RESPONSIBILITY TO THE FIELD

A reason for making sure your fellow competitors are playing by the Rules is something called “responsibility to the field.” It simply means all the players in the field have an obligation to the rest of the players in the field to make sure there are no Rules infractions during the round. You could look the other way, but you owe it to the rest of the field to speak up. Keep in mind; most of these mistakes are made because of not knowing the Rules rather than trying to cheat.

The Rules of Golf are the glue that holds this great game together so that all golfers are playing the same on a variety of great golf courses. Yet the Rules are also a personal thing with each golfer who, I like to think, would not hesitate to call an infraction on him or herself without even thinking about it. Honesty is what sets this game apart from a host of other sports whose theme is to get ahead with anything you can until an official catches you.

Even a pick-up game of basketball cannot begin unless the players know certain rules, such as OB lines. A game like golf that has many outdoor elements and pieces of equipment must be governed by a set of rules. In addition, in the 34 Rules of Golf in use today, I feel the rules makers have a very effective system in place.

We do quite well publicizing the care of the course and most golfers do fix ball marks on greens, rake bunkers and replace divots. We do rather well encouraging players to watch other players’ shots, help them look for lost balls and even have the guts to tell your fellow-competitors that the group is falling behind and has to pick up the pace.

We may be a little lax on the common courtesies, such as watching our shadow, walking on another player’s line of putt, getting in other players’ field of vision when they are playing a shot or simply replacing the flagstick. As one seasoned golfer asked his fellow competitor, “Do you know how much a flagstick weighs?” The reply was “I have no idea.” The seasoned golfers’ retort was “That’s because you have never picked one up.”

An area we all dance around is infractions of the Rules. To confront someone about a possible rules infraction is usually unpleasant; we may be unsure of our own knowledge, it may not affect us personally and who wants to embarrass someone? If you do question a situation, it’s not unusual to hear –“Come on, we’re not playing the U.S. Open. I’m here to have fun.” I’m not sure how not playing by the Rules and fun correlate.

There are several core values to the Game of Golf – playing the course as you find it, playing the ball as it lies and playing the game by the rules.

For other questions on the Rules of Golf, check out the other articles in NOGA's USGA Rules Corner! Play well, and get to know the Rules of Golf!