Views on advice during social comps

Bearing in mind that the comments came from "real golfers" (their statement, not mine) who previously in eth week refused to play in teh same group as a new golfer, i was VERY close to giving up the game on the spot.

very little gets me angry in life; the purile stuck upness of certain 21st century "real golfers" makes me sick
 
Sad that some people have to win at all costs and can't see the wider picture. I'd take the D/Q and quite frankly elbow the society and not bother playing again with them with such an attitude. Very sad.
 
very little gets me angry in life; the purile stuck upness of certain 21st century "real golfers" makes me sick
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Don't you dare give up. Golf needs the good guys like you to shove a rocket up the "real golfers" jacksies :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
If i was ever challenged during a club competition,for offering help or advice to a fellow golfer in my group,i'd walk,rules or no rules.
No wonder this game cannot move forward,and rid itself of its antiquated image,when we still have a Joke book,masquerading as a set of rules,and guidelines.
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Firstly i can see where you are coming from.. but as long as that joke book does determine the rules why do you think you shouldnt obey ALL the rules not just some of them .. i do agree some of the rules are silly but when you enter a comp you agree to abide by them all, whether you like/agree with them or not
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I'm obviously a cheat then. :D
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I do hope you dont think i was implying that my apologies if you do ,
 
Personally, in the circumstances described, I don't have a problem with this.

To some extent I think it depends on the society. Some are pretty serious (e.g. forum days!) with established golfers and significant prizes, but a lot are just works outings and are bsically "social golf" for a bit of a laugh. Half the players won't have CONGU h/caps. They often include a lot of people who don't get to play very often and are just out to have some fun. The prizes are usually a bottle of wine or 3 golf balls. The banter is usually more important than the golf. If it was that type of event, why all the fuss?

You helped a beginner enjoy their day more, that's what those kinds of society days are about. It's not like you were teeing their ball on every shot or not counting shots.

Sometimes it's worth remembering that it is only a game with a stick and a ball that grown men shouldn't really be wasting their time playing. :D
 
The sad thing is, to stop a rule being broken, you often have to break a rule yourself.

Every non-medal round for me is a 'social' round, where we talk about club selection, stance, grip and all-sorts on the tee boxes.

We're all cool with doing it, playing against/with each other, so what's the problem?

I'd have done the same thing as the OP. The golf course can be a lonely, demoralising place. Surely someone offering encouragement can only be a good thing.
 
I played in a Charity Stableford competition last Friday. Teams of four, best two scores counted on each hole.
Played with two good mates of mine (Ray Taylor and Alan Bannister) and a guy that I had never met before, who's name was Jamie.
Jamie was a 28 handicapper, not many games under his belt. Maximum handicap on the day was 24, and it was off 3/4's so the poor bloke had to play off 18. He struggled (so did I but that's another story).
Jamie didn't give up. He was smiling and laughing most of the way around, he was there to enjoy it.
He didn't have a bad swing, but was slicing the ball terribly, topping it, his putting was a bit wayward but he enjoyed it all.
We were all giving him advice on the way round, slow down, take more club, keep yer head down, the usual stuff.
Did we at any time think we had broken any rules????? Didn't even enter our head.
And if somebody had suggested that we had, I'd have shoved my driver up their jacksie.
 
I will always help (if they want it) a newbie to golf, for gawds sake are they going to win the comp with a nett 60 or 45 points?
The reason they need help is they're new and know next to nothing- we were all there once remember- you could of course watch them suffer all the way round without saying a word but then what kind of person does that make you!
We all say we enjoy the social aspect of golf, what's sociable about ignoring a fellow human being needing help just to enjoy a game we all love!
 
Thanks for the responses guys

It was indeed a few bottles of wine and sleeves of balls sort of event - ie at the other end of the scale to a forum meet.
 
The reason they need help is they're new and know next to nothing- we were all there once remember- you could of course watch them suffer all the way round without saying a word but then what kind of person does that make you!
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Echo the sentiments entirely

But.........

And it's a big but, you have to look at the sort of competition/game you're playing. If it's a recognised qualifying comp and you give advice there are penalties. If you give advice to the complete beginner in the Medal, then you are breaking the rules and have to accept any penalty on you.
It could be said that the place to learn is the range/lessons and put it into practice on the course. Maybe you should only go to play comps if you are capable of getting round in under 120...

Not trying to be controversial here but there are rules and they must be followed. In a Medal, if I had a score going and, say, Fragger was struggling badly, I wouldn't give advice - why would I? It's against the rules.
In a Friday "match" it's entirely different because nothing's at stake.
 
I played in a Charity Stableford competition last Friday. Teams of four, best two scores counted on each hole.
Played with two good mates of mine (Ray Taylor and Alan Bannister) and a guy that I had never met before, who's name was Jamie.
Jamie was a 28 handicapper, not many games under his belt. Maximum handicap on the day was 24, and it was off 3/4's so the poor bloke had to play off 18. He struggled (so did I but that's another story).
Jamie didn't give up. He was smiling and laughing most of the way around, he was there to enjoy it.
He didn't have a bad swing, but was slicing the ball terribly, topping it, his putting was a bit wayward but he enjoyed it all.
We were all giving him advice on the way round, slow down, take more club, keep yer head down, the usual stuff.
Did we at any time think we had broken any rules????? Didn't even enter our head.
And if somebody had suggested that we had, I'd have shoved my driver up their jacksie.
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I thought it was ok to give advice to someone on your side ie partner in a 4BBB or all members in a team comp, or am I wrong?
 
Right,lets get down to the nitty gritty.
We clearly understand the OP's explanation of what happened,and we all agree that we'd pretty much do the same,but how many of us,have done the same thing in competitions ? I certainly have,and on more than one occasion.So i'm a cheat,and the people i've played with are also cheats,because i've never been challenged or confronted by anybody who'd thought i'd broken the rules.
Over the last 11 years,i've played in hundreds of club comps,hundreds of inter club matches,dozens of county scratch league matches,and dozens of county qualifiers.Now thats a hell of a lot of competitive golf games,at all levels,and i've always gotten away with it,how is that ?
 
It comes down to the same reason people don't let faster groups through - a general lack of knowledge of the rules and ettiquette of the game.
 
It comes down to the same reason people don't let faster groups through - a general lack of knowledge of the rules and ettiquette of the game.
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Then obviously its not just high handicappers that are unsure of the rules,Cat1,and + handicappers must also have no knowledge of the rules ?
 
It's across the board, we all know someone of every standard of player who just don't know what's what.

Just because you can score well, doesn't mean you know the rules.
 
It's across the board, we all know someone of every standard of player who just don't know what's what.

Just because you can score well, doesn't mean you know the rules.
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So i've played with just about every standard of player,in all formats of competition,but by some quirk of fate/luck,i managed to avoid the anally retentive ones,who would be petty enough to try and get me DQ'd,because i may have offered help or advice to another golfer in my fourball ?
Some rules are there to be broken. ;)
 
.
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So i've played with just about every standard of player,in all formats of competition,but by some quirk of fate/luck,i managed to avoid the anally retentive ones,who would be petty enough to try and get me DQ'd,because i may have offered help or advice to another golfer in my fourball ?
Some rules are there to be broken. ;)
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That is probably one of the strangest & discouraging posts ive read on here.. "some rules are there to be broken" sounds almost intentional.. if you know its a rule and you stil break it totaly shocks me , im sorry but it does
 
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