Strike One

By intent, I mean reason. The intent of a rule is the reason for making the rule in the first place. The rules are there to make the game fair. I don't selectively interpret the rules to gain an advantage either. I was just saying that in an instance as trivial as brushing a leaf, it would be reasonable to forget about it and get on with the game. That's just my opinion. You can blow it out of proportion and misinterpret it all you want. I doubt there is anyone on this board who would actually call that one on themselves, although I'm equally sure that many would claim they would.

There is intent in every rule, otherwise it's meaningless. Sports are full of rules which are regularly broken, but a referee doesn't call each infraction unless the player gains an unfair advantage. If the refs called every infraction, games would take days to play. In golf, the player is often the referee and is relied upon to call the infraction based on his own judgment. Most rules are based on the premise of prohibiting an unfair advantage. Brushing a leaf is not gaining any advantage, so as far as I'm concerned, the player should have the option to use his own judgment as to whether to call it or not. By definition, the honor system is telling the player to use his own judgment. Nothing is cut and dry in this world. There are always exceptions and mitigating circumstances which are outside the letter of the law.

I play a lot of different courses, usually as a single, so I don't know of any one guy that is particularly annoying. The people I do find particularly annoying are the ones who don't pay attention to anyone else on the course. The worst is the guy who stops at his ball on the fairway to answer his cell phone, then has a lengthly conversation while people are waiting for him to play. Cell phones should be banned from the course. Also in the oblivious category is the guy who plays multiple balls while someone is waiting behind him. If there's nobody on the course, I'll play multiple balls sometimes just to practice, but never when there's someone behind me. Drunk golfers are always annoying. I don't begrudge anyone a beer or two during a round, but when they start getting loud and obnoxious, running their cart into shit and acting like fools, it just detracts from the game.

In the example above, the player could have retained his honor by ignoring the fact he brushed a leaf because he didn't violate the intent of the rule. He gained no advantage, even though he technically violated the rule. The intent of the rule is what counts in my opinion. In theory, the laws (rules) of this country are also supposed to be honorable, but we all know how true that is. People lose respect for the law because those who make the rules have very little, or any, honor. There are so many ridiculous laws that people are forced to decide which ones to follow and which ones to ignore. Consequently, honor takes a back seat to practicality. You can be quite an honorable person and still not honor every law. Golf is one of the last bastions of a moral code which used to be quite common. In our society, honor is fine for the other guy, but winning is the most important thing. Sponsors don't endorse the most honorable players, only those who win. There is no tangible reward for being honorable. It therefore becomes a liability when the end goal is the lowest score. The player in question obviously derives motivation from his faith. His strict moral code forbids him from violating even the most trivial infraction of a rule. Is this really practical, or even reasonable? What purpose does it serve other than to relieve a guilty conscience? How about the player who only finds honor in winning, and where losing is shameful? Should his code of ethics be any less valid?

I admire the guys integrity, but calling a penalty on yourself because you may have brushed a leaf is just ridiculous in my opinion. He certainly didn't gain and sort of advantage in his lie, which is the intent of the rule. I wonder if he would turn himself in for jaywalking, or spitting on the sidewalk?

A large percentage of women have a high potential for drama, especially when it comes to anything "dangerous". They'll get hysterical over the lamest things. The woman I hit had a right to be upset, but her reaction was still typical of high strung, over pampered, "entitled" female. She kept yelling "you hit me!" over and over again, like I did it on purpose. She really wanted her pound of flesh. She made her husband go into the clubhouse and get a giant icepack, which she had under her shirt, for a non injury. No welt, no swelling and you couldn't see any mark besides a slight redness. I'm not saying it didn't hurt, but talk about over reacting. She even got on my case for finishing out the hole before coming over to see if she was alright. The woman obviously doesn't understand the game.

Oh, come on. I took full responsibility and never said it was the lady's fault. This is the first person I've ever hit with a golf ball, and I've played behind plenty of slow parties. It was an accident, that's all. If you get into a rear-ender because you were following too close to the car in front of you, should you lose your license?

It was slower than usual on the course yesterday, and we were fighting daylight. The foursome in front of us were taking their sweet time: hacking, reloading and hacking again. We spent a lot of time waiting, but patiently played along. The ninth hole is a dog leg right after about a 270 yard straight fairway. I consider it a good shot for me if I can roll it up to the turn. The foursome in front of us were on about their fourth or fifth shot when they finally made the turn and started heading for the green. After waiting a good 10-15 minutes for them to get out of range, I finally teed up my ball. I was aiming at the center of the fairway, which was clear, and hit the ball. I pushed it to the right, straight towards one of the foursome's cart, which had stopped unexpectedly. However, they were so far beyond my normal range I didn't even occur to me that I might hit them. I lost the ball in flight and was just picking up my tee when I heard a distant "Owwww, you hit me!" I thought, what the F......?? I Immediately apologized profusely, not knowing what else to do. She was at least 280 yards away, and we were all in disbelief that the ball carried that far. The lady was not happy, and I don't blame her. I've been hit by balls before, and it's not pleasant, but it's one of the hazards of the sport. They drove off and left for the clubhouse, and we finished the hole. Of course, she was waiting for me at the turn. She steps in front of us and says "Who hit that Ball!". I told her that I did, apologized again, and tried to explain that it was an errant shot that surprised me as much as it did her. She was not satisfied with any amount of remorse on my part, and wanted to let me know how she felt in no uncertain terms. I stood there as she vented her spleen, lifted up her shirt to show us the impact zone (slight redness), and tried to be as sympathetic and polite as I could. There came a point though when enough was enough. I politely excused myself and headed to the tenth tee as her verbal onslaught faded into the distance. I wasn't as though we had been hitting up on them either. We were polite and patient the whole time, even as this lady kept hitting her shots in the pond, out of bounds and off to the side of the tee on the previous hole. Nevertheless, she just couldn't accept that accidents happen occasionally. I didn't even bring up the fact that she cost me another 20-30 yards on that drive she stopped, but then I'm forgiving by nature. I managed to par the hole anyway.

I don't know if this qualifies for a quirk, but I like to hunt for lost balls. I enjoy going down into a creek, or off in the woods to collect balls. Maybe I never got over Easter egg hunts as a kid. I have tons of balls, and certainly don't need any more, but I can't help it. I'll come home all scratched up and bloody from scrounging through blackberry bushes, and the wife just shakes her head.

I hear OJ's got a mean slice.

Micromanaging the body is the key to disaster. I have one or two swing keys I keep tabs on, then let the body do the rest. One of the hardest things in golf is telling the mind to shut up and let things happen. I was talking to my son about putting, which I've always struggled with. He said someone told him to look at the hole instead of the ball when putting, (a technique I had never heard of before, but may be quite familiar to you guys). It initially struck me as kind of goofy, but the more I thought about it, the more it kind of made sense. I tried it and it worked great! My body just needed to see where the hole was and how far the ball needed to go in order to be more accurate. I don't need to keep my eyes on the ball in order to hit it, so why not put them to better use. The body works best with minimal input from the mind.

My oldest son flew into town yesterday with a friend of his, so we decided to go out and play 9 holes at the local muni course. My youngest son also joined us to make it a foursome. The weather was perfect, the course uncrowded, we didn't keep score and had a great time. We ignore all the bad shots, cheered the good ones, made spontaneous side bets on impossible shots and scrounged around in the creek when we ran out of balls. I usually play alone, and get all wrapped up in how well I'm hitting my shots. If we'd kept score it would have spoiled a great round of golf. Sometimes you just have to get out and enjoy everything else the game has to offer, which in my case was simply being able to spend an afternoon with my sons. I guess I forgot how much fun golf can be if you just let it take you wherever it goes.

How about A Slice of Life. Or maybe with a soap opera theme, As the Wedges Turn. Days of our Drives, All My Chipping...

Professional golf is first and foremost entertainment. John Daly is a great source of entertainment, so people pay attention to him. Sponsors only care about one thing, getting their product exposed to as many people as possible. TV executives only care about one thing: how many people watch their show. Ticket sales are peanuts compared to TV contracts and sponsor money. John Daly makes a lot of money for these people so he gets to play. Sooner or later golf will be turned into a reality show.