Golf Rules the Recreational Golfer Should Ignore

Now that the anchoring ban is to go in effect in 2016, it is time for us to think about this rule and the fact that we need a set of rules for the recreational golfer.  All golf courses have their own rules.  If you look on a score card, you see something like, USGA Rules apply except for the following Local Rules.  What is a local rule?  It’s a rule, or rules, that a golf course enacts due to a feature on the property.  It may be a power line that crosses a fairway, or a free drop from a landscape bed, or something else.  If courses can do this, why don’t we enact recreational golf rules, available at all courses that a golfer can use.  Here are few USGA Rules that should be ignored by the recreational golfer.

Rule 3-2: Failure to Hole Out – In other words, a “gimmie”.  A gimmie does not exist in the rules of golf, yet it should be available to the recreational golfer.  Any putt 2-3 feet in length should be conceded by the fellow competitors.  Remember, I’m talking the recreational golfer, if you have a high dollar game being played, use your discretion in your group.  If a group gives an average of two gimmies per hole this could save two minutes.  Extend those two minutes to an eighteen hole round of golf and you get over a half hour.  That saves a lot of time!

Rule 10-2a.: Order of Play When Starting Play of a Hole – This rule talks about who has the honor on the tee.  We all know that it is the lowest score on the preceding hole.  We also know that we should remember to play ready golf.  When ready golf is played the game is sped up.

Rule 10-2b.: Order of Play During Play of the Hole – The player furthest away is to play first.  Again, for the sake of pace of play all golfers should play ready golf.  Who cares if your companion is a few yards behind you.  If you’re ready, hit away!  But remember to always be safe and don't walk in front of your playing companions.

Rule 17-3c.: Ball Striking the Flagstick – Yes it is a penalty if you are on the putting surface and your putt strikes the flagstick.  Should you have to wait for someone to tend the flag for you?  If strike the flag on that 40 foot putt, good for you and count it as a made putt.

Rule 27-1 Stroke and Distance – This relates to a lost ball or a ball out-of-bounds.  If you hit a shot over a hill, or into a group of trees, and you don’t find it, don’t go back to the original spot to re-hit.  This takes too much time.  Just take a drop in nearest spot where you think the shot may have come to rest.  Same thing if you think you may have gone out of bounds.  However, in that case you should always think about playing a provisional ball ahead of time.  Think of it as a practice shot as well.

And that leaves us with the Anchoring Ban, Rule 14-1b.  This ban is really put in place for the Tour player or highly skilled amateur that plays in regional or national tournaments.  If you’re the recreational golfer and you play to enjoy the game, then keep using it.  Get an agreement with your group that it enhances your round and keeps you playing the game.  If they are true friends and want to keep you in the group, they will understand.

Steve Mona and the Spring of 2013

So in keeping up with my tweets, and who is tweeting out, I read this one last week from Golf Course Industry.

Steve Mona, of the World Golf Foundation, saying that contraction may continue in US golf courses.  Problem is, that contraction is not going fast enough.

According to the NGF, the number of courses in the US are at 15,753, down by 299 from 2005.   So, in the past 8 years we have lost 299 courses and he expects to lose another 750 courses in the next 4 years.  And that number of courses will still be too high to support the demand.

This all got me thinking about a conversation I had with an industry veteran this past winter.  We were at a local superintendents meeting discussing the upcoming year.  I casually made the comment that I hope we have a good spring and a year of weather like 2012, when golf rounds were up with the dry summer.  Then he surprised me by saying, “I hope we have a bad year!”

Someone out there, who relies on the golf industry, saying he hopes for a bad year?  I asked him to explain himself.  Here’s what he told me.

We all know we need more contraction in golf.  When we have a good year, like in 2012, those courses that were on the fence about closing see an uptick in sales.  They end up having a modest year, or at least break even, and think this may turn around.  So they keep the doors open another year hoping for more of the same.

The problem is, we can’t always bank on the weather bailing out the golf economy.  This spring we have seen one of the wettest Aprils in Chicago.  We had snow in Omaha and 20 degree wind chills in Oklahoma, both in the first week of May.  Now some of these courses are going to be doomed to close at one time or another.  If they keep going another season, that is going to take golfers away from the more profitable courses.  Causing their recovery to be slower.

Now, I am not wishing any hardship on any of these courses.  I wish the housing economy was stronger and they could sell to a developer.  Or a park district could buy the course and keep it as open space.  Either way, we need to get the number of courses down to stabilize the market place.

So back to the tweet.  Courses down to 15,000 by 2017, and it still won't be enough.  I don’t know what it is going to take to correct the problem.  Maybe more springs like the one we are having now will be a good start.