What rule, or rules, do you ignore?

[Piz]

For example:  I and my fellow competitors, for practical reasons, often play out of order.  We take relief from dangerous life forms not specifically mentioned by the Lords on High.  We do not drop the ball, when taking relief, if it is certain to be an exercise in futility.  We adhere to the rules, for the most part, but practical necessity demands that we diverge, on occasion, from the straight and hallowed.  Any thoughts on the matter?

[Patch]

We give rattlesnakes the right of way as needed. Up north it is bison or maybe a moose.  What ever rules apply we try to take care of the infraction with a drop, and/or stroke. That's about it for me. 

Edited July 1, 2016 by Patch

[Lihu]

At least for the past three years, I haven't been in any situation where ignoring the rules was needed.

[bkuehn1952]

Our club has a 10 shot rule for our competitions.  I have not yet needed that "rule" but the last tap in has been my 10th a couple times.  

When I play solo I will leave the flagstick in when I can't see the hole and mentally tell myself I will waive the 2 shot penalty.  Haven't needed that either.

 

[Golfingdad]

Let's see:

I will occasionally tap one in with the flagstick still in, and I'll also occasionally take short gimmes.

I don't drop correctly all the time in casual rounds - sometimes it's just an underhand toss.  Nor do I measure exactly where two club lengths ends if it's obvious that there is no real difference in the ground conditions in that area.

I sometimes don't mark my ball on the green to clean it.  And I also will not give myself a penalty on the rare occasion where I bump the ball with my putter.

My friends and I give advice liberally, and ask what club each is using often.

Im sure there are plenty more, but that's al I can think of for now.

[DaveP043]

For non-tournament play, we abbreviate some of the procedures, kind of like what @Golfingdad mentioned...gimmes, leaving the flagstick in, cleaning the ball without marking, etc.  We very seldom give advice, unless its a fourball match.  

Probably the one rule we often "abuse" is a situation where multiple drops would be needed.  For instance, a cart path is running near a lateral hazard.  The right procedure for a ball in the hazard  might be to drop (twice) on the path (the ball rolls closer to the hole), then place the ball on the path, then take relief from the path.  In this case, we'll usually just take relief from the path immediately.  In tournaments, I play it the right way, 

[Martyn W]

9 hours ago, Piz said:

For example:  I and my fellow competitors, for practical reasons, often play out of order.  We take relief from dangerous life forms not specifically mentioned by the Lords on High.  We do not drop the ball, when taking relief, if it is certain to be an exercise in futility.  We adhere to the rules, for the most part, but practical necessity demands that we diverge, on occasion, from the straight and hallowed.  Any thoughts on the matter?

There is no penalty for playing out of turn. Dangerous situations are covered by 1-4/10.So both of those are not 'not playing by the Rules'. Not sure what you mean by "an exercise in futility".

[Groucho Valentine]

Leaving the flagstick in while i play, not marking the ball on the green, the usual stuff people do to speed themselves along. Golf isn't a court of law, so if you're not playing in a tournament you should just be enjoying the game IMO. A lot of golfs rules are tone-deaf and penal just for the sake of being penal. If you just play the ball as it lies you're ok 90% of the time. 

[rehmwa]

Sometimes, I'll ask for a little extra tabasco in my bloody from the cart girl.  I'm a rebel....

So some days there are no rules.  Other days I play strictly - these usually turn into some of my best rounds strangely enough.  Depends on my mood.  But typical things that slide partially during a 'relax and have fun' round:

• Don't pull the stick when putting
• Play a couple balls when it's an empty course, especially when I messing with course management options
• Don't bother searching for a lost ball at all
• Clean and place (not very often - play as it lies seems more fun)
• Dont use a marker when cleaning and replacing a ball for putting
• Mulligans (again, not often)
• Incorrect or expediting drops (as some note above)
• If my ball moves on the green a little bit I don't do anything

Hmmm - not much else (as far as I know) - I thought the list would be much longer

[Fourputt]

For dropping, the rules don't require that you measure, only that the ball hits the correct place when dropped.  I rarely measure unless it is truly necessary, even in a tournament.  

The only one I don't always follow in a casual round with friends is the classic "ball unexpectedly not found" situation where I didn't play a provisional ball because I didn't expect to not find my ball, and the course is too busy to go back to the tee (I don't really ignore it, but on a busy day in a casual round it makes little sense to follow it to the letter and piss off the folks behind you).  In that case, since it's usually my drive, I'll play out the hole with a drop and 2 strokes for the sake of any wager with my buddies, but I'll mark my card par plus stroke for handicap (basically an unfinished hole as far as handicap is concerned).  I still play a provisional ball in any doubtful situation.

[Piz]

"...exercise in futility" means, as DavePo43 pointed out, a situation in which dropping, dropping again, then placing is two steps too many.  If the ball is just going to roll right back into the pond, or briar patch, why go thru the motions?  As for playing out of turn...who draws lots?

[Fourputt]

2 minutes ago, Piz said:

"...exercise in futility" means, as DavePo43 pointed out, a situation in which dropping, dropping again, then placing is two steps too many.  If the ball is just going to roll right back into the pond, or briar patch, why go thru the motions?  As for playing out of turn...who draws lots?

As mentioned earlier, playing out of turn carries no penalty anyway, so why worry about it?  Even in our official men's club tournaments, where we do play strictly by the book, we still play ready golf for pace of play considerations.

[Shooting29]

During casual play we will abuse the provisional rule for the sake of time. There are 2 holes on my home course where you can't see if your ball cleared the hazard. The first occurs on the approach across a hazard. A weak fade which would land short right of the green is blocked by cattails. There is also a tree which can kick balls back into the hazard. The other is a tee shot where trees that are hazard block the view of the landing area if you over cut your drive or just take an aggressive line. 

[Lihu]

4 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

For instance, a cart path is running near a lateral hazard.  The right procedure for a ball in the hazard  might be to drop (twice) on the path (the ball rolls closer to the hole), then place the ball on the path, then take relief from the path.  In this case, we'll usually just take relief from the path immediately.  In tournaments, I play it the right way, 

I just learned this one last year. It actually doesn't take that long to take a club and tee out to properly mark everything. It gives me something to do too, since I usually am waiting for other people. Beats playing Angry Birds all the time.

The other thing I noticed in this thread is not marking the ball? This doesn't take any real time to do? Also, I find that it is a polite thing to do as a big white ball can sometimes be distracting for other people. I always mark, even if with odd objects I happen to have handy in my pocket. Even used my iPhone once, and the golfer just said it's okay, so I remarked with my car key.

[David in FL]

We'll occasionally tap in with the flagstick in too, even though there's really no reason to do so, and we freely exchange comments that would be construed as advice.

Probably our biggest violation is that although the rules don't allow it, we'll combine a match-play 4-ball with a larger group over-all Stableford on occasion.  It's really not hard to do if you keep in mind the primary importance of protecting the stroke-play field while playing your 4-ball.

 

[saevel25]

4 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

Im sure there are plenty more, but that's al I can think of for now.

I pretty much do the same. To add to that list, I sometimes I take liberty in hitting a provisional for practice purposes ;) 
 

 

[Fourputt]

38 minutes ago, Lihu said:

I just learned this one last year. It actually doesn't take that long to take a club and tee out to properly mark everything. It gives me something to do too, since I usually am waiting for other people. Beats playing Angry Birds all the time.

The other thing I noticed in this thread is not marking the ball? This doesn't take any real time to do? Also, I find that it is a polite thing to do as a big white ball can sometimes be distracting for other people. I always mark, even if with odd objects I happen to have handy in my pocket. Even used my iPhone once, and the golfer just said it's okay, so I remarked with my car key.

Marking your ball is not a rule requirement unless it is interfering or assisting the play of another player.  I can count on one hand the number of players I've met in 40 years who were bothered by a "big white ball" unless it was close to their ball or their line of putt, in which case I would have automatically marked it.  

I don't mark and lift except to quickly clean and replace unless I am near someone's line.  I usually only worry about cleaning my ball if it really is necessary to remove chunks of debris.  Marking, lifting, cleaning, replacing all take time.  Doing it 2 or 3 times on every green adds up to a lot of time.  On those relatively rare occasions when I see a player just walk to his ball, read, putt and continue until he's finished, I feel like giving him a standing ovation.

[Gator Hazard]

I'm sure there are still several rules I break unwittingly but the ones I know are: not pulling stick when I play by myself. My drops are not always perfectly by the book. If I hit a drive I expect to find and I don't I just drop and play with penalty. I'm not good enough to worry about all of the intricate details yet and not hold people back. Also I am not submitting rounds for handicap purposes or playing for money  

A few weeks ago I played all my balls as should have but on 18 I hit it horribly and it stuck on the side lip of a wasteland type bunker. One of the two guys I was paired up with said "that's not a last hole style drive play another one" haha. So I did!

Edited July 1, 2016 by Gator Hazard