Scoring ?

ode · 2023-09-22T02:36:13+00:00

I'm on hole 12. I hit my tee shot just short of where it needed to be to have a clear approach to the green. have to punch between 2 trees to get up to th...

DonM

sdandrea1 We do play winter rules all year including in the rough,

I can see where that would become a crutch, so I’m glad we don’t do it all year round. We do it during winter because of the poor condition of the grass, and after heavy rain. When we do it, we allow a club length everywhere, which gives the player a big break at least once a round. I kinda feel we should only be rolling it, not giving a get out of jail free card.

Our guys here really don’t want to play it as it lies in the bunkers. They seem to feel they are entitled to perfection there. Our money game has gone from free relief from a footprint to you can rake and place to one club length, rake and place. Pretty soon we will be allowed to throw the ball onto the green.

Now, the MGA events don’t allow any of the above except lift clean and place in the fairway in wet conditions. There are no MGA events during the winter.

Sneakylong

sdandrea1 Ok......I dislike the USGA

I don’t like the USGA as well. They’re out of touch with the average hacker playing at public courses.

When we had our senior mens association quota group we’d have local rules that we used. For example we had a ‘root’ rule.

If you were in danger of hitting a tree root we allowed moving your ball without penalty away from the root. No need to get hurt or break a club.

Most golfers don’t keep a handicap and don’t play in tournaments anyway. So the USGA is irrelevant to them.

I also don’t like that they regulate the game from the perspective of an elite player. When many golfers will never sniff shooting par and struggle to break 90.

And as I’ve said before I’d like to see the manufacturers turned loose as far as being able to make equipment than can help make the game easier for the 95% of golfers who play for fun.

Maybe they actually could make a ‘holy grail’ driver if they were turned loose.😎

sdandrea1

Sneakylong Maybe they actually could make a ‘holy grail’ driver if they were turned loose.😎

Giphy -

garyt1957

Sneakylong If you were in danger of hitting a tree root we allowed moving your ball without penalty away from the root. No need to get hurt or break a club.

Like rsvman said, why not just take a stroke and move it? Or just nudge it with a putter off the root? It's not really about the club, is it?

garyt1957

rsvman2 It has been my experience that when people want to just drop and take a 1-stroke penalty it's not because they don't know whether their ball is out of bounds versus in a lateral hazard; it's because they don't want to take a 2-stroke penalty. And to be fair, who does? It seems excessive. But it is that way for a reason, and the reason is that under the old rules you would have to take a 1-stroke penalty on the tee, not at the spot your ball went out of bounds. So it would have taken you another shot to get down the fairway, right? So that's two shots. One penalty stroke and one shot.

Agree, it's not that hard to figure out, it's all about score. Same for "i'm not hitting off a tree root and wrecking a club" You can always nudge the ball (even use a putter) to just get it off the root or even take an unplayable and move it. Again it's all about the score, and justifying not takig strokes. But if everybody agrees, it's all good. I encourage people to do all that stuff when I play casual rounds. I won't do it if I'm using a round for handicapping, although not going to lie , I have done it.

Sneakylong

garyt1957 Like rsvman said, why not just take a stroke and move it? Or just nudge it with a putter off the root? It's not really about the club, is it?

It was just a rule we implemented in our group. Everyone agreed with it. As long as everyone's doing the same it's not an issue. We tried giving putts, but found some were more liberal than others, so we had everyone putt out.

Nothing worse than waiting in the fairway to hit your shot with some guy on the green taking his time over an 18" putt. 😏

garyt1957

raggmann54 .Golf is just the game we play to get outside, enjoy the company of friends, get a modicum of exercise and have fun...But, that's just us...

Certainly nothing wrong with that

garyt1957

So basically, we all cheat a bit ( to a lot). Ever wonder how much that affects your real handicap? One stroke, two, more? The tree root thing isn't likely to happen very often unless you really spray it, or the "I'm not hitting off a root" also includes you moving it to where you have a better shot back to the fairway, too.
Seems like the one in two out would be the biggest stroke saver, although most of us seem to be straight and short so maybe not too egregious.
Gimme putts definitely save some strokes depending on how crazy you get. I see guys miss one or two footers in tournaments I play where we have to putt out. I tied for first in one where a guy nonchalanted a one footer midway in the round and missed and I lost by one in one where I missed an 18 incher. It happens. When you start to stretch it out to 3 feet, there's definitely strokes saved.
Then you get in to "one mulligan per side" breakfast balls, etc and it can be a huge difference. Probably a couple shots for the less egregious but could get to 10 with guys who take advantage of everything I mentioned.
Maybe it doesn't add up to much handicap wise as when we're playing well we don't need any of those aids anyway. and those are the rounds that count in handicapping.

sdandrea1

garyt1957 Ever wonder how much that affects your real handicap?

My handicap isn't accurate. We roll the ball everywhere and take root relief, but that's about it as far as "cheating". I know my scores would be higher without rolling the ball because our rough is not maintained well and our fairways are very inconsistent lie-wise. On the other hand, if I was to play really nice courses........who knows? The Tour players are gifted with near perfect turf.

Bravopilot

I agree it does not matter if all agree to play a certain way on any day. I dislike the clowns who then brag how great they played or shot their best score when they easily discarded 10 strokes that day and do not like being reminded.

Same with folks who only post their bad scores to keep their handicap up for money games.

garyt1957

Oh, and I hooked up with these new guys I met. Really nice guys but so scared of shooting a bad score. We played a stableford comp among 8 guys. This was the guy's rules. Bunkers? They're always in bad shape, take it out! Just off the fringe ? Place it on the green! There was another crazy rule they used that I don't remember. I played it straight and still won some money.

Bravopilot

sdandrea1 I doubt it really impacts your game, you are clearly straight and consistent and prove it is not the equipment. What about the COVID rules for handicaps/ No sand play, goofy things in the hole or not holes, just close enough? Did people count those scores? Similar to the team score of 48.

sdandrea1

Bravopilot I doubt it really impacts your game, you are clearly straight and consistent and prove it is not the equipment. What about the COVID rules for handicaps/ No sand play, goofy things in the hole or not holes, just close enough? Did people count those scores? Similar to the team score of 48.

I think it would have an impact, just not sure how much. Hitting out of divots and crappy tight lies can add a stroke.

The guys I play with in VA don't have GHINs and probably don't know MOST of the (stupid) rules. Consequently we play 4-man scramble. If we all played our own ball, it would take 5+ hours. At one point, we didn't play the sand bunkers. It was barely golf. When I play individually there, I post my scores and adhere to the USGA book. Especially, when playing with SIL and grandson and SWMBO. 😉

DonM

sdandrea1 I'm with you Steve. I suspect that winter rules helps me by a stroke a round. Just guessing. I'll say one thing, it sure takes the worry out of playing from Bermuda rough. A placed ball on that stuff is as good as being on a tee.

rsvman2

Sneakylong Out of curiosity, what was the gimme distance? When I was a kid they used to say 'in the leather' or something like that, indicating that the distance was less than from the putter head to the end of the grip.

Sneakylong

rsvman2 Out of curiosity, what was the gimme distance? When I was a kid they used to say 'in the leather' or something like that, indicating that the distance was less than from the putter head to the end of the grip.

This were we got into trouble. It was too subjective. Some were more liberal than others. Yeah, inside the leather is a good way of doing it.

garyt1957

Sneakylong Yeah, inside the leather is a good way of doing it.

Cool i have a 48" putter

darpar

Sneakylong inside the leather is a good way of doing it.

In our little Monday League they have a "strapped at 18 inches" rule for gimme putts.
You basically put a piece of tape on your putter shaft 18" from the top of the head.
Myself I'd rather putt EVERYTHING out, but I don't run the league or make the rules!

rsvman2

garyt1957 Lol.

Eguller

I thought that 'inside the leather' originally meant the length of the 'leather' putter grip. 🤔

rsvman2

Eguller Probably right, but that's too short, so we turned it around and went from the clubhead to the grip.

Those old school leather grips weren't very long, either.

« Previous Page