Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Graham Ricky and I'm from Oakland, New Zealand,
and I play at Tyre Golf and Country Club. This
is golf Smart.
Speaker 2: Golf Smarter number four hundred and sixty two, originally published
on November fourteen, twenty fourteen.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our
interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 1: If it bothers you that much to card a ninety
five versus a ninety one, get lessons, It's not about
the score. I read recently Ben Hogan said before every
round he knew he was going to have four bad shots. Okay,
now this is a professional. I kind of go out
thinking I'm gonna have four good shots, and it just
is what it is. When I first started playing by
the rules, my scores went up dramastically, but I knew
at the end of the day that that was my
true score, and I could tell people that with accuracy
and not be ashamed.
Speaker 4: Because that is what I shot.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make me any less of a golfer or
any better golfer by saying you shot something lower. That's
kind of one of my pet peeves about that. But
you have to hit anyhow. Some people drop a ball
immediately and just hit right away. Actually, the rule book
says you don't hit right away unless, of course, you're
the last one teeing off. So if you're first and
you put yours in the woods, pick up your tea,
walk back to the bag, let the other three players play,
and then you can hit your provision.
Speaker 2: Hey, you're standing on my line. Golf Etiquette with Richard Toff.
This is Golf Smarter. Welcome back to the Golf Smarter podcast. Richard.
Speaker 4: Hey, Fred, it's great to be back.
Speaker 2: It's like you never left a lot of time with
Golf Smarter.
Speaker 4: Huh yes, every week.
Speaker 2: Well, I get to spend a lot of time with
your books. Now, thank you, and you got a new one. Congratulations.
So let's let's recap what the last book was so
we can promote that.
Speaker 1: First absolutely, please, we'll take you back five years. First,
my son was graduating eighth grade, getting ready to become
a big, bad freshman and decided he wanted to be
on the golf team. So it was a great summer.
I got to play a lot of.
Speaker 2: Golf, you know, and you've been playing golf all your life.
Speaker 4: I have.
Speaker 1: I had been thirty some years. But you know, it's
harder to get every weekend off to play golf. But
I told the wife, you know, I've got to do
this so that Nicholas can make the team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and excuse and yes, it's very hard, and I
do acknowledge it is very hard for anybody with young
children to get out on the golf course on a
regular basis, very hard unless they drag their kids along exactly.
Speaker 4: So we're out there during that in the day and
at night.
Speaker 1: I decided to try to read the USGA Rules of Golf.
I had attempted it once before. As you know, it's
a very difficult book to get through. No offense to
the usg you know, that's a legal document and there
is some legal eaese in there, and it's tough to
get through even if you read it from cover to
cover understanding it is a completely different ballgame. So as
I'm reading the section on tending the flag stick, I
was mentally transported back to being sixteen myself and the
first time my dad took me out with him and
his friends. I was, of course, just elated that the
old man would take me golfing with his friends. I
managed to work through the first te jitters, kept my
driving fairway, and made my way to the green, and
I'm feeling confident. Now I'm getting ready to settle in
for a nice round of golf, to pull my weight
and impress the old man. I'm tending the flag stick.
He's just off the green and he sculls it and
it is screaming at the hole. Well, I pulled the
flagstick out, and he starts yelling for me to put
it back in because he wants that backboard action.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: Well that doesn't happen, and the ball goes over the hole,
across the green and down the hill, and what should
have been a possible birdie ended up being a double bogie.
And he proceeds to let me know, very verbally, very loud,
how happy he is that I'm there that day, in
front of all his friends and everybody on the course.
So I carried that golf guilt around for three decades
and as I'm reading that, well, why.
Speaker 2: Do I not believe you that he was so happy
that he was black ragging about having.
Speaker 1: You thereout air quotes around the happiness.
Speaker 2: Okay, air quotes. I missed the eye out. I'm sorry,
I'm blinked.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 4: It was not a very good time.
Speaker 1: I mean, old you were you. I was sixteen, and
his friends or his friends stepped in and they're like,
you know, just go ahead to hit another one, and
you know, don't worry about it and anything. So uh.
In reading the chapter on flankstick, I realized he was wrong.
I was right there. You don't get to choose after
you hit the ball if you want it in or
pull it out, whatever fits you best.
Speaker 2: So wait, what did he He asked you to tend it? Well,
or he asked you to pull it?
Speaker 1: Initially, I don't remember if he asked me to tend it,
but I was standing there with my hand on it,
and according to the rule book, if somebody is there,
that is considered tending it. Because he saw me standing there,
he knew I was going to pull it because my
hand was on it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so.
Speaker 1: He needed to make that decision before he hit either
for me, to move away or pull it or get
ready to pull it after he hits. So it made
me maybe kind of mad that I had to carry
that guilt around for three decades.
Speaker 4: And I said, nobody should have to go through this.
Speaker 2: Oh, listen, as any kid, as any adult knows what
you're going to find something to carry the guilt around
for decades.
Speaker 4: Yes, I understand.
Speaker 1: So it became my mission at that point to help
educate people so that this didn't happen to somebody else.
And as I'm reading the rule book, each time I
go through a section, I've got a memory of something
that mirrored what they're trying to explain. And it just
occurred to me that I could just put all of
these memories into one long and rather painful round of
golf and explain the rules in a very lighthearted manner
that's easy to understand. And that's how the golf rules
idea started.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the first book, so the first book we
were talking about golf rules is the rules.
Speaker 4: It is on stroke play.
Speaker 2: Stroke play rules. Okay, and now you've decided you're going
to go and do a series on these. And the
second one here is on etiquette.
Speaker 1: Correct and actually That idea came about very soon after
the original idea to write the golf rules on stroke play,
you know, because I said to myself, well, that's just
one part of the game, so we're going to need
to do etiquette. And I also have plans for the
third book next summer to be on match play. Okay,
so well we'll hit all three components of the game.
And so I started writing, I'm reading through the rules
of golf. I need to make sure I know what
I'm talking about. So I sign up for USGA Rules School, which,
for those that don't know, is four days of intense
rules discussion. You're talking nine to ten hours a day
just going through that little book, and the last day
is a four hour exam on the rules of golf,
and most people don't finish the exam in that time.
It's grueling. Wow. And to make matters worse at the
end of the day is if you're not tired enough.
Most everybody goes back to their hotel room and studies
for the next day. You should see these booklets that
everyone has, and they're all thumbnailed and little stickies everywhere
for each rule number and notes, and there's highlighting in them.
I didn't study this much for a single class I
had in college.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you were going to try to make a
living out.
Speaker 4: Of that, that's true.
Speaker 2: But I'm tullious. So now if you have these, you know,
official workshops and tests and things for the rules, where
do you what is your resource for getting over two
hundred etiquette faux pause for this book? I mean it's
not these aren't written down anywhere? Are they?
Speaker 4: There are etiquette rules.
Speaker 1: There are a few listed in the USGA rulebook.
Speaker 2: Very few, I gotta imagine.
Speaker 4: Yes, I think maybe a dozen or two dozen.
Speaker 1: I talked to course pros, maintenance crews, other golfers, pretty
much anybody I could run into, you know, sitting around
on the nineteenth hole, asking people what's your what's your
biggest pet peeve? And doing some online research.
Speaker 2: And how many of those pet peeves did not end
up in the book.
Speaker 1: I think I had a couple dozen that I really
didn't get in there.
Speaker 2: Like what sure I could have? You know, I dig this,
I did this see you last time?
Speaker 4: And you know.
Speaker 1: It's funny because I had b If you would, that's fine.
Speaker 2: You need to take it. You need to study. From
my interview.
Speaker 4: To answer your question.
Speaker 1: One that I really was a little upset about not
putting in there are the little flags that are marked
ground under repair. You know, sometimes you see fifteen little
yellow flags, know about a foot tall. That was something
that I didn't get in. I do have ground under
repair listed, but not that specific instance. And that was
something that I don't know just tickled my fancy and
wish I would have put in there. And it's but
it's funny you should say what's not in there? Because
I had one bad review on Amazon and this individual
gave me a three out of five stars and said,
I wish there was more on out of Bounds.
Speaker 4: Well, I think there was enough.
Speaker 1: In there, but I checked to see and this individual
had also rated Butch Harmon's latest release the same score,
So I guess.
Speaker 4: I can't feel bad. Even though he didn't give me
a five.
Speaker 1: He rated me the same as Butch Harmon's.
Speaker 2: Oh pretty good.
Speaker 4: It's nice class to be it.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you. The review thing is always fun, but
it gets dangerous because you start like reading it and
then taking it seriously and then taking it personally. I
do that in the iTunes reviews, and if anybody wants
to write an iTunes review. I'm not going to stop them.
I would love to get but I make sure it's
an honest review. Please please, and please, Richard, please ask
people go do a review of iTunes of golf Smarter
and iTunes. We haven't had one in a while anyway,
So are they Okay? I'm just going to ask you
various etiquete rules because this actually came up this weekend
on my round. Are there etiquette rules for a hole
in one?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: I have not heard any. Oh dude, did you have
a hole in one? Okay?
Speaker 2: I did not, nor did anybody my foresome but he
came off lee close. We think it hit the stick
and it landed like four inches from the cup, which
was awesome.
Speaker 1: So are you're saying that you could carry on too
much if you get a hole in one and that's
a faux pop? Well?
Speaker 2: What what is the the correct procedure after a person
gets a hole in one and the round is over?
What is correct? What is the accepted etiquette rule of
what happens in the clubhouse afterwards?
Speaker 1: I think that one is so such a small percentage
of people to get that.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't have any research on that one.
Speaker 2: But research you ask people question's what business you off
I would say for that one, there's you know, anything goes.
Speaker 1: Everybody should promote that one, and you know you should
get drinks all around, maybe even a nice steak dinner afterwards. Well,
I do know there's a website dedicated to hole in
ones and you mark down where you were playing the
conditions of that particular hole in your name and nice.
Speaker 2: Actually, there's a lot of websites about holding ones. I've
done it once. I've gotten a hole in one once,
and I have a certificate from the PGA that has
my name on it saying I got a hole in one.
I have a yeah, they said, I have a like
a bag tag that says I've gotten a hole in one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: There's lots of things you can get, lots of goodies
that says that's it. But you have to you have
to give them some sort of proof. But I've heard
everything from you buy everybody in your forsome a drink afterward,
and all the way to you by everybody in the
clubhouse or in the bar at the clubhouse. At the
nineteenth hole. You have to buy everybody drinks until the
last person standing. I mean, that's a wide range of
what you got to do.
Speaker 1: Those sound like rules made by people that are looking
for free drinks.
Speaker 2: Well, golfers are not in that group, are you kidding?
Who doesn't like a free anything exactly? I mean, how
many times guys go around looking for golf balls? Oh,
I found the ball? Yeah, so, but we're waiting.
Speaker 4: That's in the book too.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about that one about looking about what it
means to just go hunting for balls during the round,
even if you haven't lost yours. What's the proper etiquette
for that?
Speaker 1: One thing most important is don't hold up anybody behind
you or your group.
Speaker 4: Yep, that's probably the biggest pah.
Speaker 1: You know. Granted, if you see somebody coming up out
of the marsh and they've got a duffel that they
found four dozen, it's you just kind of have to wonder.
And especially we know most of those balls aren't really playable,
so the speed of play on that one is it's
probably the biggest point to take home when you're talking
about etiquette too. You can use it to make your
game more enjoyable even before you take your first swing,
especially if you're with it. Teamed up with somebody you
haven't played with before. Of course, you know, you go
through the introductions and I always write down the other
player's names, you know, in the corner of the scorecard somewhere,
so that you know, the third hole when I need
Jim to move, I remember his name, at least it's
a fifty to fifty chance, as do I.
Speaker 2: I try, because I'm not good with names. Bob and
I'm sorry, Richard and I am And I also like
try write down, like what cap he's wearing, because I
hate getting him wrong. I can't just write Tom and Bill,
all right, Tom white cap, Oh, okay, that's Tom.
Speaker 1: Those are good ones too. Yeah, and then also mention
your golfing ability, your handicap where you like to hit
from rather than being on the second hole and you're
in the woods, and the rest of your players are
starting to pull their hair out because now they realize
we thought we were going to play a speedy par
around and we've got mister triple bogie over here. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But what choice do you have. I mean, if you
go to the you go to the first t and
the starter says you're twosome is team this? You got
a single here, in a single here that's playing with you.
You walk up to and say, hey, how's your game?
I'm not so sure I agree with you on this one.
It's like, Hi, how are you? And then you just
have to be patient. But you can't tell the starter
this guy sucks. I don't want to play with him.
Speaker 1: Well, I've seen that done too. Really, wouldn't you rather
know before the round starts that it's going to be
slow and you, and knowing his inability, you can guide
him a little more, you know, maybe he tell him,
don't be hitting from the blues, let's scoot you up
a little bit, or help watch his shot a little more.
You know. That's another great pace of play item in
the book. You've got this threesome and one guy hits
in the woods and he turns to the other one
and says, did you see where it landed? And the
snotty character says, it's not my ball. I wasn't watching it.
But then the second person hits, puts his ball in
the woods and he says, anybody see where it landed.
First guy says, yes, it's at the third tree at
the base, And it just saves lots of time from
having to look around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, no question about it.
Speaker 1: I just I I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, I've not well. The first thing I never
want to do is tell people how they should be playing.
I mean, I don't even I generally don't bring up
the podcast until the seventeenth hole. I don't because it's like,
I don't want to, I don't want to talk about
me on this thing, and I just like, maybe I'm
going to have a potentially new listener, so I want
to bring it up at some point, and I generally
just say there's a difference. Have you ever heard of
a podcast? But telling people like, you know, like what
where they should play? You want to play the fronts,
go ahead, I'm going to play the blues today, or
you know, I'm going to play the whites.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not saying you should tell them, but you can,
especially if somebody's breaking some major etiquette or even the rules,
you might want to just mention to them, you know, hey,
that was a nice shot, but this is how it's
supposed to be played. The concept that you know, started
these the books is that most people haven't had any
thorough education.
Speaker 2: Exposure, let's just call it exposure.
Speaker 4: Not okay, yeah, and for.
Speaker 1: That individual, let's just say he was breaking an etiquette
and you didn't say anything. Well, golf is a cradle
to grave sport, as you know, so he could repeat
that same error for the next fifty years.
Speaker 2: He couldn't feel responsible for that.
Speaker 1: You know what, I think for the good of the game,
we all have some citizen responsibility that you know. In
addition to you know, him doing it wrong for fifty years,
he might turn somebody off to the game. You know,
they might think that what this player was doing is
standard and don't want to have anything to do with golf,
or that person will teach others. You know. It's it's
like the spam email. As long as you keep forwarding
the chain mail, it keeps going. But if you stop it,
nobody has to have their inbox flooded and there are
You're right, it can be a difficult situation, you know,
as you were saying, if you've got somebody new, how
many times have we just thought the guys are putts?
But in three hours I don't have to deal with
them again. But there's an opportunity there to help his life,
possibly his game be better, and everybody he touches thereafter,
who cares if you insult him?
Speaker 4: You know, some things need.
Speaker 1: To be done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and again to me, it's like, are we
playing for money today? And are you in? If you're in,
then okay, let's all agree on these etiquette rules and
all the real rules. But otherwise they do what you want.
I'm from California, man, We're all about doing what you want,
and I'm not country club. Are there a list of
rules in your book for etiquette rules for marshals?
Speaker 4: Marshals?
Speaker 1: We do have a couple listed in there. They're not
for marshals to behave. But I know that's a hot
button for you.
Speaker 2: Ooh boy, oh boy, you know because you mentioned. But
it's like, okay, keep an eye on where the ball goes,
so you watch and you can help pick up the
pace of play. Why aren't the marshals doing if they're
just driving around in circles doing nothing Telegate except telling
you that you're going too slow, Well that's because I
lost my ball. Oh man, they make me creazy.
Speaker 1: Well, you know that might go back to being educated
and experienced from somebody else that doesn't know what they're doing.
You know, I assume some of these marshals may not
have been through USGAPGA rules school. They might be older
golfers that can't really play as much, so they're trying
to help.
Speaker 2: What are common etiquette faux pas that really irk you?
Speaker 1: For me, the mulligan and hitting right away, which you
can kind of roll in together. So many every golfer
knows what a mulligan is, despite there being no mention
of a mulligan in the rule book. You know everybody
wants to hit again, Well guess what you get. You
do get to hit again, but you count your first
stroke and count your second stroke as a penalty stroke.
To me, the it mirrors. Let's say you're playing Monopoly
and you land on go directly to jail. Can you
imagine turning to the person on your left and saying,
I'm going to roll again. Let's not count that.
Speaker 2: I love that idea, it's just what it is. Or
I'm going to try that next time I play Monopoly.
Can I get a mulligan on that roll? Some are
the crap table, even just the craft table. You're playing.
Speaker 1: A little backarrack. Some people say, well, you know what,
everybody gets a mulligan in our group, Well, why don't
you just count the stroke and add four onto everybody's
or three onto everybody's game.
Speaker 4: It's about the same, right If.
Speaker 1: It bothers you that much to card a ninety five
versus a ninety one, get lessons. It's not about the score.
And I read recently Ben Hogan said before every round
he knew he was gonna have four bad shots. Okay,
now this is a professional, so I kind of go
out thinking I'm gonna have four good shots, and it
just is what it is. When I first started playing
by the rules, my scores went up dramastically, but I
knew at the end of the day that that was
my true score, and I could tell people that with
accuracy and not be ashamed because that is what I shot.
It doesn't make me any less of a golfer or
any better golfer by saying you shot something lower. So
that's kind of one of my pet peeves about that.
But and then again for those that take them or
I guess you have to hit anyhow, some people drop
a ball immediately and just hit right away. Well, the rules, actually,
the rule book says you go to the back of
the line. You don't hit right away, unless, of course,
you're the last one teeing off, We'll say we're in
the t box.
Speaker 4: So if you're first, and you put yours in the woods.
Speaker 1: Pick up your tea, walk back to the bag, let
the other three players play, and then you can hit
your provisional.
Speaker 2: Oh as opposed to your provision, as opposed to just
dropping the ball immediately or even recognizing you know that
ball you just hit out of bounds, you can drop
it over there. It's a lateral hazard, right.
Speaker 1: A lateral water hazard. We you know this. This summer,
I was walking the dog and contemplating lateral water has
as I'm sure you do too.
Speaker 2: No, I listen to podcasts when I'm walking the dog.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking about red steaks, and I glance up
and I see a red stop sign, and this is
how my mind works. I'm thinking, Okay, what are the
options at a stop sign? Well, they mirror the options
for a lateral water hazard red stakes when your water
your ball goes in. So here we go, Fred. Now,
I'm going to put it on you for a second.
When you're at a stop when you're at an intersection,
four way intersection, you have to stop sign. You have
five options. What are they.
Speaker 2: Five options at a four way stop sign.
Speaker 4: Yes, now this isn't difficult.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The first one is stop, the second one is go
through it. Third one would be kind of rolling stop.
Speaker 1: Okay, no, no, no, no, I'm wrong. Huh. All right, if
you're stopped at a red st yes, you can stay there,
turn left, turn right. Oh those options, those options go forward,
the legal options again, we're you know the rules. Or
you could put the car and revers or turn around
and go back. Those are exactly the same options you
have when your ball goes into a ladder of water hazard.
So now nobody has to ever wonder what can I
do when my ball goes in the water on those
red steaks. So again we'll just kind of say it.
You can stay there and play the ball as it lies,
because not always is the ball actually submerged if you're
in a water hazard.
Speaker 2: But wait, so, like I played this weekend up in
Sonoma in a winery area and there's winery like right
in the middle of a golf course and it's red staked,
and they don't want you to go into where the
where the grapes are growing. But my ball just kind
of like inched by the red steak and I had
I had somewhat which I could punch it back out.
You're saying, because it's a red steak, I still can
hit it. I don't have to immediately take the penalty.
Speaker 4: Yes, you do not.
Speaker 1: You do not have to. You can play the ball
as July. A matter of fact, we're talking about PGA
rules school. The gentleman sitting next to me the past
couple of years is on the not the PGA Tour,
is on the Golf Channel Tour, and we were going
over a rule about the wall ball being in a
water hazard and oscillating. Basically, the waves were coming up
the ripples just enough to move keep moving the ball
back and forth. And of course, you know you read
about these crazy things and you wonder what the option,
how often this happens? And of course he's like, I
had that happen to me, and I played it. So
even when your ball and we've seen this, when your
ball's in the water, you've seen it on a Sunday,
you can hit out of there. Raised Creek at Augusta
is a big example. Your ball's wet and these pros
can hit out of the water. It's only what twenty
feet straight up onto a nice soft landing, so you
can play it as it lies, even if it's in
the water. It might be a difficult shot for most,
but you've got that one. Talk about going backwards. That
means you can go back to where you last hit
it taking your penalty stroke. When I say left and right,
it depends on what side the water is on. Sure,
but you drop the ball on its where it crossed
the margin in the air, not where it splashed, but
where it crossed the margin of the water hazard. You
can drop it to the left. You can drop it
on the other side of the water hazard, equal distance
from the flag. So there's your left and write the
forward is dropping on a line from where it crossed
the water hazard with the flag stick is kind of
as far back as you want, so it's a it's
a little bit forward and back. You're looking forward to
get the line, but you drop it behind where it's
across the water hazard. Okay, so I've written an article
that basically explains what I just stated. I hope to
have that on my website in the next week or so,
maybe before you present this, so you can go to
the golf rules dot Com A little free article just
to kind of help educate on lateral water hazards because
those are difficult.
Speaker 2: Awesome, And it's the golf rules dot com. Correct three words,
all one word, the golf rules. Okay, great, great, great, okay,
Mulligan's irk you what's what is the correct way to
handle hitting a provisional? So it's like, oh, you have
to announce it correct like you hit a ball. You
hit a ball and you're not sure it's out of bounds.
You can't really see over there or went over herell
or you just you can't tell. And he's like, you
know what, I better hit a second ball just in case, right.
Speaker 4: And and that's a very good point.
Speaker 1: You don't have to know that it's lost to hit
a provisional. And you do exactly as you say. You
announce that you're going to hit one. If again, go
back in your turn in line. You know, hit right away.
You know everybody's already waiting. Let them go unless you're
the last person. Go look for your first ball first.
If you find that, that's what you play. If not,
you play your provisional, counting your first stroke and your penalty.
Speaker 2: Right, So when you're hitting your provisional you're hitting three,
if you're hitting off two, yes, okay, what about still
people still get really cranky about you walked on my line.
Now we've got shoes that don't make marks, they don't
make much impressions. Well, in California right now because of
our drought situation, the greens are fast, rock hard and
fast and I and they keep the grass so short.
On most greens, you really aren't making any marks. That's
gonna divert their ball. But I know you shouldn't step
on it. But it's like relax, well.
Speaker 1: But like you were saying, you shouldn't step on it,
So just don't do it. I mean, granted, if you
have an accident, that's different than on every hole Joe
walks across my line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well mostly the ones that are the It's like
if you walk on because you didn't see where the
guys you know, his marker was on the green, it's like, oh,
I'm really sorry. But if you're putting out and you
know you you've got to walk up to your you know,
you tap in or you're gimme if they're gonna do that,
I know I just made you freak out by something. Gimmy,
But it's like, that's where you're gonna step. It's like, oh,
I'm sorry, And then what happens is you take that
big step to get over right. It's like, oh, I
don't want to step on your line, so I'm gonna
take this big step. And what ends up happening is
you're you're just like you're putting, your line is off,
and when you take your big step, you land right
on his line or someone else's line right, and then
you make your the impression in the ground because you
jumped over.
Speaker 4: And right.
Speaker 1: It's we're not professionals, most of us, so it's not
gonna make a big difference if you go over, but
it could. And if it does and you watch somebody's
putt head and right for the cup and it drops
into where you just stood and goes off to the left,
you know you're you're going to get some comments. I'm sure.
No h So it's a lot a lot easier just
to not walk across the line and not have to
worry about it, even if it doesn't make it or
you may you may not have made any impression. But
if that ball for some reason doesn't go where was
supposed to, you're going to get blamed.
Speaker 2: In your research asking people what bugs you? What was
the most common faux pad that that came out?
Speaker 4: Speed of play seemed to be the biggest.
Speaker 1: And uh and.
Speaker 2: What do they what do they blame? Blame that on
crappy players or marshals who aren't paying attention.
Speaker 4: I think mostly crappy players, is uh.
Speaker 2: See, that's a problem. We shouldn't get testy about about
people who are new to the game because there aren't
that many anymore that are new to the game, and
we're trying to encourage them. So don't be pissy.
Speaker 1: There's a little there's a fine line and you can
kind of go both ways if you're just starting, you know, again,
as we're saying, maybe you shouldn't be playing far back,
play up a little bit, or you can. You know,
the USGA has their equitable stroke control, which growing up,
you know, I remember being taught double par you know,
and after that you picked up your ball and that
kind of kept the pace going for everybody, was it?
Hamenez just this last week carted a thirteen on a
par four.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, but that's a tournament. I mean, I understand,
but if you carry a handicap if you carry a handicap,
and most people, you know, I guess who even listening
to this, But you're carrying a handicap or you're preparing
to get a handicap for yourself, there is a number
that you can't go over on the scorecard. I can't
take more than the seven, right, so I never do.
Speaker 4: Actually I don't. The number isn't fixed.
Speaker 1: I believe it's as we're going, it's you know, double
bogie or triple bogie, depending on your your your.
Speaker 4: Handicap, because of course you can take more than a.
Speaker 1: Seven on a par five, but on a par three
not so much, right, because you're a nine point something. Right. Yeah,
it changed this the last time I heard the podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it changes every two weeks. And now I'm
nine to two, which and you.
Speaker 1: Know, I just played a couple of weeks ago by myself,
and I finished my round in an hour and ten
granted well nine holes, I was. I was a little
winded by the time I finished. There was one other
person on the course behind me about a hole and
a half. Now, if he had there's I'm sorry, we're
leading into another pet peeve. If he was playing faster
than me, you know maybe he had running shoes.
Speaker 4: I would have let him come through.
Speaker 1: Sure, of course, you know that that's and you know
it's such an ego for everybody that you know, whether
somebody plays through us. Most golfers don't have a problem
with playing through another group. But nope, they don't want
anybody playing through them. It's true, and it has nothing
to do with your manlyhood or how well you golf.
It's just a fact. If the person behind you is
playing faster and there's nobody in front of you, let
them go.
Speaker 2: But do you let him go and you wait for
a par three? You let him go anytime?
Speaker 4: It depends on the course.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a little more difficult if you're in
the middle of a hole, unless you know, maybe everybody's
approach shots went wide into the woods. Now you got
some time and I've done both. You know, you wait
till for a par three go through. Personally, I almost
feel it it's more difficult because if everybody is on
the green, they're waiting for you to hit on, walk
up and put out. It seems like that takes longer
than if they're a stroke behind you on a par
five where they just hit right through you and you'll
be done.
Speaker 4: But that's just me.
Speaker 2: No, No, that's a good point because I think that
any time I've ever asked, like, you guys want to
play through, it's always been on a par three. But
you're right, that actually does slow things down. It's better
to do on a par four or part five.
Speaker 1: There was a I think it was the History Channel
had a real interesting article where they timed all the
golfers coming through and they were showing how the bottleneck
being at the par threes. You've as you know, you
generally pay you out about what every you know, nine
eleven minutes, depending on how crowd of the course is. Well,
if it takes longer than that to play that hole,
then everybody backs up there and it backs up all
day long. So it's an interesting thought process as opposed
to sending on everybody out evenly, because you're not going
to be even once you get through that first hole.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: But I think that gets back down to, you know,
dollars and cents for the course.
Speaker 2: I think the other reason that it works for people
to let someone play through on a par three is
because you can mark your ball, you can get it
out of the way where on a fair way people
aren't going to be picking up their ball and they're
not sure that's a bad excuse. Okay, no, I like
this idea. Yeah, no, no, I think that's good. That's good. Wow,
you have over two hundred BETI good folkus I.
Speaker 4: Think I think it's two hundred and forty three?
Speaker 1: Is the count in that book?
Speaker 2: You are such a spreadsheet, not two and forty three?
Speaker 4: I had to know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because guys like me and go, so how
many you got in here? Well, it's on the cover.
Speaker 1: It says over too, and saying over two two and
forty just doesn't have the same ring. So and I
didn't quite pump it up to two fifties, so I
just let it go.
Speaker 2: So fixing fixing ball marks on the green and raking bunkers,
is that a rule or is that etiquette?
Speaker 4: That is etiquette. I don't believe there's any rule.
Speaker 1: Now, there's some guidance on Well, there are some rules
about raking, yep, you know how when you do it.
Speaker 2: But doesn't every every course have their own rule of
where you leave the rake?
Speaker 1: Or yeah, yeah, there are a lot of local rules.
There seems to be a one overwhelming rule or guideline
is that the rake is always perpendicular with the fairway.
Speaker 2: Oh, I've never heard that. And there's a video at
golf smarter dot com on our golf Smarter TV that
I recently did for the country club here Marine country
Club on course care pace of play, and their rule
is always put the rake with the handle sticking out.
Put the you know, the head in the sand and
the handle sticking out. But they didn't say anything about, uh,
the direction of the.
Speaker 1: Fairway is that with the whole rake in the bunker.
Speaker 2: No, just the handle sticking out of the edge of
the bunker. Okay, But they didn't say anything about it
should be in the same direction as the way of play.
Speaker 1: I think the concept is if your ball is heading
towards the flag and the rake is going the same way,
you have a less less chance of the ball being stopped,
as opposed to if you know the rake is at
ninety degrees to the flag you hit it, it's just
going to stop, as opposed if it's going the same way,
you're just going to roll with it.
Speaker 2: Fun stuff, fun stuff, fun book, fun book. Did you
do eighteen chapter? You did eighteen chapters? Again? On this
right nineteen.
Speaker 1: Actually I went a little went past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you doing a little farther this.
Speaker 1: I got a paragraph for twenty. But well, this one's
a real interesting storyline. It was funny again at an
author event, I was talking to a person. She had
lost her sister to breast cancer. So they started an
annual breast cancer awareness golf outing and they're in about
their ninth ninth year. It's kind of the story behind
the story in the book. A municipal golfer wins a
round of golf at a local country club for a charity,
and so it was kind of fun here in her
story because it mirrored what I had already written. Golf.
You know, as we know, it's it's not just a
game of moving the ball from one area to another.
You know, it's a way of life. It gives to
the community, it can help sick people. You can golf
with somebody you don't speak the same language, and managed
to spend four six hours with somebody, And it's okay,
uh to that. I've started writing a golf manifesto of
everything that golf is.
Speaker 4: So wow, I will it's.
Speaker 2: Going to be thicker than this book. I have a
sense and that could be something I'm writing the rest
of your life, right it could yeah, yeah, yeah, but
you have you have other things, I mean from you
were telling me that all these you know, when you
go out and do these author talks and you meet
people and you do your research, You've got a lot
of other stories that you've been compiling.
Speaker 1: I do some of these stories that people tell everybody
has a golf story, it seems like, and some are
better than others.
Speaker 4: So I've taked some.
Speaker 1: Are clean, yeah, I And so I've put those together
and I'm doing a book of short stories and ring
the writing of this, which I know will take just
historically it's going to take at least a year, if
not several, to put together the whole thing. I've started
publishing like five chapters at a time as an ebook.
It's in the Kindle market for ninety nine cents.
Speaker 4: It's called Short Stories from.
Speaker 1: The Long Links. So if you're looking for something a
little more lighthearted, check that out.
Speaker 2: For ninety nine cents, why the heck not? And I
will make sure that the link to that and the
link to golf rules Etiquette, those are both on Amazon,
right all your boy, Yes, yeah, And I'll make sure
that there are links to that at golf smarter dot com.
Speaker 1: Great, and the first book, The Golf Rules on Stroke Play,
is in some select Barnes and Nobles.
Speaker 4: It was quite a thrill. I walked into the store.
Speaker 1: Actually, I was doing an author event just outside of
Barnes and Nobles at another store, and my wife texted
me she was in the store. She says, Hey, your
book's on the shelf.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Very cool culture.
Speaker 2: I actually was interviewed for a book that somebody was writing,
and when she wrote to us and said the book
is it's out, It's in the store. My wife and
I ran to the store and there was that thrill
of finding, you know, not just my name in the book,
but there was a chapter on me. It's like, what nice? No,
it's not. It's not a pleasant thing. Different topic, different podcasts. Okay,
So to wrap this up, tell me how people can
find your stuff online and how they can find you
and write to you if they need to.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, of course, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, men, a few
select golf specialty stores online and brick and mortar have
the website the golf roles dot com, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
and I have a blog out at WordPress, all of
which you can get to from my website.
Speaker 2: Also, what are you doing on YouTube?
Speaker 1: I put together a kind of like a book trailer
for the first book, So Much, So Much fun. A
friend of mine, he actually is a NASA engineer that
likes to dabble in video. And so I called up
the local course and said, I've got this book. I'd
like to stop by and you know, do some filming,
and he said sure. So we showed up and he
gave us keys to the cart and it was.
Speaker 4: A fall day.
Speaker 1: Well that's about a year ago, and we basically had
the course to ourselves. We just drove around and took
video here and different swings and you know, dropping balls
and water and sand and of course we had to
play a couple of the part threes, but we just
drove around and it was it was amazing. Yeah, you know,
as opposed to the structured walking through the eighteen holes,
we just went wherever we wanted.
Speaker 2: Willy Nilly, Well, again, thank you so much for writing
this book. And I think people should have this and
your other one on their shelves for no other reason.
Then it's a reference. It's a reference source, and you
can just like, wait a minute, there is a rule
for that, or there's a thought for that. Let me
go find that, and here's where you do it. And
they're not thick books. And the thing that I do
love about your books is that they're stories. It's not
just you know, very dry USGA type legalies. These are stories.
As you say, it's learn the rules by watching others
make mistakes. It's awesome and congratulations and thank you again
for your support of golf Smarter.
Speaker 4: Oh you're welcome.
Speaker 1: And of course they make great Christmas grifts if you want,
I can do personalizations. I love hearing from people that
have given them as gifts, you know, I hear. Hey,
Uncle Bill went to open the book and he saw
that you mentioned his Thursday round of golf, and he
was just amazed that you knew he played golf on Thursday.
Speaker 2: Wonder then you run again