you shade in the score for that hole and don't count the score, he would refer to his round as "yup I shot a 45 with 2 blackouts."  If people want to go out there and say they shoot a 58 and they really shot a 90 then go ahead.  Doesn't hurt my game at all, as long as they are having fun

[lostmyballs]

I'm not a huge stickler for unnecessary rules but don't give yourself free relief from a hazard if we are playing for a few bucks, or even a drink.

[ghalfaire]

I play by the rules all the time with the sole exception that if the course is crowded I don't always make the "walk of shame" for lost or OB balls.  However this is seldom as if I have any thought that a ball might be lost or OB I will take a provisional.  But sometimes you just get surprised.  I take 2 strokes to make up for not taking the distance part of the penalty.  I do play in competition upon occasion so don't want to take liberties with the rules as it can be expensive later.  When just out playing with friends I don't insist they play by the rules and I don't editorialize their taking a few liberties.  Unless of course we have something other than beer on the line.

[Jefferey13]

I play by myself very often and try to play 9 holes in about 70 minutes when the course is open. When I do this I don't pull the flags and putt and go, I don't penalize myself.

I sometimes will hit a couple balls from a certain yardage to practice if I am being held up.

There are some holes on my course where it will either be in play and easy to find or 100% in the hazard and the drop would be back on the tee box,  but I can't tell until I get there because it's blind, I take provisionals on these.

I have taken free drops from some crazy GUR spots on my course. My course never marks it so unless it is for a tournament. They honestly will sometimes dig a 2 foot hole to fix some drainage stuff and not mark.

My course just opened a new 9 and some of the rough areas are a just a bed of rocks. In my practice rounds I do not hit off rocks. For that matter I also won't play off the cart path in practice rounds when there is playable point of relief.

I enforce most rules that affect scoring in my tournaments. A person moved behind me in putting stroke and I just let him know about the rule.

[firecracker]

I'm a high handicapper but play as close to the rules as possible with two exceptions.  One, if I'm playing alone and my approach is short, I don't run up and pull the flagstick - I just putt.  If I miss, then I'll pull the flagstick for the second and subsequent putts.  Second, if I lose a ball that is clearly inbounds I drop where I think I should be and add 2 strokes. Going back isn't practical with a crowded course and taking a provisional on every drive is ridiculous.  That's why I like playing partners.  I can ignore both of these exceptions.