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How strictly do you play the rules?

How do you play?

  • PGA rules all the way

    Votes: 15 37.5%

  • modified rules

    Votes: 25 62.5%
  • Total voters
    40
Qwkz51

Qwkz51

El Conquistador
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Jan 5, 2018
Messages
5,983
Reaction score
7,714
Location
Kentucky
Handicap
16
My men's scramble league plays modified rules because we're all a bunch of hackers who can't keep the ball in play. :ROFLMAO: so anything during our rounds that goes ob is played as a lateral. We play the ball up from the rough, take a club length on unplayable lies and gimme putts are putter length. I feel like as long as everyone is playing by the same rules, that's all that matters. Good is hard enough we're trying to have fun and we ask recognize our shot at going pro is nonexistent. How do you play? What changes does your group make?
 
Pretty strictly. I don't do any of the things you mentioned, even in practice rounds, but I don't expect anyone else to play that way unless there's something at stake. I want people to play however it's most fun for them.
 
I assume most people who are on a golf forum would more likely to follow the rules than average players.
 
the only rule we knowingly break is lost balls that should have reasonably been found (like in the fairway, in the leaf-covered rough...not talking about balls that were hit off the planet here...) are a 1-shot penalty after dropping where we think it should be. zero interest in walking back to the tee on a weekend. i've got no issues with guys rolling out of a fairway divot or away from a tree root for free.

weekly league is by the books (again, to the best of our foursome's collective knowledge of the 5,632,678 rules..sorry...Rules) - with the local rule of playing balls lost in native grass as lateral, not lost.
 
I should add if it is true competition that's one thing but most people in this league wouldn't shoot 90 on their best day. It's just about making it fun for everyone. When I play with friends, or in paid events I play straight up.
 
I just started playing again after a 20 year layoff. My recent rounds were just trying to loosen up and find a swing again. I had the best time not caring in the least what I shot. Just hit the ball, find it, hit it again. I’d take a mulligan or 5, chip back to the fairway, lay up short of any hazard. No matter how poorly I might hit a shot, it didn’t matter. Still felt great when I hit a good one into a green if I was on in regulation or if I was putting for a double. No stress about how a double or triple bogey would ruin my round. I’m not going to be playing in any kind of competition, I’m playing just for the fun of it. Best time I’ve ever had on a golf course, not keeping score at all or worrying about the rules.
 
Going to depend on the day. Am I playing in a tournament? I’ll play to rules of golf plus local rules for that event.

If I’m playing a round with friends, usually pretty close to the rules. I’m not going to walk back to the tee if I can’t find a ball that I think I should have or anything like that. And maybe in a game with friends, we’ll set up mulligans or something to make it interesting. So that’s not consistent with the rules of golf.

So I guess the answer is it depends?
 
We allow gimmes (for very close putts), roll the ball out of divots, give free relief from rocks in desert waste areas so we don't trash our clubs, and occasionally institute our own "local rules" for adverse course conditions (our course never marks GUR, even when it obviously is).
 
Rocks and roots I move my ball but, directly away from the hole ie: if on a tree root I will back the ball away from the tree, not to the side. Will also back my ball out of a divot.
 
In casual rounds modified a bit. I'll hit 2 balls off the first tee when I havent warmed up, I'll take reasonable gimmies, and I'll move the ball out of a divot or off a tree root.
 
By the rules, I’ll hit off a cart path if necessary
 
MSEASU said:
By the rules, I’ll hit off a cart path if necessary
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OK, but I don't think that is necessary by the rules. You're allowed a free lift and drop from cart paths. I have seen pros decide to play from the path after taking a look at where they'd have to drop.

It depends on the format. If it's a sanctioned competition then it's strictly by the book! If it's a scramble everybody's mugging the ball like mad within a club length anyway.
 
If, and it’s a slim if, I’m keeping score, I try to play by the best rules that I can. But that usually stops after the second hole or so.
 
There are rules? :D:D:D Most of the people I play with are beginners. We play by most rules, but have a few of our own. You can move your ball away from tree roots and after 3 tries out of the bunker you can use a hand wedge to get it out. You pick up after 3 putts. Some of the group doesn't really keep score, they just put happy faces or frowny faces on the score card.
Golf is a game to us, we never play for money.
 
I play relaxed rules because it’s supposed to be fun and I’m not being paid to play. Improve your lie to improve your mood.


Now when I was establishing a handicap, or in an event, I follow as closely as I (or the group I’m in) know how to play.
 
I play as closely as I know how by the USGA (and R&A) RoG. I didn't answer the poll because I wasn't sure what PGA rules were. :p

I'm sure I've missed some. Chances are, I've missed some that would have helped me. I err toward playing the ball as it lies if in doubt of the Rule.
 
I post solo rounds and even gave myself a breakfast ball once this year. So yeah, I'm a dirty vanity-capping cheater.
Guess I could go back into the Grint and add the two strokes to that round. Then again, I'm not sure it would make a difference as I don't compete.
 
Haha. To a tee when posting. I need all the strokes I can get.
 
Besides our course rule that balls can be moved within 6 inches no closer to the hole in your own fairway due to less than stellar fairways, I follow everything else by the book to the best of my knowledge when posting a score. Either play off roots or take 1 stroke unplayable lie penalty, play everything else as it lies or take unplayable drop with penalty, hole out everything, etc. Very few people I play with come close to playing by the same rules.

Someone last weekend was bragging that they beat me by a stroke. I laughed and reminded them of the ball they dropped out of a bunker because it was in a flipping footprint without taking a single penalty stroke, let alone what should have been 2, while I took a one stroke unplayable lie penalty later in the round because my ball was buried in the lip of the bunker and I dropped it in the bunker.
 
I put modified as i'm surethere are rules I may not even realize i'm breaking. I do my best to abide by the ones I do know. I take gimmees, I may take a drop/ob wrong, I may sometimes have more than 14 clubs in my bag.

If I was playing in a tournament I would of course get clarification on rules and follow them but for fun rounds with my friends (which is basically 99.9%) we make sure we all agree on how we are playing.
 
I do my best to play by the rules because when I play in a tournament, I have to.

But I am fine with playing modified rules for fun rounds.

I also do not care what others play by, unless we are competing with each other
 
Sox_Fan said:
Besides our course rule that balls can be moved within 6 inches no closer to the hole in your own fairway due to less than stellar fairways, I follow everything else by the book to the best of my knowledge when posting a score.
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Wouldn't that be following everything by the book anyway if there's a local rule allowing that?
 
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