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Rules? For the Average Golfer?

Jay Munson

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Sep 10, 2012
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From rules made many years ago, came the guidelines set forth for the kings and queens of the golf world. In today’s definition, the men and women of the PGA and the WPGA, the kings and queens of the modern golf era. These two hierarchies of the golf world play by a set standard of rules nearly every weekend for around eight months give or take, per year. Their jobs, so to speak, and they are paid well for it. Yet these rules that I personally was not in on when they where wrote, state what I can and can not get away with for my golf game…My hobby, my beer drinking game with the pals.
So I ask the rest of the world of golf, the other 99% of the watchers and waiters, the Average Joe and Jane’s of this golfing world, “why do we take golf, so serious?”
When we slide on our spikes checking for grass or mud, or when we run a tee through the grooves of our irons right before we shove that tee into the corner of our mouths; or when we are standing on the tee box about to drive the best drive ever, and a buddy yells, “jack ass!” I would have to say that we are not on tour… So why do we focus so heard on the game that we play for fun?
Because we like the game, yet I say again; I was not in on the writing of the rules so why do I or anyone else have to abide by them? For instance, I knock a drive straight down the pipe yet it veers off to the right just slightly rolling off into the higher grass. Now I must place down my beer, put my four-dollar cigar onto the nearly dry grass, and take my second shot. Hold on though, my ball is nearly covered in grass yet it would not be if in the short grass… A lovely toe wedge is now pulled from the seventy-five pound bag with eight clubs to many, and look my ball has nicely lading in the short grass, now I can take my second shot.
Just like that, I think I broke four rules and need to add five or eight strokes to my card… My buddy yells out from the other side of the fairway, “Dude, come on man we have only five beers left till we see the cart girl again.” Refocusing once more, I think again five or eight strokes? Yep, as a smile runs the length of my face, second shot.
The shot goes nice, lands about twenty yards from the pine. I walk back over to the cart has my pal hands me another beer he say’s, “Nice second man, it would have been worse if you had stayed in the tall grass.” As we drive on to our third shot… or was it the ninth… nah, that was the third.
Rules are good to have for the big boys and girls, keeps them all nice and fair. But for the average boys who are just out having some beers playing a fun round, rules don’t make a winner, the rules cloud things up making a fun game not fun. So why do we play for keeps, when on the eighteenth we aren’t even really sober?
By
Jay Thomas Munson
[email protected]
The Average Joe Golf writer
 

anonymous golfaholic

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Because we anticipate shooting the round of our life each and every time we go out, most of us don't want to cheapen the experience by cheating.
 
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Jay Munson

Jay Munson

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Understand, but when the wind blows over you as you stand on the golf tee, you smile and think "what a great game..." Not "hey you all on the other tee, shut up I am trying to swing here..." That is all I am saying you play how you play, you adapt to the course as anyone else would. If a stick sits right in front of your ball... You move the stick... you don't take a penalty drop adding one stroke to your card and then swing... I say this, thinking your not on the PGA tour, just an average joe playing golf right?
 
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Jay Munson

Jay Munson

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So do not get me wrong, I do like to play an honest game and I love to shoot a low score, but the strict rules, the "play the ball where it lies", or "all quiet on the tee box", doesn't truly play a factor when your just out playing a round...
 

anonymous golfaholic

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Moving a loose impediment (a stick) isn't breaking any rules.

There is no rule that says everyone must be quiet while your on the tee box. In fact, teeing off with distractions, for me, is a challenge that I embrace with hopes of building mental strength.

Improving your lie is cheating. Anyone can cheat. If you go out and cheat all day to shoot 5 under, will you hang that score card on the refrigerator?
 
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Jay Munson

Jay Munson

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So you know the rules? Very nice. Perhaps a ball lands just on the cart path's broken edge. You risk scuffing or scratching your club by playing it where it lies? Or perhaps your ball lands perfectly behind a tree. Now this is still talking as in, your not on the tour, do you adjust your stance and nock it back into the fairway taking another stroke or do you "toe- wedge-it" out from behind the tree or off the broken cart path?
 

anonymous golfaholic

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A golfer is entitled to relief from a cartpath without a penalty.

If my ball lands "perfectly behind a tree" or anywhere else on the course where the odds are stacked against me, I have a chance at being a hero. There is no better feeling than to pull off a beautiful, miracle shot out of the ugliest of circumstances. Those shots make you feel alive and you will never forget them. So if I kick my ball out of trouble and back into the fairway, I just forfeited a chance at glory...and for what?
 
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Jay Munson

Jay Munson

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Simply, enjoying the game. A hero shot is not long lived, but for 2 to 3 more holes. I would rather have the sheer fun of playing, then trying to kill myself in getting or meeting my my handicap. Golf for me is a day in the sun with a breeze preferably, a couple of beers, good friends, enjoying the game meant for kings, again, not killing myself for the best round of golf ever. I am young with many many years of this sport left. I know I will not be on the tour or play for an amateur title, and I do not want to have a scratch golf game, you realize how hard it is to maintain that? So I understand your point and I welcome the conversation, but I unlike you it sounds like, I play the game for fun as a hobby, not a life sport.

I am not trying to argue who's point is more valid, golfers are entitled to their own game, and I am no one to tell that differently. Play your game as you will, I will do the same.
 

anonymous golfaholic

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A hero shot lasts a lifetime, not just 2 or 3 more holes. I will NEVER forget that shot that I hit in a tournament a few years ago. I was dead, in jail, staring a double bogey in the face because my ball was behind a stand of trees sitting on bare dirt. I defied all odds and hit a big, high rope hook out and around those trees that ended up 3 feet from the hole for eagle...which I made. I could've moved my ball, where I was at no one could see me. If I had cheated, what would I have gained?

Being in trouble or facing a difficult shot doesn't have to be "killing yourself". You're there to enjoy the day with friends playing a crazy game. Don't beat yourself up over a bad break or difficult lie. Embrace it, you may be surprised at the results. Don't cheat yourself out of a memory that will last a lifetime.
 

SilverUberXeno

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Jul 26, 2005
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Aww Mr. Munson wants us to join his cheater club!

Play the rules or be honest and admit that you're not playing golf. Rules are part of the game.
 

SilverUberXeno

El Tigre Blanco
Jul 26, 2005
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Also, grammar and general use of the language is maybe middle school level in the original post. Are you trying to publish that little, "cheating is cool" piece?

Trumb, your situation is more forgiveable, though still against the rules. You didn't go from rough to fairway, you went from unacceptably unkept fairway to fairway.

Munson: why not just pick up your ball after the tee shot and drop it beside the green, and play out from there? If you want to cheat, don't keep score at all.
 

limpalong

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Our regular group can be anywhere from 3 to 13 players. (Of course, we break into no more than 5 if we have 6 or more.) EVERYONE plays the ball as it lies!! No one rolls the ball or uses a "foot wedge". That's not how the game is played.
We do sometimes conscede putts of less than 1 foot. Not more. And, we will play a fivesome right at 3 hours for 18 holes.
We do play "ready golf". For the most part, who ever gets to the tee box first hits. We will respect a bird or eagle. We probably are more strict about making certain the person with the highest score is "at the back of the bus"... hits last... than respecting who has 'honors'.
Sometimes, a player may whine about having to putt out or play from a hardpan lie. The group's favorite come back is "whatever lets you sleep at night"!!
So much of golf is respect for the game and the other players. If one cheats... If anyone cheats, how the heck can you honestly brag about your score? Play by the rules if you play in our group. What you do in your group is your own business. Just don't take your lack of respect for the game to the computer keeping your handicap or to a tourney in which I might be competiting against you.
 

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