Add to the myths of rules

[backwoodsman]

Getting back to the original theme of the thread; played with someone recently who was adamant that if you were going to put a mark on your ball, you had to do it before the round started - you couldn't mark up a ball once you'd started. Gawd alone knows where that one originared from, but he was absolutely sure of it ...

 

[delc]

I was once accused of testing the green in a comp by a 28 handicapper, because I marked my ball with a tee peg pushed into the ground. What made it worse was that my other fellow competitor, also a 20+ handicapper sided with him. Fortunately at the end of the round our club pro put them right, but this is a rules myth I have heard of before. I did point out to them that if you are not allowed to push anything into the surface of the green, how could you repair pitch marks, and what about ball markers with a small spike on the bottom, but this fell on deaf ears!

 

[rulefan]

Rule 16 only says this:

During the stipulated round, a player must not test the surface of any putting green by rolling a ball or roughening or scraping the surface.

No mention of sticking anything in the ground.

 

[Old Skier]

I played in an inter club match this morning when one of our opponents pull hooked his drive into a small wood, where it hit a tree quite hard. We searched for several minutes without finding it. He went back to the tee and played another shot. Then as we walked along the fairway we found his original ball, much further along than seemed possible. He insisted that he was still entitled to play it, even though more than 5 minutes had elapsed and he had put another ball into play. His justification was that he hadn't declared the ball lost, and he hadn't played past the spot where it was found. He was absolutely insistent that he was right, so as it was basically a friendly match we let him get on with it, rather than create an argument. Fortunately his score didn't feature in that hole anyway!

The very reason that rules continually get broken because of the attitude it's only a friendly and the score didn't effect the result.

 

[delc]

The very reason that rules continually get broken because of the attitude it's only a friendly and the score didn't effect the result.

Our opponent was absolutely adamant that he was still entitled to play his original ball, and it didn't seem worth having a 10 minute argument about it. If he had won the hole I would have lodged a claim against him.

 

[Old Skier]

Our opponent was absolutely adamant that he was still entitled to play his original ball, and it didn't seem worth having a 10 minute argument about it. If he had won the hole I would have lodged a claim against him.

Are you saying that you knowingly allowed someone to break a rule of golf and failed to do anything about it.

 

[delc]

Are you saying that you knowingly allowed someone to break a rule of golf and failed to do anything about it.

His decision! I did tell him that he was breaking the rules, so not much else I could have done. In any case it was match play, so I didn't have to protect the rest of the field.

 

[backwoodsman]

Our opponent was absolutely adamant that he was still entitled to play his original ball, and it didn't seem worth having a 10 minute argument about it. If he had won the hole I would have lodged a claim against him.

Are you saying that you knowingly allowed someone to break a rule of golf and failed to do anything about it.

Nope he's not. He's saying he was not able to persuade someone that a rule had been broken and was unwilling to prolong an argument. Which is not the same as ignoring it and failing to do anything.

 

[Old Skier]

His decision! I did tell him that he was breaking the rules, so not much else I could have done. In any case it was match play, so I didn't have to protect the rest of the field.

And there's me thinking it was an inter club match were the result would effect the rest of the field.

Telling someone they are breaking the rules and ensuring they fully understand they are breaking the rules are two different things.

 

[Region3]

He appears a lot in rules threads...

 

[delc]

"Putting a second ball into play (3 off the tee) is automatically the same as a provisional ball". I have twice come up against this myth. First time was in a medal on the 10th hole at Wexham Park, which is a longish par 3. My first tee shot with a long iron was shanked and looked like it had gone well OOB on the right. I said "That's gone (OOB)" and without mentioning the words 'provisional ball' played 3 off the tee, this time finishing 4 feet from the pin. My two fellow competitors insisted on looking for my original ball, while I went up to the green and tapped in the putt for a 4. Then they found my original ball sitting in a ditch just in bounds and behind a row of tall conifer trees, and insisted that I had to play it. After a penalty drop into a bad lie from where I fluffed it into the trees, I ended up with a 7, I asked that both scores be entered on my card and put it to the committee for a ruling at the end of the round. The two FC's were gobsmacked when the committee ruled that the 4 would stand. I was not sure whether rule 28 would come into it, as the original ball had gone into a water hazard (ditch), but as we could not know or be virtually certain that this was the case from the tee because it was completely hidden by trees and I honestly thought the ball had gone OOB. It must have bounced off a tree to get where it did.

More recently I was playing a match at a certain North London club, when I hooked my ball into big trouble in a wood on the left on a par 3. I said I would play 3 off the tee, but one of my opponents said I couldn't do that and I would have to go and search for my original ball. He also claimed to be the club's rules expert. Even when I got out the rules book and showed him rule 27-1a he still wouldn't believe me! In the end his partner won the hole with a birdie 2, so it became a mute point.

 

[palindromicbob]

"Putting a second ball into play (3 off the tee) is automatically the same as a provisional ball". I have twice come up against this myth. First time was in a medal on the 10th hole at Wexham Park, which is a longish par 3. My first tee shot with a long iron was shanked and looked like it had gone well OOB on the right. I said "That's gone (OOB)" and without mentioning the words 'provisional ball' played 3 off the tee, this time finishing 4 feet from the pin. My two fellow competitors insisted on looking for my original ball, while I went up to the green and tapped in the putt for a 4. Then they found my original ball sitting in a ditch just in bounds and behind a row of tall conifer trees, and insisted that I had to play it. After a penalty drop into a bad lie from where I fluffed it into the trees, I ended up with a 7, I asked that both scores be entered on my card and put it to the committee for a ruling at the end of the round. The two FC's were gobsmacked when the committee ruled that the 4 would stand. I was not sure whether rule 28 would come into it, as the original ball had gone into a water hazard (ditch), but as we could not know or be virtually certain that this was the case from the tee because it was completely hidden by trees and I honestly thought the ball had gone OOB. It must have bounced off a tree to get where it did.

More recently I was playing a match at a certain North London club, when I hooked my ball into big trouble in a wood on the left on a par 3. I said I would play 3 off the tee, but one of my opponents said I couldn't do that and I would have to go and search for my original ball. He also claimed to be the club's rules expert. Even when I got out the rules book and showed him rule 27-1a he still wouldn't believe me! In the end his partner won the hole with a birdie 2, so it became a mute point.

You certainly have played with a few "rhymes with hunts" in your years.

 

[Smiffy]

A few years ago I went to Turkey with a group of lads. I knew most of them quite well, but one in particular I had never played with before and had been warned that he was a bit "dodgy" over his scoring.
Got to one hole where there was a massive lake on our left by the tee.
He hit his first drive and hooked it into said lake.
He put another ball down, declaring it a provisional (!!!!!) and proceed to dump this in the lake too.
He then walked forward, dropped a ball down by the side of the lake and declared he was playing three from there.
I told him at the time he was wrong, but he didn't say anything.
He knocked his next shot down the fairway, stiffed his approach and canned the putt, claiming a 5!
He didn't like it when I told him he had blobbed the hole and hardly spoke to me for the rest of the week.
He lost out on the weeks prize by two points.....

 

[chrisd]

Strange as he/she would be one of the few if any people at your club who has actually passed a rules exam

Ive seen people who have apparently passed their driving test !!

Need I say more?

 

[bobmac]

Ive seen people who have apparently passed their driving test !!

Need I say more?

Would you ask for driving advice from someone who has L plates on his car?

 

[Imurg]

Would you ask for driving advice from someone who has L plates on his car?

Mmmm..let me think about that one...:rofl:

 

[chrisd]

Would you ask for driving advice from someone who has L plates on his car?

Knowing how poor most the club pro's seem to be on rules knowledge I'd probably ask Stevie Wonder about driving, and expect to get a correct answer

 

[Beezerk]

Heard a great one the other day.
The number of leaves you knock from a tree with your practice swing is equal to the amount of penalty shots you receive.
No wonder the dinosaurs became extinct.