I. Facts -A Bonding Experience

With a fabulous July 4th holiday weekend now in the rearview mirror, Foremost has had a moment to reflect on the many traditions of the celebratory occasion that bring families together….fellowship, cookouts, fireworks, swimming, a hike or two …even, perhaps, a golf round with friends or family.

F used this latter activity as an opportunity to bond with his teenage grand-daughter LGR, a promising young competitive golfer, who was clearly surprised and, yes, somewhat annoyed that F called several violations on her in the opening holes of a round at HCC. The violations were fairly obvious, and noted by F simply for the purpose of forewarning her that at some point in her future competitions, she will find that golf is played under a system of Rules of with which she will soon need to make an acquaintance:

1) Failure to tee her ball behind the tee markers and within the teeing area: darn, that’s the General Penalty (2 strokes) in Stroke Play (R6.1b(2)), or subject to a request to replay the shot by an opponent in Match Play (with no penalty) (R6.1 b(1)).

2)A Poor Alignment Practice – lining up club head directly behind ball to assist aiming. F noticed the club head either touching and slightly moving the ball, or causing the ball to rotate as it was placed in the grass directly behind the ball: it’s a 1 stroke penalty to deliberately touch one’s ball at rest or cause it to move (such as while depressing grass). (R9.4b). (And perhaps another 2-stroke penalty for not replacing a moved ball, thus playing from a Wrong Place… F delicately let that one go).

(On a side note, how far does a ball have to move to incur a penalty? Pro Russell Henley famously called a penalty on himself recently for causing his ball to move. No one else saw the ball move. “How far did it move?”, he was asked…”about a dimple”.)

3) Another Improper Alignment Practice – placing alignment rod on ground to indicate line of play: that’s also a 2-stroke GP in Stroke Play! (R4.3a(6)).

F was confident that LGR would appreciate F penalizing her 5 strokes in the first 3 holes, although sadly no such expression of gratitude was offered. As to the alignment issues, she noted those practices were taught at a golf camp, and required in their play rounds. She gave F a dismissive smile, and turned to her cell phone which, of course, unfortunately drew another mild rebuke from F…all in fun…he did buy ice cream later!

(F learned it’s ok to observe a golf rule violation with a teenage girl … but don’t mess with her cell phone!)

Son JR was enjoying the rules interaction until cited himself for his play out of the far side of a bunker. It appeared to F that he touched the face of the bunker on his backswing during a practice swing. JR denied that his club had touched any sand during the backswing, but admitted that it had struck the lip of the bunker. He stated he had then altered his swing path so that the contact with the lip had in no way improved a condition affecting his swing.

Was there a violation? F had to admit he had never called a violation on a practice backswing hitting the back face or lip of a bunker.

Ruling

By definition, a “lip, wall or face at the edge of a prepared (sand) area …consisting of soil, grass, stacked turf…” is not part of a bunker. Accordingly, there was no violation for touching sand in the bunker during his practice swing (R12.2b(1)).

The question then became whether the backswing contact had improved a Condition Affecting the Stroke by altering the surface of the ground (R8.1a(3)). If the surface of the lip had been altered and improved the condition of the stroke, a penalty cannot be avoided even if the ball is played a different way and a different stroke is made. (Clarification, 8.1a/3).

F withdrew the penalty call as there was no evidence that the ground had been altered during JR’s practice backswing. No clumps of grass or sod were dislodged into the bunker. (The example often cited under R8 is when a practice swing breaks a branch). On this occasion, while there was a thud with the contact, there was no evidence that the ground had been moved or disturbed so as to affect or improve a swing plane.

F was delighted to have at least one member of his family still speaking with him after the golf round!

II. Facts -Local Rule Chaos

1. What’s with the music? After missing a six-foot par putt, F observed that there was no way he could make a putt with “Sugar Pie, Honey Bun” blaring from a fellow player’s golf cart speaker. F suggested to his DJ playing companion that F should, at least, have an opportunity to select his own song from the playlist while putting…

Ruling

Alas, R4.3(4) allows audio as background music, “But in doing so, consideration should be shown to others”. Model Local Rule G-8 prohibits the use of audio subject to the penalty provision of R4.3(4), but apparently this LR has not been adopted by many clubs or competitions.

On this subject, one distinguished player observed that while he had acquired the mental discipline to block out a single song, he was often overwhelmed on the tee box with competing songs from both golf carts. He said he couldn’t yet handle dueling banjos.

The “consideration” element seems to be lacking! Golf is hard enough without the music! Can the ROG define “consideration”? Does “consideration” include an offer of a music veto?

2. F is advised that at least one prominent club, by LR, has waived the 14-club rule for general play, and will enforce the Rule only as specified in certain competitions. F doesn’t think a Committee is authorized to waive this ROG. “A committee must not use a Local Rule to waive or modify a ROG simply because it might prefer a Rule to be different.” (Model Local Rule 8(1)e).

A further consideration is that a a round played under a LR that waives a ROG might not qualify as a round for handicap purposes. The Model Rule suggests the Committee should consult the handicapping authority as to whether players may submit scores inconsistent with the ROG or the stated purpose of Model Local Rules. (MLR8).

Happy 4th to all! F is working diligently on his golf playlist, and promises to next time take his teenage girls shopping!

As usual, all comments or corrections are welcome!

Respectfully submitted,
F