Rules? For the Average Golfer?

[jaymunson]

From rules made many years ago, came the guidelines set forth for the kings and queens of the golf world. In today’s definition, the men and women of the PGA and the WPGA, the kings and queens of the modern golf era. These two hierarchies of the golf world play by a set standard of rules nearly every weekend for around eight months give or take, per year. Their jobs, so to speak, and they are paid well for it. Yet these rules that I personally was not in on when they where wrote, state what I can and can not get away with for my golf game… My hobby, my beer drinking game with the pals.

So I ask the rest of the world of golf, the other 99% of the watchers and waiters, the Average Joe and Jane’s of this golfing world, “why do we take golf, so serious?”

When we slide on our spikes checking for grass or mud, or when we run a tee through the grooves of our irons right before we shove that tee into the corner of our mouths; or when we are standing on the tee box about to drive the best drive ever, and a buddy yells, “jack ass!” I would have to say that we are not on tour… So why do we focus so heard on the game that we play for fun?

Because we like the game, yet I say again; I was not in on the writing of the rules so why do I or anyone else have to abide by them? For instance, I knock a drive straight down the pipe yet it veers off to the right just slightly rolling off into the higher grass. Now I must place down my beer, put my four-dollar cigar onto the nearly dry grass, and take my second shot. Hold on though, my ball is nearly covered in grass yet it would not be if in the short grass… A lovely toe wedge is now pulled from the seventy-five pound bag with eight clubs to many, and look my ball has nicely lading in the short grass, now I can take my second shot.

Just like that, I think I broke four rules and need to add five or eight strokes to my card… My buddy yells out from the other side of the fairway, “Dude, come on man we have only five beers left till we see the cart girl again.” Refocusing once more, I think again five or eight strokes? Yep, as a smile runs the length of my face, second shot.

The shot goes nice, lands about twenty yards from the pine. I walk back over to the cart has my pal hands me another beer he say’s, “Nice second man, it would have been worse if you had stayed in the tall grass.” As we drive on to our third shot… or was it the ninth… nah, that was the third.

Rules are good to have for the big boys and girls, keeps them all nice and fair. But for the average boys who are just out having some beers playing a fun round, rules don’t make a winner, the rules cloud things up making a fun game not fun. So why do we play for keeps, when on the eighteenth we aren’t even really sober?

Jay Thomas Munson

[Fourputt]

All I can say is thank God I don't play with you.

[jaymunson]

LOL, I bet however it would be a fun time though. Thanks Rick! How are you doing today?

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by jaymunson

LOL, I bet however it would be a fun time though. Thanks Rick! How are you doing today?

I don't know.  Your approach to golf is diametrically opposed to mine.  For me, without the rules, it wouldn't be golf, it wouldn't be fun, and it wouldn't be worth my time.  By that I don't mean that I'm a dour faced automaton on the course.  I joke and kid and have a great time, but I still do it under the umbrella of the Rules of Golf.  I almost never drink alcohol on the course (although I'm far from being a teetotaler, I usually save it for the 19th hole), and I never smoke anything, anytime (I'm an ex smoker and my worst nightmares are when I'm smoking in a dream).  A couple of my best golfing buddies smoke cigarettes, and that doesn't bother me, but I prefer not to even be around cigar smokers.

If that sounds like we would be compatible as players, then okay, let's do it.

[lumpuckeroo]

Some good points, and I would suspect that the 99% of us that are watchers and waiters, don't take it that serious.  While I play by  the basic rules, play the ball as it lies and such, there is no way that I play a round and with absolute knowledge that I have not broken a rule.  Just look at the rule that got Graeme McDowell this week, he brushed a leaf on his backswing in a bunker, pretty sure I wasn't aware of that rule and real sure I wouldn't notice brushing a leaf on my backswing!

Unless you hit every fairway and every green in a round, it might be difficult to not violate a rule, and really, do your drinking buddies care if you brushed that leaf and should have shot 101 instead of the 99 you carded!

[David in FL]

Wow. Have you ever tried tennis? Of course you'd probably spill your drink with all that running around, so maybe not..... ;-)

[newtogolf]

I don't see why you can't follow the rules and still have a great time, I do it every round.  My buddies and I strive to lower our handicaps while playing by the same rules the pro's use.  Just last week we celebrated one of them breaking 85 for the first time.  Such accomplishments wouldn't be as rewarding or meaningful if we weren't following the rules.

I'm not criticizing your decision to not follow the rules (to each his own) but you make it seem like following the rules takes the enjoyment out of golf, which for me it doesn't.  Imagine hitting that 2nd shot (in your first post) that was covered in grass as it lies and having it land two feet from the cup.  No foot wedge could ever top the feeling you'd get from that shot, even if you could only hit it 1 out of 10 times.

[iacas]

I play by the Rules and have fun. The Rules do not preclude fun. You're basing your argument on a false presumption.

Besides, the vast majority of weekend beer drinkers don't follow the rules already. And to that I say "so what?" I don't care. I've played in groups with people not giving a shit about the rules. It doesn't affect my enjoyment at all. I just don't bet with them.

[MEfree]

When it comes to the rules, I would say there are 5 basic types of golfers.  Those that:

1.  Have taken a course to be a rules official and know all the rules and decisions inside and out.  I think I saw a post from one of these guys saying that it was harder than studying for the bar exam.

2.  Know the basic rules and try to follow them as much as possible, but may make an occasional mistake or be uncertain as to a more obscure rule or decision.

3.  Know the basic rules, but will not always follow them in a non-competitive round (i.e. drop a ball near where they think they lost their original when they did not hit a provisional)

4.  Try to follow the rules, but have a flawed understanding of some of the basic rules (i.e. think it is ok to just drop near where they think they lost their original ball, not knowing that they should really go back to the tee).

5.  The OP and his friends who are not interested in following the rules.

Playing the ball as it lies (probably the most basic rule in golf) on a really demanding golf course is probably not much fun for a guy who is shooting 120.  If a guy doesn`t have the skill to hit a decent shot from the tee or fairway at least 20% of the time, what are the chances of him hitting a decent shoot from a foot of rough or the middle of some thick trees.

OTOH, for a single digit handicap, it is more satisfying to post a good score following the rules than it would be cheating.

Others have fought me on this, but I think it is possible to come up with a set of simplified rules that help to move more players from categories 2-4 into category 1 while encouraging some in category 5 to move to category 2 (or at least 3).  Sure, those rules would have some fundamental differences to the current rules, but the game of golf would still be a challenge for everyone.

[Grumpter]

Your money? Then play by your rules. As long as you are not bending the rules when playing (or qualifying for) a tournament/match then do what makes you feel like you are having the most fun. To hell with what anyone else thinks.

One of my oldest friends would occasionally join me for a round and he was a terrible golfer. Think Charles Barkley at his ugliest without any coordination. He had only 1 rule to follow - keep up with the group in front of us. Anything else was play it as he felt he wanted to.

[joekelly]

Last time i played one of my foursome asked the 3 of us if we cared if he smoked a big cigar during the round. He said that out on the course was the only place he 'cheated' on his wife.  Maybe he had a pledge with the wife not to smoke.  Only thing i ask is to leave the cigar, and esp cigarette, butts off the green.  I rarely drink  a beer on the course and never found it helped my next shot. I guess some guys are 'strivers' who want to improve and find a measure of self-satisfaction in the game by the rules. Other guys seems not so oriented and find golf little different from spectator sports.

[chilepepper]

Without the rules, and following them, there would be no way to measure my progress. Hcp would be meaningless.

[Dave2512]

I don't care if people don't observe the rules as long as they don't compare what they do to what I do. That includes discussion about score and how well they played. Part of enjoying the game is improving and being successful. Kind of tough to celebrate a birdie, great putt or some other event if the shots that lead to it weren't legit.

[NuclearMike]

I play by the rules as I know them and if I don't know something I carry the Rules of Golf in my bag.  I'm improving this year, as the year progresses, but I wouldn't be able to measure that if I played by different or non-existent rules each round.  My playing partners can do as they wish but I'm slowly moving them over to the side of playing under the rules, not just playing by the rules when it suits them to do so.

[darkhunter139]

The rules are part of what makes golf fun to me.  To each their own though, if you enjoy not playing by the rules then go for it, you are the one paying the greens fee not me.

[Wisguy]

Five thoughts:

1)  The OP is a troll.

2) I've never met a cigar smoker in my life who wasn't a thoughtless horse's ass and/or trying to compensate for one or more inadequacies.  Anyone who claims he likes the smell of cigar smoke is as full of manure as if he tried to claim he liked the smell coming out of a well-used litterbox.

3)  The rules requiring hitting a provisional and prohibiting dropping a ball near the place the tee ball was lost are utterly moronic and waste major amounts of time.  At least 50% of the time that I've ever seen anyone hit a provisional, it does not land anywhere near the original ball, so even if the player finds and plays his original tee-shot, he/she still wastes time going to retrieve the second shot.  And while I've never kept statistics, I'd say that a good third or more of the balls I lose are ones that appeared from the tee-box to be readily findable (i.e. didn't splash down in a pond or fly 100yards into the woods), so there is no apparent need to hit a provisional after the initial less-than-well-struck tee shot; after hunting for the ball for a few minutes, spending another 5 minutes going back to the tee, rehitting the tee shot, and then going to where the second tee shot lies will be sure to irk the crap out of the group behind you who were already ready to tee off.  Furthermore, requiring provisionals can be a waste of balls, when the subsequent ball(s) also enter the hazard or are otherwise lost.  For those who claim they never hit two bad tee shots in a row, I call BS.  I've watched two assistant pros this year alone slice consecutive drives to the far edge of the adjacent fairway which would have been lost on a lot of holes and while they were just muni course pros, I'm sure they're better players than most of the people on this board.

4)  Too many people on this board get hung up on whether or not other people are playing by the rules all the time, not just when money and competition are on the line.  One of my friends, whose scorecard is lower than mine sometimes by 20 strokes a round (plays about 4-10x as many rounds as I do in a given year and no matter how he fiddles bad lies, he nonetheless hits more fairways, greens in regulation, long putts, and chips close than I do) will play winter rules in July and August if he thinks no one is looking.  Another friend will, at least 3-5x/round, have temporary amnesia when counting how many strokes it just took for him to complete a hole and forget one to three of his shots.  But we don't play for money, both of them compliment me on good shots, help me look for lost balls, and neither ever brags about doing better than I did or try to rub my nose in bad play, so I enjoy playing with them and don't have a problem with their "course/scoring creativity."  I don't worry about what they're doing and it doesn't effect my game one bit.

5)  If you are playing with people whose on-course adherence to the rules you find suspect, don't bet with them at all or else limit bets to closest-to-the-pin wagers on the par-3 holes where everyone can see everything everyone else is doing and there is no chance to bend any rules.  If you are playing in a tournament, turn them in or if you have any doubts discuss the likely broken rule with them to verify if they know the rule, you actually saw what you think you saw, give them a chance to clean up their acts, etc...

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by Wisguy

Five thoughts:

1)  The OP is a troll.

2) I've never met a cigar smoker in my life who wasn't a thoughtless horse's ass and/or trying to compensate for one or more inadequacies.

Are you sure you're not a troll?

[Wisguy]

Originally Posted by sacm3bill

Are you sure you're not a troll?

Well, I've given it some thought and concluded the answer to your question is "No."

Let me guess, you're a cigar smoker?