OT: Golf Thu - Golf Rules
There is probably nothing that sets golf apart from all other sports more than its strict adherence to some of the most asinine rules in all of sports.
Thankfully, some of the worst ones have been recently addressed (fix spike marks on greens, drop ball on lost ball, leave the flag in, etc.). But there are still many rules that sow a great deal of confusion for recreational golfers.
Tell me the golf rules you hate the most. Also mention the most frequently violated rules that you see when you play a round.
For me, the rule that I see people break the most is "play the ball as it lies". People improve their lie practically every chance they get. I personally like this rule as it throws in randomness/challenges to your playing, but I think this is probably the public enemy #1 when it comes to recreational golfers.
Unless you're playing somebody for money, why care if somebody moves the ball out of a divot or 2 feet away so they dont break there club on a tree? I play to have fun, sometimes it's more fun to take the mud off a ball in the fairway or move it here and there.
If we are playing for money, I get it.
Exactly. If you’re not playing for money or a trophy the game ought to be about fun, camaraderie and exercise.
In pick up hockey we don’t play offsides or icing, we are very liberal on when a goalie has covered the puck, and penalties usually mean you dump the puck back to the other team and play on.
Same or similar things happen in other pick up sports too.
Why would social golf be different?
To the point of playing for money: I play in a group that plays for more money than I'd care to admit. We play roll the ball in the fairway within 6 inches. The only time we play the ball down is when it's a tourny.
Same here. Play a skins round almost every week and our rule is you get to roll the ball to get a better lie as long as you don't move it from a hazard or give yourself a better line to the green.
I don't mind it at all during a casual round. It actually helps me a great deal because people who do it frequently have artificially low handicap and makes it easier to beat them when we play for money :)
But I also have to remind a lot of people not to do it when we DO play for money, because they are so used to doing it during their normal round.
If I'm playing a casual round of golf on a muni course, you're goddamn right I'm going to be moving my ball out of their shitty groundskeeping conditions. I'm not playing on hard packed dirt because they don't know how to keep grass alive.
It's hard because soon you have people calling lies "divots" that aren't really divots and it adds subjectivity that golf does not benefit from.
PS - in matches, opponents can always agree on rule deviations.
People modify rules all the time for recreational sports. Ever play pickup basketball? We’re playing to 11 by 1’s and 2’s, call your own fouls, take it up top, have to pass it in. That said, my golf leagues all modified things because we aren’t pros. We could move the ball with our club head to get a better lie, we could get a club length’s relief from trees, etc.
When players hit it into a ball mark or divot in the fairway, they should get a free drop. No reason why someone should be punished for hitting an accurate drive.
I also hate the lost ball rule. I hit a very high ball. In the spring, when it's still really soggy, I have lost balls in the fairway because they plug more times than I can remember. My league is pretty lenient and if everyone in the group agrees on a spot, they'll let me drop a new ball without penalty. But in high school, I would get so pissed about having to go back and re-tee and take a penalty.
100% agree, especially for all of us recreational golfers. There is nothing worse than hitting a GREAT drive - only to lose it in the sun, fog, rain, etc. etc. and then not be able to find it. You just ''know'' when you hit a great drive... The sound....The feel....etc.
The group that I play with calls these shots "TV Balls".... Meaning.. If we were pro's, we'd have a camera tracking our ball, or volunteers/crowd members pointing out to us where the ball ended up.
When we institute a TV Ball, we don't count a stroke, and most of the time just let the person drop their ball where they believe it could have landed.
I'd argue that if you can't find your ball, then you didn't hit a GREAT drive.
How is it not a great drive if it plugs in the fairway when it's wet?
Sure plugged balls happen. I was talking more to the or fog examples. Great drives end up in or near the fairway, even if you lose sight of them they should be easy to find.
ive hit a number of drives that sounded on the screws and ended up pulled into the trees, or leaking into the water.
you'd be arguing incorrectly
Agree on lost balls. I don't penalize myself. I just find a reasonable location and play from there. If I'm playing for skins or some kind of bet, I clear it with the other players. I always say "Tiger Woods never loses a ball in the rough" because there are ten thousand eyes watching it.
I never penalize myself if I lose a ball in an area that isn't meant to be difficult to find a ball in. I hit 300+ yards on my drive when I really grab a hold of it, meaning I'm often hitting over a hill or through a blind dogleg or some such. If I'm not hitting into a forest or bushes or some such and I can't find my ball, you're goddamn right I'm taking a free drop. If it were a major tournament there would be spotters keeping an eye on where it lands. I'm not penalizing myself because I don't have that luxury.
Sure you do
This is from my round last week. Since I got new clubs it's not uncommon to drive 310+.
Same, I call it the gallery rule.
Mulligans irk me. That being said, I haven't played a round in 10 years. Anyone want some cheap golf clubs?
Are they any good?
Nope. Crap clubs from KMart. They might be antiques, though.
Not a rule, but I hate it when the starter pairs a random with my group.
Find a 3rd friend.
Ha, based on your post, I bet the random guy probably hates it too! :)
In my game, the whole "accurately record your stroke total" stuff is right out. Dumb rule.
Right --- if you "estimate" rather than accurately record your strokes, never play golf with a CPA. He --- or she --- is often very much aware of the number of strokes/puts you've taken to get the ball in the cup, and will immediately correct any inaccurate "estimate."
If its OK with you, I'll give you one I like and one I don't.
The one I like: on the tee, if you haven't officially addressed the ball and accidentally hit the ball as part of a practice swing, it doesn't count and you can go grab the ball and proceed tee it up again without penalty. See an example in the link at 0:14 for Zach Johnson at the Masters a few years back. I use this excuse all the time now if I have a shitty shot off the tee. Hehe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ZkOtB41NY
The one I don't like: not being able to ground the club in a trap. This doesn't just apply to sand traps, but anything beyond a red stake (which could be perfectly acceptable rough grass). The trap alone is enough of an issue, but why compound it by not allowing you to ground your club?!
I don't necessarily like the rule, but I get why you can't ground your club in a competitive game for money/trophy. Doing so can setup a better shot by changing the lie of the ball. Take a trap, for instance, where grounding the club can remove sand from behind the ball and allow the clubhead to get further under it. You get a much better shot as a result. Same with heavy/rough grass - you can't do that on the fairway, why should you be able to if you hit a bad shot to get there?
Of course, if you're just out with friends for a fun round, ground that club! God knows I do...
That’s easily remedied by the putting a one line provision that states you can’t improve your lie. I should be allowed to ground my club ( in a trap in particular) a couple feet away and gauge how deep the sand is and be able to see how thick the rough is if you’re in the hazard.
Grounding the club makes the shot easier by giving the player a better idea how hard or soft the sand is in the particular trap. Not allowing you to ground the club is designed to make hitting in to the trap more punitive.
Yes, I totally understand that. But isn't just having to hit out of the sand punitive enough?
You can now ground your club in a red or yellow marked penalty area. The rule was changed in 2020.
I remember seeing something a few weeks ago with Phil and Louis both hitting into the bunker at the PGA Championship where they asked for a ruling/re-rake after Louis hit his ball first. I understand raking after the stroke but never understood why they needed a ruling.
Local rules that week said there were no bunkers, just sandy areas. It changed the normal rules for bunker play, this was why they probably wanted a ruling. Didn't want to make a mistake and lose a penalty stroke.
Also not really a rule but a general gripe is the pace of play. I'm either way too fast or too slow for the group in front or the group behind.
I only follow the rules when the cameras are on me.
I'll always move the ball to give myself a better lie. (Incidentally, isn't it funny that where your ball lands is called a lie? That about sums up my recorded golf score.)
Also, my son and I agreed that sand boxes are where kids play, and that golf course architects need to treat us like adults and not expect us to play in sand boxes. If we land in one, we're allowed to pull the ball out to the closest grass. He works at a golf course and will frequently come home with bags of golf balls that they've found on the course. So...if the first shot ends up in the woods, we hit a 2nd, then a 3rd, etc., until we get one that is playable. That playable shot is the one we count. Pretty neat, huh?
You're missing out on playing in the sand. With a little practice, green side bunker shots are fun. It's the only shot where you don't even have to hit the ball.
Golf does indeed rule. Thanks OP for the enjoyable weekly read.
hate: 5 minutes to look for lost ball. should be 1 minute.
"play it as it lies" is fine and all, but most people don't play on PGA courses. I'm 100% moving my ball to clean turf if I hit the ball in the fairway and it's a less than ideal lie.
most violated: stroke and distance, red/yellow hazard type scoring.
Pros have the benefit of clocking people in the head with their shots which prevents the balls from going OB. I have had thousands of shots that would have been much better off if it struck someone in the noggin.
The time for a ball search was reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes in 2020.
Stroke and distance for OB. Re-teeing an OB shot is ludicrous. It should be treated the same as a hazard. Determine where it last crossed and drop within two club lengths with on penalty stroke. That’s how I play it with my buddies
I agree, but shouldn't you always hit a provisional if you even think you might be close to OB?
One of the reasons for stroke and distance for OB is to penalize you for hitting a ball where it's not supposed to go (typically other people's houses). red hazards are part of the course that keep the game moving by not making you waste time looking for a ball.
The adaptation of this rule I like the most is keeping the distance, drop in the middle of the fairway, +2 strokes. No wasted time for provisionals etc.
So what you’re saying is:
I tee off and it goes OB.
I head down to the middle of the fairway and drop a ball that is no closer to the hole than where my ball went OB and am now hitting stroke 4?
I’m ok with that. I would think the rule would have to read something like “the player, with a two stroke penalty, may drop a ball in a location of his/her choosing that is no closer to the hole than the point at which the shot crossed the boundary.”
it’s different than any other drop rule (usually it’s a club length or two club lengths from the spot). But it’s already different than anything else so….sure why not.
Yes. It’s like you re-teed and and hit a good ball without wasting the time to actually do so. I recall USGA looking into this rule or adapting it for pace of play reasons a few years ago.
I hate that they actually want you to count all your strokes accurately. I've always thought that scores should be estimated and rounded down.
It's not a rule, but the thing I hate the most about golf tends to be the other golfers on the course. They're a bunch of pieces of shit.
One set of rules I've never heard talked about in recreational play are those regarding giving and receiving advice. I guess you're not supposed to give (or receive) advice about how to play a hole or swing a club, etc. Only caddies and partners (match play) are allowed to do this.
I don't know the purpose of this rule when the golfer still has to execute the shot.