shakes wrote:
Chuster, people with your mindset are the reason rounds take 5+ hours.
My pace of play has never caused a five hour round, even with the drinking and puffing. Rounds that long are due to overbooking (I'm looking at you, Villa Olivia), or a slow group in front of me.
I can think of many worse ways to spend five hours, than chilling on the golf course with my homies.
shakes wrote:
I completely disagree with everything you said. The relaxed rules are not for new golfers, they're for amateur golfers trying to enjoy the game and make it enjoyable for everyone else on the course.
I have played with you twice, and we never played with rules like that. I counted my penalties. Our pace of play was just fine.
shakes wrote:
We should not be playing the same rules as the pros.
We play shorter, easier courses than the pros.
shakes wrote:
As far as I know there isn't a single sport where amateurs and pros use the exact same rules.
Isn't it just the opposite? I can't think of anything in my bowling league that is different than the pros, other than the oil patterns. Baseball rules are the same. Three strikes, you're out, etc.
shakes wrote:
Hitting provisionals off the tee, going back 200 yards to the tee to re-hit if you can't find your ball may work for he pros, but it obviously doesn't work on a crowded Saturday at a local muni.
If you think the ball might be gone, hit a provisional. Then there is no going back 200 yards to the tee box. One extra drive from the tee box isn't slowing things down.
shakes wrote:
Hitting off of tree roots is no big deal when you're a pro with unlimited free clubs, but obviously a massive deal for you and me who pay for our clubs and can't afford to break them on a root...or worse break a wrist.
I'm not hitting off tree roots either. I will drop a club length, no closer to the hole. I'm talking about using the foot wedge, to give one an easier line to the hole.
shakes wrote:
Putting out everything, staring down a 3 footer for your double bogey..these are things that add up and lead to the groups behind waiting 5 minutes on every shot.
If you keep a good pace throughout the hole, this isn't an issue. Picking up two footers turns into picking up four and six footers, when a person is struggling.
shakes wrote:
The game is meant to be fun, the official rules are way to penal for an amateur who doesn't have the benefit of having 300 people helping him look for a lost ball.
Spend no more than a few minutes looking for a lost ball. If four of you can't find it, hit your provisional tee shot, shooting four (not two or three).
shakes wrote:
Also you exagerrate quite a bit the effect on a score....unless you're hitting several drives OB.
You are pretty straight off the tee, but everybody isn't. Many people spray one or two tee shots on a hole. They are the ones, who often aren't counting penalty shots. We all play with guys like that.
Playing two balls, treating all hazards as lateral hazards, using foot wedges, and picking up putts can easily shave ten or twelve shots off a score.
I'm not a rules Nazi. Play however you want. I play with some duffers, who are fast and loose with the rules. If there is no money on the table, who cares? We all give each other "gimme putts". I'm just saying that if you take shortcuts, and those are just the ones he admits, then you didn't actually shoot that score.