What's more important?

[Swinglowandslow]

If you don't define any rules how do you know what the game is?
There must be scores of games which involve a ball and a stick of sorts. How would you know where to start, what to do, how do you decide a winner (if any), when do you finish, is the stick used to move the ball or for measuring ....?

What exactly are you saying you want?
It seems you are limiting the playing of the game to scenarios where, as you say, " how do you decide a winner"
This game can be played without their having to be a "winner".
Two mates go out and play a course, say, to try out shots, or new techniques , or just to see how they generally fare.
So they might have a little money on it , playing to their rules of the day, say.
E.g. Hit a shot, find the ball is lost (?), so OK to drop on the nearby fairway.
This isn't the strict rules of golf , of course, but surely, you are not maintaining that social games like that shouldn't be played.?

In competitions, rules of golf. Otherwise, play as you agree and find suitable to your enjoyment.
It doesn't have to be one OR the other.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Just as you can have a Horse without a carriage, you can also have golf without rules.
It’s just hitting a ball with a stick.

 

[Imurg]

What came first the chicken or the egg. if you don’t get one, you don’t get the other.

The egg - reptiles were laying them long before the Man upstairs decided to stick some feathers on...

 

[rulefan]

The egg - reptiles were laying them long before the Man upstairs decided to stick some feathers on...

Good point but which came first the egg or the reptile?

 

[Imurg]

Good point but which came first the egg or the reptile?

That is a whole, new Paleontological question that is several steps above my pay grade...

 

[Tashyboy]

That is a whole, new Paleontological question that is several steps above my pay grade...

What came first the forum or the forumite ?

 

[Foxholer]

What came first the chicken or the egg. if you don’t get one, you don’t get the other.

Eggs have certainly been around for several hundred million years, while chickens (as we know them) have only been around a few 10s of thousands.
But if it's specific 'chicken egs' vs chickens...we evolutionists figure that it was an abberation (genetic mutation(s)) in an egg(s) of the first 'real chicken(s)' - so 'both at the same time' would be correct too. We'd also suggest that the equivalent continues to natiurally happen, though so slowly that we cannot actually measure it! That said, the human race routinely interferes/overrides this 'natural' process as any animal or plant breeder would attest!

 

[SaintHacker]

3 pages? Really? You lot do realise the pubs are open again???

 

[Imurg]

3 pages? Really? You lot do realise the pubs are open again???

3 pages and 6 years please......

 

[Tashyboy]

Eggs have certainly been around for several hundred million years, while chickens (as we know them) have only been around a few 10s of thousands.
But if it's specific 'chicken egs' vs chickens...we evolutionists figure that it was an abberation (genetic mutation(s)) in an egg(s) of the first 'real chicken(s)' - so 'both at the same time' would be correct too. We'd also suggest that the equivalent continues to natiurally happen, though so slowly that we cannot actually measure it! That said, the human race routinely interferes/overrides this 'natural' process as any animal or plant breeder would attest!

My thoughts exactly ??

 

[rulefan]

3 pages? Really? You lot do realise the pubs are open again???

Why waste time getting to the pub? I've just taken delivery of a case of Rioja - slurp.

 

[Foxholer]

3 pages? Really? You lot do realise the pubs are open again???

A helluva lot has happened since the first post of this thread! Certainly to most of the 'contributors' to the thread - including myself!

 

[Pants]

In answer to the opening question ….

It depends (where's the sitting on the fence emoti?)

If it's a comp then the rules are paramount as they define the game, but there again what use are rules if there is no game?

If not a comp then the game is everything. Yes, you play by the rules but in a way they are not that important other than being a set of values. For me, and most of the people I play with, golf is a great reason to get out of bed at a reasonable hour, have the important exercise of at least a 5 or 6 mile walk in the fresh(ish) air, in good company, take out your frustrations on a little white ball or three, and afterwards put the world to rights over a pot of tea or something a little stronger.

 

[williamalex1]

Out with competitions, do what you want, it's playing for fun.
Why take the chance of damaging a club or breaking your wrist, take a drop if you're near a tree, wall, fence or in a divot.
If you want to practice that type of shot use an old club.

 

[theoneandonly]

Out with competitions, do what you want, it's playing for fun.
Why take the chance of damaging a club or breaking your wrist, take a drop if you're near a tree, wall, fence or in a divot.
If you want to practice that type of shot use an old club.

Or as unbelievable as it may sound.... just use one of the rules that cover such situations.
In all honesty it's a pretty dumb question.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Many moons ago a group of us at work started playing indoor carpet bowls of a lunchtime. It was fun, setting an end, placing the jack and bowling away as you do. But as we were playing in an open plan office area we had to decide what to do when any furniture got in the way or was hit. Gradually over a period of many months our game of indoor carpet bowls evolved into a new related game we called indoor obstacle carpet bowls in which players could utilise the furniture to their own particular bowling strengths and own ends…and we developed a set of rules accordingly.

It became quite sophisticated, but you had to learn the rules and how to use them to know how to take advantage of what our new sport offered. You could play without knowing the rules, but you would always lose when playing someone who knew the rules, besides, the game was much more fun when taking advantage of what the rules allowed. We became incredibly proficient at our new sport and often some of the rest of our department would actually spectate ?

As an aside, the group of us who played this game actually became really rather proficient, we decided to try our hand at outdoor green bowls - entering a team in the company inter department comps…we won our league at our first go ?

The game came first. The basic rules were established at the outset, and then evolved as we developed the new game - to make it a new, better and more enjoyable game.

 

[rulefan]

A good example but what was the first objective of the first player who bowled the first ball of the very first game? And perhaps more significantly, what was the objective of the second bowler?

And don't ask if that proves anything because I don't know.

 

[Sats]

It’s a game and the rules are there to help the game run smoothly and fair.

 

[Canfordhacker]

A good example but what was the first objective of the first player who bowled the first ball of the very first game? And perhaps more significantly, what was the objective of the second bowler?

And don't ask if that proves anything because I don't know.

I'd warrant the objective was to have fun. And the second guy probably thought "that looks like fun, I want some of that too". And then the first guy said yeah, but you started in front of me - and hence rules were born.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

A good example but what was the first objective of the first player who bowled the first ball of the very first game? And perhaps more significantly, what was the objective of the second bowler?

And don't ask if that proves anything because I don't know.

We started playing simple straightforward indoor carpet bowls. The first bowler or the first ball of the first game was Chris - as they were his bowls ? Chris placed the jack and bowled to it, his opponent then bowled to the jack etc.

As the game evolved and our skill developed, we found we were able to bowl ‘blind’ to a hidden jack, and between closely spaced cabinets and chairs, the winner of an end would position the Jack for the next, and could choose to declare certain bits of furniture as ‘in play’ with everything else ‘out of play’. Any bowl that hit something that was ‘out of play‘ was a dead bowl. So for instance we would place the Jack under a chair and often close behind a chair leg- the chair was declared ‘out of play’ ? And so on. Though the bowls had the usual ‘bias’ we also worked out how to play long narrow ends - between cabinets and walls, by bowling the balls ‘end over end‘ thereby eliminating the bias. It was great fun. We played for a few years and had a league and an annual knockout cup.