Penalty for 15th Club?

[zeg]

Originally Posted by iacas

That's beside the point, which is simply this: a player gets to declare a club as out of play in one situation but not another. Why not let a player declare a club as out of play and if caught using it, be penalized with a DQ?

Probably. But that doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be changed.

I tend to agree, it's an odd place to split hairs. I'd love to see an authoritative explanation as to why. As it is, I find it puzzling, but not something that bugs me. It's innocuous because it's easy, thorugh basic precautions, to completely avoid. Some of the other "annoying" rules out there can strike at random. Those are more irksome (though I don't necessarily disagree with the rules; freak events can help as well as hurt, and sometimes an annoying outcome is going to occur).

Personally, this is a rule I wouldn't enforce on myself, though. I would if it were competition, but I never play competitions. To me, it's a procedural violation far enough removed from the game that I'd rather not include the strokes in my score when I compute my handicap index. I use that as a track of my performance, so bumping up a differential by a couple strokes because of this would just pollute my stats.

If I ever begin keeping an officially sanctioned handicap index, I'd probably enforce it if it came up because it then becomes a more serious ethical issue in terms of the obligation to follow the rules. For my own purposes, though, it's unnecessary.

Originally Posted by iacas

You can have unusual equipment in your bag too and only be penalized if you use it as well.

Better run that one by your wife or S.O., the USGA may not have the final authority...

[iacas]

Originally Posted by zeg

I tend to agree, it's an odd place to split hairs. I'd love to see an authoritative explanation as to why. As it is, I find it puzzling, but not something that bugs me. It's innocuous because it's easy, thorugh basic precautions, to completely avoid. Some of the other "annoying" rules out there can strike at random. Those are more irksome (though I don't necessarily disagree with the rules; freak events can help as well as hurt, and sometimes an annoying outcome is going to occur).

Yeah, I don't think it's ever happened to me. It almost never happens to anyone. As it is I don't really care about it, I just find it an interesting little nook of the rules.