Sticking a tee in the bottom of your grip

[Wesvans]

Do you not understand that for some people, their priorities might be to get to the point where they can shoot a decent score and then focus on all the rules.

Understand it completely, am in that situation right now. If I wasn't going to score by the rules I would leave my scorecard with the starter and just go have fun and work on my swing. Rather than keeping score I would keep track of my bad shots vs my good shots, greens in regulation, number of putts... stuff that would give me an idea where I should be focusing my practice.

Others may be capable of shooting in the low 80s but choose to play the odd mulligan or foot-wedge. WHO CARES if it is not affecting you.

Look, I probably sound like I want to one of the gestapo about this. Honestly I don't, and have never, complained when those in my group get creative on their scorekeeping. You are correct, it typically doesn't affect me so I don't care. That does not mean that I agree with the practice of not following the rules, and that is all I was trying to make mention of here.

What I tried to do was look at it from the FC point of view. If I was an FC, had hit the drive of my life, stuck a wedge within 2 feet of the hole and knocked down the birdie it would be quite frustrating to have the creative player say "put me down for a par" when you can remember waiting for him to take 3 more shots before he'd even gotten the ball to where your drive had landed. I don't have a problem with people being dishonest to themselves, but I do have a problem if it will affect the people they are playing with.

[jmr73]

Rather than keeping score I would keep track of my bad shots vs my good shots, greens in regulation, number of putts... stuff that would give me an idea where I should be focusing my practice.

And how would you suggest doing that. Maybe a piece of paper? Would be really useful if it was in a table format with a reference to the holes you were playing. I know... how about a scorecard.

Why the focus on whether or not they are writing pars , birdies, triple bogeys on a score card. I did not realize they were such a precious commodity. These people are not having the cards attested and submitted. I am sure they don't brag about shooting an honest 85. I bet they say they shot an 102 with a couple of mulligans and a few foot-wedges. They just don't care about their score as much as you. If they are bragging/competing/entering it for handicap, then by all means confront them.

I know some women that don't even put scores down. They just put a happy face on holes they feel they played well and sad faces where they have a bad hole. They try to get a higher number of happy faces. I am pretty sure this is against some rule... so lets take away their scorecards.

That does not mean that I agree with the practice of not following the rules, and that is all I was trying to make mention of here..

But they are following the base rules. Who cares if they bend a couple. I don't care if they decide that they are only going to give themselves a 1 stroke penalty when they go OB, not call a penalty if they ground a club in a hazard, carry 16 clubs in their bag.

What I tried to do was look at it from the FC point of view. If I was an FC, had hit the drive of my life, stuck a wedge within 2 feet of the hole and knocked down the birdie it would be quite frustrating to have the creative player say "put me down for a par" when you can remember waiting for him to take 3 more shots before he'd even gotten the ball to where your drive had landed. I don't have a problem with people being dishonest to themselves, but I do have a problem if it will affect the people they are playing with.

I see your point here. But the cases I am talking about are not people marking down pars they did not really deserve. I am simply talking about a 9 instead of a 13. If they are trying to compete with you, then follow the rules. By that I mean count all the strokes. If a buddy was rubbing it in that he beat me on a hole and I know he should have counted 2 extra strokes. Of course I am going to call him on it. I am talking about someone tracking their own score.

I would not have an issue with a tee stuck in their grip, using a laser range finder (funny that some people here are using these yet a sticklers for the rules), carrying extra clubs, sticking balls in a microwave, or whatever else they want. Another player may have a huge edge with better equipment so if someone feels something like this gives him an edge then go for it....bend those rules. We are not professionals.

[el tigre]

Understand it completely, am in that situation right now. If I wasn't going to score by the rules I would leave my scorecard with the starter and just go have fun and work on my swing. Rather than keeping score I would keep track of my bad shots vs my good shots, greens in regulation, number of putts... stuff that would give me an idea where I should be focusing my practice.

Exactly!

This really isn't about playing by the rules vs. not playing by the rules - it is about keeping a proper score vs lying about your score. If you want to play a proper game of golf than you should strive to play by the rules and keep score properly. If the blow-up holes are too demoralizing, mark an X and only use your ESC maximum to track a "handicap" score. Otherwise, just forget the damn scorecard and have some fun.

Personally I could not care less if other people want to use foot-wedges, stick-handling, gimmies, advantageous drop zones or even the odd mulligan now and then. Geez, I'm probably stricter about the rules than most, but I'm too damn lazy to actually pull the 15th club out of the bag, pull the flagstick out when I playing alone or hole out a bogie+ putt under 2 feet. It is only a casual round of golf that has no effect on anybody else and my score is meaningless to anyone but me.

But not counting penalty strokes, not hitting provisionals, not taking stroke and distance when it is called for, hitting mulligans for every bad shot - and then announcing a score to your fellow competitors that is 10-20 strokes less than it really should be - that is a slap in the face to those who really did shoot an 80, 90, 110 or whatever. Personally, I just wouldn't feel good about myself if I did that. Lower scores should come from hard work, not creative scorekeeping.

[zoic]

Geez, I'm probably stricter about the rules than most, but I'm too damn lazy to actually pull the 15th club out of the bag, pull the flagstick out when I playing alone or hole out a bogie+ putt under 2 feet. It is only a casual round of golf that has no effect on anybody else and my score is meaningless to anyone but me.

So as such I take it this would not be counted by you in any way towards your real score and handicap, because you are going out JUST to practice. Works for me, every round I play is practice, and since I am done with playing in any more tournaments (by choice), it would not seem to matter then. I used to keep a score of all my games, played by the rules (as much of them as I knew anyway) and keep a handicap when I was a member of a club. This meant that I had to continually adjust my score downward at the end of most rounds, what I do now is basically the same but happens during play instead of at the end. I will never add any imaginary strokes (penalties to my score), but I instead take a second shot, and add 1, not 2 (extra 1 for penalty) from where I started. I do not hit into the bush, then take my second shot from where ever I feel it went in, I play the provisional that I hit when I did not expect to find the ball.