At 10:51 AM 10/11/2005, Alan Brooks wrote:
I always thought the rules were for USGA tournaments and establishing
indexes to be used in those tournaments.
The rules are for golf competitions. If you don't follow them, you're not
playing golf. You're playing a golf-like game, but it's not golf.
Sorta' like playing the touch football we did in the Bronx when I was
growing up and saying it's football. And yes, we did mean that when we
said, "Wanna go out and play some football." And everybody in the crowd
knew that's what we meant. (Hey, no pads or helmets, and a paved playing
field. It BETTER be what we meant.) To us, it WAS football. But was it REAL
football? Of course not! And we knew it. On Sunday mornings, we'd go out
and play "football", then adjourn to somebody's living room and watch Football.
But I don't think golfers know they're seldom actually playing golf unless
they think hard about it. The surveys keeps saying, "We want to play the
same rules the pros do," but nobody I know actually does except at tournaments.
If you're playing for fun, can't you use any rules you want? Including
any equipment you want?
Or no rules at all. If you're playing for fun rather than competing, rules
simply don't matter. I have a friend who ignores the rules totally. But
he's honest about it; he doesn't write any numbers on the scorecard either.
I work at a local course occasionally and we don't care what rules you
play casual rounds with, as long as you aren't tearing up the course (or
risking tearing up the course) and are maintaining your pace of play.
The course should never care whether the rules are being followed, just the
considerations you mention.
But what about your opponents if you're competing? Most "pickup"
competitions don't even talk about what rules they are using. The tacit
assumption is that it's the Rules of Golf. But as soon as something out of
the ordinary happens, you quickly find out that they "follow the rules
selectively", as David Fay puts it. And unless everybody agrees on what
rules to selectively follow, the competition can become a shambles. Among
the things I see all the time -- even when there's money at stake -- include:
- Moving the ball to a better lie on the fairway.
- Moving the ball to a better lie anywhere.
- Drop with 1 stroke penalty for ball lost or OB.
- Relief from unplayable lie means "drop out of trouble".
- Cleaning globs of mud off the ball.
- Teeing off in front of the tee markers.
- Etc, etc, etc
These all contribute to an enjoyable, stress-free game, sure -- until
there's a competition and maybe money involved. But I never see anybody
agree beforehand on which rules are to be suspended. And, unfortunately,
not everybody has the same preconceptions about which rules shouldn't
apply. If you're competing, this is not a good situation.
DaveT
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