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Etiquette

I read
Yves Thon-That's golf Rules & Etiquette Crystal Clear
and short list here some surprises for me as a newcomer to the game

 

I do not remember ever to have read a book by someone who suppressed his name from the front cover, like Yves C. Thon-That, Master of Law and golf Rule Official with handicap 4, did with his golf Rules & Etiquette Crystal Clear (http://www.golfrulesmadeeasy.com). That made me, golf newcomer, only recently playing at the decisively off Broadway Jinja Club, Uganda, think it would be worth studying carefully, and it was.

Picture 1: Dress code. One of the most notable aspects in which the golf course is not to be confused with the Garden of Eden.
Left is right, right is wrong!!, despite the joy Yves visibly took from borrowing his right side outfit from the outer fringe of his wide circle of connections, and the ease his photo partner obviously had in finding something on her own shelves [more examples of wrong dress]

The pictures reproduced above relieve the newcomer from quite some doubts but unfortunately there is no satisfactory dealing in Thon-That's with a case I was personally informed of, one that actually occurred on a respected golf course, of golfers having sex in the dense rough (what if of same group? ...different groups? ...if ball moves?...5 minutes rule?), but to the avoidance of injuries Yves inserts graphical pictures involving his photo-partner (in proper dress!) with whom every reader by now surely has fallen in love...impossible to forget never to do such things!

Picture 2:  Yves Thon-That (Hcp 4) in some hard-core scenario's

Picture 4: Etiquette. After missing an easy put and yet

  1. not having broken your putter over your knee you
  2. greet players on other fairways, even if
  3. you do not know them, but
  4. only with a waiving gesture.
  5. no verbal greetings exchange, that might disturb players.

Be fast

Everybody should play fast. After putting, before any conversations, first leave the green. Do not look for balls out of bounds, you are not allowed to play them anyway and you can afford buying another. Not too many practice swings (they take energy!!). In a 2-ball do not use more than 3 hrs 45 min, "only a fast game is a good game", and after all (not in Thon-That's book), the club's tee-off schedule makes clear it needs more green fees than only yours even though it surely was a bloody lot. In sum: never forget: golf = money, money = time, ergo golf = time.

How to socialize

Weaker players, if they still have breath while making the speed so as to allow the course management to jam in another flight, are allowed to say something but should ensure that they do not praise good players for shots that these themselves are totally unsatisfied with. After having recovered your breath in the club house, it is not unusual to ask other players how they did, even though absolutely everybody assumes you are not, as one learns in the book, interested at all. The book: "If someone asks you how the game went it is advisable only to answer with your result (number of strokes/ number of Stableford points). It is better not to relate the story (....), experience has shown that absolutely no one is interested"


What I Learned On the Course about Etiquette After Reading Yves C. Thon-That's golf Rules & Etiquette Crystal Clear

  • After reading Yves C. Thon-That's golf Rules & Etiquette Crystal Clear, do not start to show off and annoy your fellow players by all the time mentioning their breaches of rules

  • We all like to pass for proper golf players. Realize that loosing a hole is better than spoiling the mood of your sympathetic fellow human creatures

  • Keep in mind this also enhances the pace of the game

  • Specify a rule only if asked for

  • Do not bore the committee by telling upon other players' breaches

  • Always keep in mind that this handicap thing makes it all bogus anyway.