A Little Etiquette Helps Everyone Play Better

Now that golf has become a mass market sport (thanks to the popularity of Tiger Woods) people who are really not familiar with the game, or new to the game, are trying to rewrite the rules of etiquette. For example, how annoying is it to be watching a tournament live or televised and as Tiger or anyone hits a drive some yahoo in the gallery thinking that he is being cool, yells “Get in the hole!” Like that’s going to happen from 500 yards out, right.

Then you are playing on what you think is your home course, because you love playing it, and all of a sudden no one knows about allowing players to play through. I have had this experience three times this season. Most recently, I was playing a fine course and came across a “sixsome.” Is there such a thing? Broken rule number one. There were three adults and three kids. None of them were particularly good. They average 6 shots each on every hole. That meant my “twosome” had to wait for 36 shots for every hole. They never even pretended to let us play through. Broken rule number two. Finally, we gave up and walked across the fairway we were on and went to the next hole to tee off. This gentlemen’s’ sport that we have enjoyed for more than a century is getting dumbed down, fast.

How do you prevent that from happening? Well, first, course managers need to be much more diligent with players before and after they start play. There should be starters at every course who explain not just the local rules and conditions, but reinforce the speed of play requirements and not let “sixsomes” on the course in the first place. Most of these ‘new’ golfers never read scorecards closely enough to know how long they have to play each hole, or that they cannot not take an infinite number of shots each hole. They just don’t know the rules, or in some cases just don’t care.

Second, rangers need to work harder and be on the course consistently. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a ranger all this season. And, either the check-in staff or the ranger should ask each group what their level of play is, so that they know what they have out on the course to gauge their management of the speed of play. The irony is that the Rules of Golf (you can get a copy at www.usga.org) are unique among all sports because they are really set up to facilitate play and make it more enjoyable for everyone.

Finally, players should not be afraid to speak up, and let people know when they are violating the Rules, or it is obvious that they have no clue about traditional golf etiquette. If you don’t then the sport will change a lot…for the worse, and so will your game.