What rules does your club break?

bobmac

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A couple of years ago I was in the clubhouse at a course where I used to teach when I got chatting to a group who had just finished their round.
"How did you get on" I asked
One of them replied
"Pretty good. we won our knock out and I shot 42 pts in the S/ford"
When I hinted that they couldn't play match play and s/ford at the same time, the player said "dont worry, everyone does it"
And he was the Club Captain :eek:
 
I suppose that they play an abridged version of the rules that, either, they are all agreed on, or, no one knows the rules of golf so it doesn't matter anyway! :smirk:

To be fair though, I've never quite understood why something that's a 2 shot penalty is " loss of hole " in Matchplay ? Some matchplay games I could have won holes with a 2 shot penalty or equally lost if I hadn't had the hole given through a simple error on my opponents behalf!
 
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Probably more than I'd care to mention..
One that's "kind of rules" is often you're not able to tee up more than a club length behind the markers - some of our tee boxes are not overly flat and 2 clubs gives you a chance to find a decent spot.
Not convinced that we have a handicap committee either. I could be wrong....
 
Handicap committee? Never heard one mentioned at our place, that's for sure. Same boat as you there, Imurg.

I don't know about any other rules, nothing that really sticks out at the moment.

Out of interest, are club pro's allowed to play in the monthly medal?!
 
We have an auction. Auction style events are not allowed in golf. The winner of said competition gets about 3.5k. This also is not allowed in the rules. Since any one playing in it is agreeing to break the rules before they even start, they should all be disqualified. They aren't.

So one comp, three rules broken. Great.

But it's a tradition at my club, so it's ok?!
 
We have an auction. Auction style events are not allowed in golf. The winner of said competition gets about 3.5k. This also is not allowed in the rules. Since any one playing in it is agreeing to break the rules before they even start, they should all be disqualified. They aren't.

So one comp, three rules broken. Great.

But it's a tradition at my club, so it's ok?!

How does that work, then?

Isn't that a breach of the rules of amateur status rather then the rules of golf per se?
 
Probably more than I'd care to mention..
One that's "kind of rules" is often you're not able to tee up more than a club length behind the markers - some of our tee boxes are not overly flat and 2 clubs gives you a chance to find a decent spot.
Not convinced that we have a handicap committee either. I could be wrong....

Probably the most common rule broken, especially by clubs who try to add extra distance to their shorter courses.
There should be a clear four yards from the back of the tee to where the measured back tee marker is situated. You should be able to have room to swing a club from two yards behind the marker.
 
We have an auction. Auction style events are not allowed in golf. The winner of said competition gets about 3.5k. This also is not allowed in the rules. Since any one playing in it is agreeing to break the rules before they even start, they should all be disqualified. They aren't.

So one comp, three rules broken. Great.

But it's a tradition at my club, so it's ok?!

I don't understand :confused:

You auction off the best scores before you tee off? Only the highest bidders are allowed to take their putter/driver/6 iron/etc?

Only ever seen things like car park spaces auctioned for charity, maybe my brains having trouble waking up as it's Monday morning but I can't see what you're auctioning off or why it's not allowed!(obviously I can see why you can't auction off the best scores!)
 
Never knew this rule till a few years ago; had to play one of my best mates in our club knock out, same day there was a midweek medal on, so we played the match while finishing everything out for the medal. handed in our cards to then a few days later say our cards were accepted for the medal, but the result of the match was void and the rule explained to us. I had won the match and my friend refused to reply stating that I had beaten him and he put my name up.
 
An auction.

You enter a competition. It costs 17 to enter.

You are sold at auction for what ever you go for. Say 200.

217 gets put in the prize fund, and the person who bought you will win the prize if you win, you get nothing. He has to offer you 50%, so you can buy that off him for 100.

Total prize fund last year 20k, paying out to last 16.

It's a bit of a pig in a poke, as you might go for 80, or may be 1000. You just don't know.or I could buy you, and then draw you in the first round.
 
dont know any my club break, but I played away last year in the 4nations knockout and course there had a rule (illegal) that if you lost a ball in a section of rough (about 150yds long and 20yds wide) you could drop another ball with no penalty:eek::eek: our opponents did that and birdied the hole against our arguments about not changing the rules of golf. we were knocked out by .....you guessed it...1 hole.:rofl:
 
I don't understand :confused:

You auction off the best scores before you tee off? Only the highest bidders are allowed to take their putter/driver/6 iron/etc?

Only ever seen things like car park spaces auctioned for charity, maybe my brains having trouble waking up as it's Monday morning but I can't see what you're auctioning off or why it's not allowed!(obviously I can see why you can't auction off the best scores!)

May be different, but at my club we have the 'Captains Matchplay', which you have to qualify for (Cap's Qual Sunday medal, top 64 qualify) on the Friday before the qualifier we have the captains auction were individuals or syndicates can bid for players. These people buy players on the premise that the further they get the more money is made, the overall winner can win £500ish. The purchased player has the option of buying half himself before he tee's off in the qualifier, therefore whatever he earns, he gets half the buyer gets half.

Its all good fun, half proceeds go to the pot for the comp, the rest is split between the club and captains charity. you can have some guys being bought for £20 and getting through to the semi's and earning some nice £££, then you have the favourites that can sell for up to £130-150, who qualify and get knocked out in the first round, loosing some £££ !!
 
dont know any my club break, but I played away last year in the 4nations knockout and course there had a rule (illegal) that if you lost a ball in a section of rough (about 150yds long and 20yds wide) you could drop another ball with no penalty:eek::eek: our opponents did that and birdied the hole against our arguments about not changing the rules of golf. we were knocked out by .....you guessed it...1 hole.:rofl:

The club was effectively designating that area GUR. Provided it is marked correctly, I don't see why that is illegal. Bad practice, maybe, but not illegal.

Some clubs also designate areas such as environmentally sensitive areas as hazards to avoid people walking back to the tees.
 
An auction.

You enter a competition. It costs 17 to enter.

You are sold at auction for what ever you go for. Say 200.

217 gets put in the prize fund, and the person who bought you will win the prize if you win, you get nothing. He has to offer you 50%, so you can buy that off him for 100.

Total prize fund last year 20k, paying out to last 16.

It's a bit of a pig in a poke, as you might go for 80, or may be 1000. You just don't know.or I could buy you, and then draw you in the first round.

Thanks for the explanation - Never heard that one before - sounds a shame that it's against the rules could be quite an interesting idea!
 
Too many to mention all of them, but my personal favourite is the one where if you dont hand your rubbish card in after the comp, then you don't get your 0.1 back. Apparently, no one checks the cards against the start sheet.
 
Probably the most common rule broken, especially by clubs who try to add extra distance to their shorter courses.
There should be a clear four yards from the back of the tee to where the measured back tee marker is situated. You should be able to have room to swing a club from two yards behind the marker.

Most surprising example of this that I've seen was at Woburn a couple of years ago. We played in their Texas Scramble open held on the Dukes off the white tees and there were a few where there was less than two club lengths between the back of the tee and the marker.
 
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