Jerry Tarde’s 10 Rules he sees broken
I can relate to this. As Bobby Jones said there are 3 kinds of golf: Everyday, Competitive and Championship. On Saturday mornings, especially now, the range is closed, the putting and chipping areas are not opened until the first group goes off… so we do offer each other a “BREAKFAST BALL” on the first tee. Meaning you can hit 2 drives, but if you hit the second you must play that. Then the round starts. We do play the leaf rule in the fall. We don’t allow more than 2 minutes to look, drop no penalty where entered about 2 ft in the leaf pile… you don’t get a “Free Drop” without a little bit of a challenge!. We do roll the ball in the fall… I love our course, but it is one big divot. Bunkered? Ball in footprint? We allow a smooth out and placement. As far as putting, we do keep stroke play scoring, we do allow gimmes because we all are playing matches, BUT, lets say your competitor is way out of a hole and you are on the green in 2, you gotta putt out, just not giving you a 3,4 or 5…earn it for the post! (if that makes sense) Now when it comes to real competition… we follow all the rules as posted by the committee. Anyone else follow their own set when you play everyday golf. BTW, I do carry 2 Drivers in my bag. I just declare one out of play for the round depending on course conditions in the fall and winter. They are both completely different…one has a higher ball flight, the other is a lower ball flight. Saves a trip back to the parking lot.
I can see it, Mike. On the one hand, preparing for those bad breaks in your ordinary rounds can make them a much smaller shock when they happen in a “serious” round.
On the other hand, Life’s short. This game is already difficult. Why make it more so? Especially as a lot of those situations wouldn’t arise with a more diligent playing population or course. (Divots would be filled, bunkers raked, leaves removed.) Why suffer because our fellow golfers are negligent? OK, our handicaps might be a tad lower than they “should”, if we’re submitting that score at all. But that just hurts us, and nobody else, as I see it.
I am no longer playing competitive golf at age 60 plus. I’ll leave that to the younger guys. I will however, if someone wants to play me or me and one of my partners even up, play a more serious round of golf and play the ball down and putt everything out if they so choose. I still know how to play competitive golf and my brain can function under that gear. Today, I play for fun and a few shekels and bragging rights now. The new technology of breaking down every single aspect of your swing etc… is fascinating to me. I tried watching, and reading…I believe it was Scott Fawcett, who took a few of his students or disciples out to watch a professional tournament and he was pointing out to them, the Pros don’t walk on water, they aren’t as good as you think. I got absolutely ROASTED on here for saying he was promoting crazy. I had the good fortune to have played actual rounds of golf with major championship winners and 2 of them were in their absolute prime. I know how good they are! And I know this is a little off topic, but it kind of is on topic about how mortals, including guys on here that believe all this stuff is going to lead to the promised land…NO IT WON’T, JUST HAVE FUN. So what do I mean? Promised land of scratch golf… No, it’s the scratch golfer that isn’t that good… you aren’t going to get there for 2 reasons…if you’re reading this, you’re probably too old now, and YES, the PROs, who we seem to base all of OUR STATS on, ARE THAT GOOD. These player stats will blow your mind I enjoy the walk, I enjoy my friends and the company, I really enjoy breaking stones, I enjoy lunch and the different menus and brewski’s all the places we go have. One is absolutely the BEST BBQ in our area! I’m not shooting anyone down, used to take our game seriously enough that I would break out in hives if I wasn’t “playing well” These new stats that are being tracked probably would have caused me less hives because I would have found out sooner…I really wasn’t that good EVER! Better than the average bear yes, nothing more though!
I play mainly at my club in a fair amount of tournaments and with friends or other members. In tournaments we follow the rules of course and it’s gotten stricter as membership has grown. There are a couple of rules that I know have been broken in tournaments, but they are semi-specific to our tournaments. One is taking a drop from OB with a 2-stroke penalty. Our club does not allow that in tournaments (you must re-tee), but groups have allowed players to do it to speed up play feeling that this player was not going to win and was not gaining any real advantage over others in the field. Also for some reason we have had the One Ball rule in effect, but no one cares if you hit a ProV in the hazard and then drop a Srixon in play.
I only started playing in club tournaments about 7 years ago and even friendly money matches were a bit loose with the rules. Now even playing with friends on weekends are very strict rule-wise. We figure it keeps us in shape for tournaments and we always have a few dollars so no one is letting you get free relief from the tree roots or a fairway divot. I’m not a big gambler like some of my friends, but I do think gambling can promote following the rules in golf lol.
Tournament or competitive golf is a different game than everyday golf. I rarely gamble outside of our Saturday Group, if at all. If we did, we’d play Rules of Golf. Cuz, no one know our local rules. The Saturday Group we’ve been playing together for 18 years. It’s just one big “ball-bust” for 4hours and we really have fun. I mean we roll in the fairway, do you know how fun it is, to stand by your pod, he rolls the ball to a perfect fw lie and you just toss a tee on the ground at an opportune time! Or you walk up to your partners ball and step on it in the fairway to make him lift and clean their ball. or whatever! It’s the best! And we cheer great shots, and laff at bad ones… I’m only competitive with myself now… I hope that makes sense!
I completely agree, anyone claiming Tour pros ‘aren’t as good a you think’ is plain wrong they are better. The point is well made in that article that tour pros beat scratch golfer stats in every category. When playing under tournament conditions on 7500 yard course vs scratch golfers on their home tracks.
Just because they hit the odd bad shot (largely because they are trying to do difficult things every shot) doesn’t not mean they are not gods when it comes to golfing ability. TW shot a 10 on a par 3, did it make him crap? No he birdied every hole after that for the rest of the round.
Being out, with friends, playing golf, seeing new places and great countryside, meeting new people and having fun. That’s what I’m ‘here’ for. So if someone says…this is close to a root, can I move it, I don’t want to break my wrist/club…fine, who cares?
I got really messed up hitting a tree root. So, in a match that means something…chip it out… with “the boys”… MOVE IT—NO PENALTY! BTW, this is gonna sound nuts but, 4 weeks ago, one of my partners CX and we replaced him and then on Friday before the round changes his mind… we didn’t have room, so he played with another group and I still don’t have the full story, but big D is 67yo, has a sore back anyway but is playing our 11th hole which is over a ravine…not the SPIETH SHOT at Pebble, but still severe…he’s on the edge from what I heard… with us, he would have been told move the damn ball a$$hole! but anyways…he played it down, lost balance, tumbles backwards about 40ft…into the creek bed and BREAKS HIS RIGHT LEG! So maybe we get him back in June! What was he thinking? Well he’s definitely not having FUN!
BTW, even though that article on Golf Monthly posted what appears to be fractional differences… Yea well those fractional differences are like light years between us mere mortals and those guys!.
I play with a group of guys who all do their best to play by all of the rules. I generally play by the Rules even in the most casual rounds. For me, golf is the most fun when playing by all the rules, and as you say, it definitely carries over when playing actual competitions.
But to add to the list in the original article, the single rule I see violated most often is dropping in the wrong place when taking free relief. When taking free relief from an Abnormal Course Condition, you are required to go to the NEAREST Point of Complete Relief from that ACC. If that means you have to drop in a bush, or your stands is in a Penalty Area, that’s life, you can always choose to play the ball as it lies. Or you can take Unplayable Ball relief. But its the NEAREST point of complete relief, not the Nicest.
True I’ve seen that quite a bit. Many players knowingly break the rule for an advantage, but I have seen players just not fully understand it as well. I’ve seen drops off cartpaths where the player had the right idea with the nearest point no closer to the hole, but then they have one foot on the cartpath so now they haven’t taken complete relief. I did this a few times when I first started playing thinking I was only allowed to get relief for the ball and my club hitting the cartpath.
Some guys will tell me “I get complete relief, I don’t have to drop in that bush”. When I explain that Complete Relief means only relief from the cart path, they get a very confused look.
One of the hugest arguments I ever encountered was someone taking a drop from cart path because they had widened their stance slightly (maybe an inch or so) and were entitled to relief because part of the stance was on the path. The players ball was stymied by a large tree. There were 2 players who were insistent the player had to keep tree in line and I was nope, it’s the nearest point of relief NO CLOSER TO THE HOLE!. So the player in taking his proper drop got 1 club length into a decent lie and proceeded to make a par. He also played an improper drop keeping the tree in line as a stymie and proceeded to make 7. After the round the pro (who was the rules guy for the tournament) inspected the call and awarded the 4. Just to rub salt into the wound, the 4 gave the player a tournament win by 2 shots. Sometimes the rules work more for you than against you…
Yeah I had an argument with a guy in my league over that. He kept saying “but I don’t have a swing under these bushes”. He wanted to drop closer to the hole. I told him to play 2 balls, 1 where he is allowed and 1 where he wanted and then ask the pro when we got in, but he refused that as well. He dropped illegally. On the plus side it made me so mad I beat him the last 4 holes to win and the pro agreed with me. Not to defend him, but we do have some “bad” areas on our course like that. You’re on the cartpath and have nowhere to go. Even if you took an unplayable there is nowhere (good) to go in a few places. In those spots the cartpaths are dirt so I will usually just hit from the path.
Dave…
I actually have a interesting rules question for regarding a sand penalty area. I played my shot out of the bunker no complaint, but here is the question, We had a pretty steady rain Saturday and alot of the sand got kinda washed out. There are some plastic flexible drainage pipes along the edges of 2 of our bunkers and the rain exposed them. My stance was actually on one… the pro reamed me when one of my partners was talking about the nice bunker shot I played and he was standing on that 8inch flex pipe… The pro goes are you an a$$hole?, put a hole in that and that’s an expensive repair…don’t ever do that again! Move the ball! Technically, do you play that as it lies (there is no local rule on it, but now I think there will be) or does one drop in the bunker…all the rules we break…and I get reamed for what I think is playing the ball as it lies…I didn’t think (other than casual water) there would be an ACC in a sand penalty area
Unless its artificially paved, you don’t get free relief.
You can definitely take relief from an Immoveable Obstruction, even if its in a Bunker. Your Relief Area is based on the Nearest Point of Complete Relief still in the Bunker, or you can take Relief with 1 Penalty Stroke using the Back on the Line procedure. See 16.1c for more complete information. But you’re not required to take relief, unless the Committee says you must. Separately, you might also have an Animal Hole, areas of GUR, or Temporary Water in a Bunker, and get ACC Relief under Rule 16.
These are not cart paths created naturally over time. They still have some crushed stone left and were man made, but they are mainly very hard dirt with no ruts. Could be one of our local rules too? We also have inside the course OB and we don’t allow the 2-stroke penalty OB drop in tournaments.
If they were once artificially surfaced, I agree. If its not really clear any more that they’re artificial, it would be a smart idea to have a Local Rule defining them as GUR or Obstruction, just so its clear. I was just in Pinehurst, and lots of the paths are natural sand, so there is no relief. Inside the course OB is legitimate, and you’re not required to use the Model Local Rule for OB or Lost balls.
I have been lobbying for a hole by hole rulebook for our course. It’s probably not needed on all holes, but we have holes where the pro, asst pro and Rules Chairman don’t agree on things.
There is a flower bed on the par 3 6th that you get a free drop from that everyone agrees, but then there are other similar areas where no one agrees if it’s a flower bed you get a drop from or not (no flowers, but nice plants in the same type of bed). There is one on the par 3 #10 hole and a free drop can mean saving par where taking a penalty can lead to a double bogey.
I think some of our rules should be looked at just for pace of play. The course is crowded now and the days of rounds in 3-3.5 hours are over. We’ve become happy with 4+ since most public courses are at least 5 hours.
well, if you insist; the most often broken rule in golf is the practice of the “Winter Rule”.
Besides relieve from casual water, the golfers in the British isles play the golf ball as it lies.
I’m one of the guilty one to use the “winter rule”. For one thing, the scores in the “off season” will not be used for index compilation. Secondly, if everyone in my group use the “winter rules” and we have a friendly bet riding on the outcome of the game; then, you’d bet, I’ll do the same.
Local knowledge is important to avoid using the extra “help” with the Winter Rules. For instance, hole #1 on one of the local track normally will be very wet on the right edge of the fairway since the 9th to the right is higher in elevation, draining the water over the left side of the #1 into a creek. we know to leave the tee shot to the left half of the fairway which normally will be drier than the left side. When we step on the short grass and have water seeping up to the seam of the golf shoes, we’ll call for the relieve.
Almost everyone I know around here will use the Winter Rules during the raining season.
My former course is a muni, It gets alot of play from people that not only don’t fix ballmarks, but use their irons to dig ditches in our fairways which most of the time are beautiful, especially giving yourself a preferred lie! The more play it gets, the harder it is to maintain decent playing conditions. I played competitive team golf events 18 years ago for my club in sanctioned Association matches against other clubs. Most of those matches are played against private courses…playing the ball down on my home course could increase a players index 5-6 shots compared to playing under the “pristine” conditions of the private course…or semi private course. The players in the matches were all 4 or better indexes. Today’s Golf was not meant to be played on a moonscape, that’s why we went to “preferred lies” or smoothing out a bunker, because players put 2 inch deep foot prints in them after they enter a bunker from the top side and destroy the faces… because the people who come to our course for $35 walk compared to having to shell out $150 for a semi-private track have the etiquette of a locust swarm! So when our team would go to the private course people would say we are sand bagging our indexes. I’ve played some of the most amazing courses in the world, playing conditions of the track make a huge difference. The more I think about it, that’s why today we rollem and rakem! It’s very hard to play shots and no fun when your ball lands in a 2 inch divot in the middle of a FW… the longer the season goes the worse the conditions get! I play for complete fun…My index has improved to a 6 now… I know, and have had my best rounds playing the ball down on our visits to courses that get minimal play compared to the 62000 rounds our course got hammered with this past year by alot of locusts!