While casually reading the Sydney Morning Herald the other day, one story jumped out at me – ‘Mosman golf doctor loses lawsuit against Australian Golf Club over expulsion‘. What had the good doctor done to receive such harsh treatment. Ends up being not playing by the rules.
So this had me thinking about my experience with not playing by the rules, or slightly bending them, whether from me or others. Over the years there has been a few. Certainly more in my later life, although I was on the end of a debate in my younger years. A fellow player questioned a possible infraction by moi, The rules committee cleared that up, but still left a sour taste and doubt from fellow friends, who had heard whispers.
Many years later, an up and coming junior of the club, had some of the members commenting how he was seen to throw the ball into a better position. Quite like the good doctor from Mosman. Having never played with him, I didn’t want to cast dispersion’s, much prefer to witness this than rely on mumblings from grumpy old men. Fast track a couple of years, he has almost become club champion and talk of the club, with no mention if the ball chucking incident was real or imagined.
Another time, playing with a former ruling official of professional sport (won’t say the name or what sport). His ball settled in the rough, a bit away from the rest of the group. He moved the ball quite deliberately before playing his shot. This was either due to him not capable of bending over to check if it was the correct ball, or just trying to get a better lie. Made me think if he could do this in golf, what other questionable decisions had he made when carrying out his job in the sporting arena.
More recently however there have been some more unnerving experiences with a particular playing partner. Not so much from him having infractions, but others around. Seems to be every third game there is potentially an issue. One experience left me feeling very uncomfortable at an open day, when my partner mentioned to a couple of strangers, they shouldn’t be discussing club selection on the tee. The response ‘We are not playing for sheep stations’. A little awkward but certainly a breach of the rules. Did he penalise himself? I don’t know as we weren’t marking his card. What made this worse was the refusal to shake the strangers hand at the end of the round declaring ‘I don’t shake hands with cheats’. I couldn’t get out of the area quick enough the situation had become so uncomfortable.
On the other hand I myself had an experience which was quite pleasant, obviously with a different partner. Not thinking, a leaf was moved in a bunker, which was near my ball. It was not interfering but in the corner of my eye. After the shot I was told it was a potential breach. I accepted that. Wasn’t sure on the penalty, so refereed to the rule book, which is always in my bag, took the penalty and we all moved on harmoniously.
Remarkable the difference in outcomes from both situations, how the rules were treated and how the players felt after.
Golf is a game of honour and requires self ruling most all of the time. Personally I could not walk off the course with a clear conscience if I knew I had deliberately cheated.
In the end, if you just play by the rules it will avoid such situations. Of course there are a lot of rules to learn. These could be simplified, but lets leave that for another conversation.
