Is golf really a gentlemen's game with money on the line?

[Gunther]

For skins in our league, we do 3/4 th handicap to temper the high handicap players. Still majority of the money goes to C & D players in our league.

Guess that's ok in league play. Our league pays out net and gross in most events.

[ghalfaire]

I agree, skins should be straight up. I'll give strokes in stroke play but not on skins.

I think the way it is usually handicapped is for the low handicap player to play "scratch" and the higher handicap player to play to the difference between his and your course handicaps.  This seems to work pretty well if the differences in handicaps are small, but it doesn't seem to work so well when difference begin to approach 8-9 strokes.

[Jeremie Boop]

For skins in our league, we do 3/4 th handicap to temper the high handicap players. Still majority of the money goes to C & D players in our league.

Skins in our league are scratch, the handicap is only applied to the score vs your opponent. Typically there are only 1 or 2 skins won anyway and those are won by the better players. I never bother getting into the skins game myself.

[newtogolf]

Gentleman's game means to me that we all follow the rules and call penalties on ourselves, it doesn't mean offer charity to your opponent to assist him in beating you.

[Fourputt]

Is golf really a gentlemen’s game when money/competition is on the line?  It seems a few of the rules are not very “gentleman” in nature …

I can repair a divot, but not a spike mark?  In my delusional mind I see that unfolding as:

Player A is lining up a putt, and surely is about to win the match.  He stops to tap down the spike marks … Player B says “oh no you didn’t!”  You must play it as the rub of the green my friend …  Player B is obviously trying to limit Player A success factor of making the putt, or it seems to me anyway.

I think there are few others, but don’t want to debate a particular rule.

Wouldn’t a gentleman allow you to repair a spike mark?  Give you a “fair” chance to make the putt?

It just seems like when money is/was on the line being a gentleman takes second place to winning.

On a side note, I also chuckle at rules in car racing the same way (and I am NOT a racing fan), but when someone figures a way to go faster, the looser figures a way to inhibit it, so the field is more "level" and nobody can dominate.

Please notice I said some rules … not all rules … I agree with just about all the rules, I even get the stroke and distance rule … but for a “gentleman’s game” sometimes I wonder about a few rules …

Just a thought I have sometimes …

I enjoying hearing different views ... its how we all learn, if we remain open minded ...

The first player was not acting as a gentleman when he breached a rule in a round where the rules were apparently agreed as being in effect.  Being a gentleman does not mean that you have to ignore rules violations, it means that you treat your opponent with respect within the rules, and play within the rules yourself.

If at the start of the match it was agreed that you weren't playing by the rules of golf, and "customized" rules were in effect, then you had better settle on what those rules consist of ahead of time.  That sort of game adds too many complications for me.  If I'm playing stroke play for money, then I'm playing by the real rules, all of them, and any breaches will be penalized as required.

If it's match play, we are still playing by the rules, but now I have the option of ignoring a minor breach if I so choose.  I don't have the option of agreeing with my opponent to ignore a rule.

[hilmar2k]

Skins in our league are scratch, the handicap is only applied to the score vs your opponent. Typically there are only 1 or 2 skins won anyway and those are won by the better players. I never bother getting into the skins game myself.

It's as if I typed that post myself...

No skins for me, though I would have won a couple this year already.

[meenman]

I agree, skins should be straight up. I'll give strokes in stroke play but not on skins.

to be fair, all of the guys in my normal group get 3-5 strokes from me. If I did not give them any strokes in skins games, I would always win everything and they would stop playing. It is fair because I can call them sand baggers as they try to claim that my putter is illegal.