Saturday, June 4, 2016

Round Reflections: Rules Rule

After a little golf and blog hiatus for a fun trip to NYC (recap coming soon!), I was back at it today. Hot and sticky but not unbearable, it was nice to enjoy a morning outdoors. I learned they gave me a 12 handicap based on my first three scores. Not too thrilled to be in double digits, but the plus side is that I made the cut for the A Flight, so at least now all I have to do is whittle down my handicap and not worry about climbing flights. They're recalculated monthly. 
The higher handicap would be advantageous today, however, as this rusty swing put me all over God's green earth, as well as in some bodies of water.  But it wasn't the worst day yet, and I scored 13-over. So the net will work out for me and I'm anxious to get the score report. 
My group today was very fun and friendly. They were definitely the youngest I've been paired with even though I'm still quite in a different stage of my life, so to speak. I'm not quite young enough to be their daughter, but I could have been their daughter's baby sitter. It's been a strange dynamic most weeks but this week it didn't seem to be so awkward.
What is awkward, however, is the weird local rules for this league. For the most part I understand some of the modifications from a practicality standpoint. For instance, one hole has a tricky tee shot that often puts players OB on the left (I was there today, in fact), and for pace of play purposes they allow a drop two club lengths from the stake line, like you would a hazard (normally in an OB situation you play your next shot from the same place as your last with a one stroke penalty). My gripe is that because the local  rules are not applied universally, I feel that every time we need to discuss a ruling, whomever in the group who is the most veteran in the league seems to just make rules up on the fly. Or, as was another case today, the veteran member seemed to make up her own definition of hazard areas in an area of tall natural grass that wasn't marked in any way as a hazard,  and incorrectly advised the other player how she should drop. Every week I have played with at least one novice player and it irks me to think they are learning the rules wrong. I debate myself with how much of a stickler I want to be, especially since I am new to the local rules of this particular league. Today we weren't even to the second green and this was already an issue, so I decided I just needed to let it go today and have a good time. And once I relaxed, I did! Can't wait to be out there again in two weeks.
I would love to hear some golf rule horror stories if anyone has them.

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