Add to the myths of rules

chrisd

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Within the last few weeks I've seen or played with these said, or done

Played with 2 single h/cappers in a swindle, off the tee one carves a drive very right where no one could see where the ball went, but online for a water hazard with loads of trees and long grass. "Under the new rule you just need to be fairly sure where it went in and drop from there" ???

Talked to a fellow, he insisted "no you can't ground your club on a bridge over a stream, and anyway, our local rules say that the bridge is deemed to be part of the hazard.

Saw a Vice Captain and past Captain playing foursomes extricate their ball from a water hazard, walk 40 yards back on to the fairway and take their drop??

I just wonder how many rule breakers win competitions?
 

Colin L

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........ Saw a Vice Captain and past Captain playing foursomes extricate their ball from a water hazard, walk 40 yards back on to the fairway and take their drop??

Provided they were going back on a line from the hole through where the ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard, that’s a correct drop. [Rule 26-1b]
 

patricks148

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played with a guy in an open about 4 years ago who used his phone as a GPS device, at that time it wasn't allowed. when i asked him about it and told him i didn't think that was allowed in comps, he told me "i didn't know what i was talking about" as he had already won a couple of comps using it!!!
 

patricks148

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Water hazards are a puzzle to a lot of people playing, some have no idea even there own home courses.

Ive played with people who have;

Hit it on the beach (which is a red staked hazard that runs along the first seven holes at Nairn) Then started moving stones around the ball and said they were loose impediments!!!

hooked the ball into the pond on the 8th at Torvean (they made it and Internal OOB now to stop rule breaks on drops) then took his drop in the middle of the fairway. when i told him he had to be in line with the flag where it entered, IE in the rough behind where is ball went in . he said "it is in line" lol.
 

bluewolf

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Played with 2 guys yesterday who swore blind that if your ball was holed (nestled at the bottom of the cup), but then came out when you removed the flagstick, the ball was back in play.... Am I right in thinking this is horlicks, or have I missed something here?????
 
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guest100718

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The main one I see is golfers removing LIs from hazards, sticks etc.
 

Region3

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Played with 2 guys yesterday who swore blind that if your ball was holed (nestled at the bottom of the cup), but then came out when you removed the flagstick, the ball was back in play.... Am I right in thinking this is horlicks, or have I missed something here?????

Horlicks, probably fuelled by seeing pros carefully pick a holed ball out without removing the flagstick, when it's more likely they do it to prevent damaging the hole if the stick and ball come out together.
 

bluewolf

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Horlicks, probably fuelled by seeing pros carefully pick a holed ball out without removing the flagstick, when it's more likely they do it to prevent damaging the hole if the stick and ball come out together.
Cheers Gary. I was certain they were wrong, but they would have bet mortgage payments on it!!!! :mad:
 

Birchy

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Played with 2 guys yesterday who swore blind that if your ball was holed (nestled at the bottom of the cup), but then came out when you removed the flagstick, the ball was back in play.... Am I right in thinking this is horlicks, or have I missed something here?????

I'm a bit worried you have asked that 😃
 

chrisd

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played with a guy in an open about 4 years ago who used his phone as a GPS device, at that time it wasn't allowed. when i asked him about it and told him i didn't think that was allowed in comps, he told me "i didn't know what i was talking about" as he had already won a couple of comps using it!!!

I had a virtually identical situation at our open once, going down the 1st I casually mentioned the rule as I saw him looking at his phone, and it was about 5 holes before he would talk to me again as he clearly didn't think I was trying to help him and he did come in the top 3
 

mikejohnchapman

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Oh for a pound for every time i've heard "I'll deem that one lost"!

Seriously though it would be good practice to make everyone take a basic rules test as part of getting their CONGU handicap. Those on the R&A website are pretty good now - a simple pass / fail as a prerequisite would help with the basics.

We all get things wrong on the course - look at the number of pros who get dinged. Unlike them we don't have the benefit of summoning a rules official to make sure.

Quite rightly we pride ourselves as golfers in self policing the game and the integrity of scores are key to this. We can all accept people make genuine errors regarding a complex set of rules but even more reason to try to get people to a reasonable understanding of the basics. Bit like the driving test theory paper really.
 

Three

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Oh for a pound for every time i've heard "I'll deem that one lost"!

Seriously though it would be good practice to make everyone take a basic rules test as part of getting their CONGU handicap. Those on the R&A website are pretty good now - a simple pass / fail as a prerequisite would help with the basics.

We all get things wrong on the course - look at the number of pros who get dinged. Unlike them we don't have the benefit of summoning a rules official to make sure.

Quite rightly we pride ourselves as golfers in self policing the game and the integrity of scores are key to this. We can all accept people make genuine errors regarding a complex set of rules but even more reason to try to get people to a reasonable understanding of the basics. Bit like the driving test theory paper really.

I bet if you asked 20 club golfers "when has the hole started, and when has the hole ended?" most wouldn't know. It's frightening what people who are playing in competitions don't know.
 
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