Golf scores among friends

Russ and Brad Watts

Keeping a golf score among friends is not to be taken too seriously.

Remember back when Russ, David, Scott, and Allen actually made it to the golf course more than once every other year? Looking back in a past Barber Pole we found this entry, and felt it was worth repeating.

From the July 2001 Barber Pole

"Dad reports: When Mom said she couldn’t believe how it was that I had played golf so much more than David or Allen and couldn’t beat them, I reasoned that I might have done better if I had understood sooner which rules we were playing under. Both Allen and David have special rules. Allen’s “mercy rule” is that you never mark down more than three shots above par, no matter how many shots you actually take on any one hole. Allen made sure we all understood this rule on the first hole, when he hit his ball out of bounds. David’s “let’s just have fun rules” are more extensive and were only understood as the game progressed.

They are:

1. Practice drive – any drive off the first tee that is not right down the middle of the fairway

2. Free drop – if you hit the ball out of bounds you get a free drop – no penalty shot need be added

3. Best ball – hit twice off the tee, then take the best ball

4. Improving your lie – if our lie can be improved – do it

5. Mulligan – any drive that goes in the water, out of bounds, less than 50 yards, OR that hits Russ

6. Penalty stroke – a silly rule – never use when playing among family or friends

7. Gimme putt – any putt from within 5 feet of the hole

8. Identifying your ball hit into the rough – always use a white ball and don’t pay attention to its brand or number, then choose the most playable white ball you can find – it’s probably yours

9. What to do when you hit your ball into the adjacent driving range among hundreds of other of balls – take a free drop at the most advantageous location available as long as it’s within 50 yards of where your ball is thought to be.

10. Keeping score – number of times you hit the ball minus any practice drives (see #1), mulligan’s (see #5), and missed gimme putts (see #7)."

Now that we’ve reviewed Allen and David’s rules, we’ll all start out even when we go golfing this summer. Just to make sure I was ready, I shared Allen and David’s rules with Brad Watts when we went golfing Friday. He thought it was a good idea and we invoked almost all of them. We even took a few photos as we took advantage of them.

This lie definitely needs to be improved

Those trees shouldn't be there anyway - free drop

Clearly a gimme