What golf rule do you knowingly break?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Ahhh…the rules of golf.

I used to be a stickler…back in the day when I used to golf for my high school’s golf team. Every outing of golf was used to determine my handicap.

However, as time passed, and I started to find the game more and more expensive because I wasn’t getting junior rates anymore, I found myself having to find ways to stay close to that once heralded, but now unreachable 80. However, I resisted. I finally had to find a compromise. When I golfed with others, I let them do whatever they want (as long as they didn’t beat me doing it). However, I always tended to pretty strict standards which I learned from playing (unsuccessfully) in tournaments as a kid.

Alas, I gave the game up. Such is life. My last hole ever was number 18 on a course up in lake country. After a very challenging 17 holes, I found myself still sitting three strokes under 80. After all that work and practice, I only needed par on an easy par three to acheive my lifetime goal.

I always had trouble with approach shots…be it on the fairway or on the teebox. I always considered myself an “accuracy” guy, as my drives were not always the longest but always in the fairway. I had pretty good confidence on being able to get the ball on the green from within 200 yards given the non-complexity of the situation. I was a goner in the sand, for instance. However, a 140 yard shot from the tee with no water, no hills, and one small sand trap strategically placed right in front of the green seemed to be no problem at all for par.

I shot. I thought I had a hole-in-one. There was a slight dip in the center of the green, and my ball disappeared right where the pin appeared to be. I was the last shooter in the group, so I sprinted up to where my ball lay on the green…less than two feet from the pin.

Ahhhh…the thought of savoring the honors for that milestone put. I savored every minute of it. Two minutes previous, I was fretting about missing par for a potential 80. There I was, sitting on a two foot put for a 79!

I waited and waited as my partners scored bogeys around. Finally, my turn to put came. I felt no pressure. Putting was my game. Anything inside 20 feet without a severe break was a given. My putting average was actually close to 1.5 puts per green…and I guarantee that average wasn’t helped by the placement of my approach shots.

Two footer, no problem…except I missed it. I left myself with a three foot put for par. OK…time to settle down.

But I missed it again. Guess what? I missed it again, too. I had to settle for a double bogey shot from the lip of the cup. I couldn’t stand the frustration. I let twenty years of visiting the links 5-7 times a week with a strict adheration to the rules, one of which always cost me my 80, out in one fell swoop. I did something I always wanted to do but never dared. I teed off with my putter. I never found the ball, either. It could have quite possibly been my best drive ever. It went straight even though my feet weren’t planted. It disappeared some trees that stood about 250 yards away. I can guarantee one thing…that ball never did find the hole.

In my heart I have kept that 79. That is probably the only rule of golf that I have ever broken.

42

When you lose a ball it’s a penalty stroke. However, if you find any other ball on the course the stroke comes off. (Lost balls only, can’t pick one up from the foursome behind you)

43

bjohn13 I have so been there. Where I used to live, and where I learned to golf, I found one of my two golf nemeses. Hole #4, a 168 yard downhill terraced par 3. I played that course hundreds of times and never once scored lower than a 9 on that hole. Never hit the green off the drive, and the usual routine was to chili-dip the chip twice, line drive 60 yards over the green, overcompensate and make a couple of beautiful 20 yard lofts, putt from 10 yards off the green, then at best, two more putts.

Yet I could routinely make par on hole #3 and birdie par #5. I simply fell apart on that hole, no matter what. That drove home the mental part of the game. I still double bogie on any par 3 even if I’m having my A-game. Par 3 holes scare the hell out of me.

44

Okay… now I get it :slight_smile:

It doesn’t make much sense to me though, as I can’t figure out what one can do when the putter strikes the ball that one cannot do before then to assist in lining up the putt, other than perhaps saying “stop!” in the backswing if it doesn’t look good.

On a related note, I once caddied for my father in a team match play tournament, and aligned putts for him by standing behind the ball when he was addressing it (moving away before he putted). His putter was on fire throughout the tournament and his team made it to the finals, only to lose to the guys my brother was caddying for :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m not sure what happened there. The window went blank and a windows retry/cancel prompt popped up. I clicked on cancel a few times and it wouldn’t work, so I tried closing the window, but it wouldn’t close with the prompt open. So, I clicked retry, and voila! Double post.

Note the difference in posting times. I pressed the submit reply button and then left the computer for a few minutes. When I returned, I saw the message.

If you were playing in our group, you would have to finish the hole with your pants/shorts down to your knees :smiley:

I don’t have any particular nemesis hole, but I do have a nemesis course: Bethpage Black. Granted, I only played there once, but after that one round I’m afraid to player there again.

45

If I was to tap down a spike mark in the, ahem, process of fixing a ball mark I don’t think I’d have nightmares or anything. That’s a stupid rule anyway, except insofar as it might speed up play.

46

Sounds like there might be enough material to populate a “What golf holes always break you?” thread…
Inspired by TurboDog… the fourth hole at Penderbrook here in Fairfax is a murderous bastard. You’re just coming off hole number three, a benign par 3, and you face this monster. It’s a long par 5, trending up in elevation from the tee, hitting into a narrow fairway with a lateral water hazard (er… swamp) on the right and thick trees on the left. After 200 yards or so, and a vertical rise of fifty feet, the fairway opens up and runs another 200 yards, then sharply doglegs right and has a steep 20 foot rise over about fifty yards, with the green sitting at the top of that rise. The green itself is multilevel, so God alone can save you if you don’t plant the ball hard on the green… it’ll simply run away.

Fort Knox isn’t as well-defended as that damn hole.

I have never, NEVER, done better than a triple bogey on that hole. I pray for the day I may merely card a seven. There will be much rejoicing. I’ve done everything wrong on that hole it’s possible to do in the game of golf, and possibly invented some new things. I’ve been in the swamp and taken a drop. I’ve been in the swamp and eschwed the penalty by actually playing the ball where it sat. (Note: bad idea). I’ve hit a slice from the tee so bad it broke someone’s window.

I don’t know why. It’s not like I can’t hit a straight shot off the tee. But for some reason, that hole always confounds me. It has my number. It knows me. And it is always the victor. Even if I, by some miracle, hit the fairway with my drive, I can never seem to get enough muscle to get close to the dogleg for the second shot, which means that I never hit the green in regulation.

I could rant about that hole all day. I hate it.

And yet it draws me back, over and over.

  • Rick
47

I, too, have been known to be a geek about the Rules of Golf. In the league I play in I’m known as The Sherrif! I can usually make a ruling if one’s needed. I’m one of those guys who actually carries a rule book in their bag.

The rule about “honors” is slightly different for stroke play than for match play. In stroke play, playing out of order has no penalty and the ball is played where it lies. In match play, if you play out of turn, your opponent may require you to cancel the stroke played and then play a ball in the correct order from the same place, without penalty. Notice that if you were to play out of order and hit your ball out of bounds your opponent may just decide that you play that shot after all.

After saying all that, the groups I play with generally play ready golf and follow the correct order of play once everyone’s on the green.

Knowing the rules can be an advantage. If you know the proper procedures for when/how to take relief you can sometimes save yourself a stroke or two.

The complete Rules of Golf can be found at www.usga.org along with the more interesting Decisions. The Decisions are rulings that the USGA has been asked to make when it’s not perfectly clear what the proper procedure is (ex: ball lies inside a paper cup in hazard).

48

I love golf and I like to play it fast- it’s when I play the best. Having to wait to hit until the group in front of us moves on (who are waiting for the group in front of them - who are looking for a lost ball), is at times unbearably frustrating. We play ready golf and don’t worry about who has honors.

Eddie kicks the ball around a lot when he thinks no one is watching and calls this ‘winter rules’. He even will take my ball and place it in a better position if he gets to it first. I’ve cured him of trying to ‘help’ me and I always take his score with a grain of salt. But the score really isn’t too important to me, I just love golfing.

49

I’m not a big stickler for placement of lost balls - whether or not I’m playing for $. As I see it, you’re being penalized with a stroke and being in the rough. Don’t toss it out into the middle of the fairway, but you don’t have to overly penalize yourself either.

I play golf for enjoyment. When I get my handicap down to single digits, maybe I’ll rethink my approach. Ah - probably not!

What do you guys shoot?

Last year was the first I kept a USGA handicap. Shot pretty bad, finished up with a 17-something. I generally consider myself to be a bogey golfer. Hope to be right at or below 90 on most courses. Last year I had trouble even getting to 90. Gonna (gasp) take some lessons this year. Last year I worked too damn hard at my game and had too damn little to show for it. Working hard and playing shitty ain’t all that fun.

My goal for this year is to end up somewhere under 15 - maybe a 13.

50

Love to “work” on my game. I spend several lunch hours on the range or putting green, seems more relaxing than even my golf league.

As far as handicaps, I used to be a 5 but have slipped a bit. Probably around an 8 last year. Still, makes no difference if your good or not, just play the game in under 4 hrs. (even better 3 hrs.) and I happy.

51

No offense Disdane but can you really claim you have a handicap of “X” after admitting you cheat? I’ll admit you are a better golfer than I am ( I tend to play in the mid 90’s) but I would never consider handicapping a score if I didn’t follow the rules to a tee (ok, pun intended).

Don’t you have to attest to your score?:eek:

As long as all the golfers in you group play be the same rules than its not cheating on that day. But it is still cheating in the eyes of the USGA.

52

In response to the OP, I guess the two rules that get abused most often when I play in my usual groups are the lost ball and mulligans on the first tee.

If I play a ball and I know that I’m going to have a hard time finding I’ll play a provisional as allowed under the rules. But, if I hit a shot and then can’t find it where I swear that it went, I’ll drop one in the area and add a penalty stroke to speed up play. I realize it should probably be 2 strokes, because of the stroke-and-distance penalty, but that’s how we play it.

1st tee mullligans are easier to rationalize–we just simply abandon the round and start another. :wink:

The real test is the “gimme.” When do you allow them? How far out from the hole? Do you give one on a par putt?

53

Not to be snarky, but I’m basically in NYR407’s camp – if you feel no compunction about improving your lie in the middle of the fairway if you have the bad luck to end up in a divot, then your handicap numbers are more or less meaningless compared to anyone else’s.

In 1999, the last year I played with any frequency, I played to a 12 handicap. I don’t even want to speculate what I’d play to today… but that 12 was a solid, play-by-the-book scoring, takign course and slope ratings into account.

  • Rick
54

I’m a more of a hacker than a golfer. A good round for me is a 95. Even if I’m playing a par game, no matter where I am, there are always at least two holes where nothing goes right and I wind up with a 10. Where I learned to golf though, was on a course populated mainly by engineers and scientists. Government engineers and scientists, which made them more anal than usual. The all knew the rules inside and out and one day I wound up being put into a group of them. One hits a ball, it goes up against a sprinkler, he takes a drop. I hit behind a tree, take a drop and they penalize me. (Trees are different, son). A guy hits and there’s a stick in front of his ball so he moves it. I wind up in the bunker and move a stick and get penalized. (Can’t move sticks if you are in the sand, son). Guy goes beyond some stakes, and takes a drop. I go behind some stakes and get penalized. (I’m in a special hazard, you are out of bounds, son).

It was like playing poker with Ox. I just knew they were cheating the hell out of me, so when I got back to the clubhouse I bought the rule book, expecting a pamphlet, not a pocket Atlas. Learning the rules was a good thing. Saved a lot of frustration on my part, have settled many a disagreement on other courses, and it has made me a better golf partner and golfer. Knowing what not to do and what you are allowed to do can save many strokes if you wind up with an anal bunch or play in local tournaments. It made the game more fun.

55

I used to be such a stickler for the rules that my annual group to Myrtle calls me Finchem, jr., and will usually call by cell for rulings when we’re on the course. Of course this came about ‘cuz I found out after the first round on our first trip that half the gang was playing the ball down, and the other half was playing the ol’ one club no closer to the hole rule. Needless to say I won my money back. :smiley:

I got down to an 11.2 last year, but am going through the usual beginning of the season shenanigans were breaking 90 is a relief.

56

If you’re comparing handicaps to decide who is the better golfer, then they won’t be comparable, that’s true. If you use handicap to equalize play then it will be perfectly usable. A guy who plays a cheating 6 will give strokes to the guy playing a strict 12, to compensate for his cheating ways.

57

Hey, feel free to play the game however you wish.

And as Cheesesteak observes, why sweat it. My “cheating” artificially lowers my handicap. In a strict competition, you would benefit by giving me fewer strokes than I actually need.

With the guys I play with, handicaps are mainly used to figure out how many strokes to give each other. And I learned a long time ago, that focusing on the final score was an excellent way to make golf miserable for me. Like many of you, a good round is a fast round. Or one with a few good holes, or a couple of memorable shots. Or one where I view some beautiful landscape/animals/birds. Or have some good yucks with my pals. Or find more balls than I lose. And, if along the way I happen to shoot a good overall score, well - life is good.

IMO, strict adherence to each and every rule is - um - foolish for people who are way worse than pros, and play on way worse-maintained courses. I am sure I would feel differently if I played in a lot of intense competitions - tourneys, etc. But, mine is a far more social game. I guess I have the fortune - or misfortune if you consider it that - of playing primarily with similar “cheaters.”

I guarantee you this, my 17+ is FAR more accurate than the vast majority of bullshitters I hear talking as tho they have never encountered a snowman, despite playing some of the toughest courses around. To hear golfers talk, you wouldn’t guess there are as many hacks out there as there seem to be.

How do you feel about this one - keeping multiple handicaps? Or deciding which scores to enter for hcp purposes? I feel you should have only one hcp, and should enter every score, no matter how low or high.

58

I play with guys who routinely “cheat” by improving their lie, magically finding their ball that just sailed into the east 40 just on the edge of the fairway, start a game with 20 balls and end up with 2, but “never lost a single one”, etc. I think it’s funny because they try to be so sneaky while they kick a ball out of the woods and stuff. I don’t enforce the rules on who I play with, only myself because that’s who I play against. Except of course on beer holes:) I’m out there to beat my previous scores, and I like to know exactly how I’m improving/spiralling into hell from game to game. The guys I play with think I’m nuts. They are amused as hell when I penalize myself. We all make each other laugh:)

59

I think I play to a 12 or 13; not sure though. As indicated, moving a ball from roots or a bunker footprint could affect one’s score by a stroke or two (or even more, if you’re a chopper always knocking the ball into the trees or the bunkers). Where I play, the course conditions are above average, so these issues don’t come up often.

I was an 8 before law school though, with a career low of 73 (playing under tournament conditions, including no gimme putts :wink: ).

Living in the city, I’m lucky if I get to play once a week during the warm weather months.

60

They say Disdane, that when you cheat you are only cheating yourself. However, I just think you shouldn’t be claiming to have an actual handicap. If it is for the sole purpose of strokes differential between a group of friends that all play by the same rules then you are right, there is no real harm.

A man cheating by himself will be very cautious as to not get caught but a group of men cheating together will break more rules more often because no one is keeping them honest.

How easily that “free club length relief” becomes a little more and a little more…

Always followed by the line “Hey were not on the PGA”