Golf demands deportment, honor, total integrity
HAL LENOBEL
Contributing Columnist
golf@lbknews.com
The sports world has been grossly demeaned these last few years. In most instances, the amateur cannot be faulted; the professional athlete is to blame. Golf may be the exception. In an era of unprecedented proliferation of golf, the game still demands the very best deportment, honor and total integrity. Measure this against trash-talking basketball players, drug-abusing baseball players and dirty football players, and golf comes out smelling like a rose.
Unquestionably, talent does win tournaments, but the game does exhibit the epitome of etiquette, which remains an integral part of the game. Bear in mind, golf is the game for a lifetime.
I’d like to review some of the areas involving common courtesy on the course. First, and foremost, always display consideration for the other players on the course. Always allow the player who has the honor on the tee to play first. The only occasion where this may not be done would be in the interest of avoiding delay in play. Do not move, talk, or stand close or directly behind the ball or the hole when a player is addressing the ball or making a stroke. Never play a shot unless the players in front are out of range.
Play without delay. Always keep up with the group in front of you. If you are unable to keep up with the group ahead of you, because of a lost ball or some other occurrence, let the following group play through and then resume play by picking up the pace.
Upon playing out of a bunker, be careful to create as few footprints as possible by retracing your entry steps as you exit. Always avoid entering and exiting a bunker other than at its nearest low point. Never climb out of a bunker at the high side. Upon leaving the bunker take care, and pride, to make certain that the bunker is left in better shape than when you entered. Never leave a bunker without raking your footprints.
Through the green you should ensure that any divot you created is properly replaced. On the putting green, repair any ball mark or spike damage you may have created. Do not stand too close to the hole while attending or removing the flagstick, and when replacing it, be sure not to damage the lip of the hole and that the flagstick is left in the center of the hole.
Beware of the potential damage that can be caused while using golf carts. Don’t be careless in their use. Keep carts away from wet areas, putting greens and teeing grounds. Practice safety while driving, and keep legs in while riding as a passenger.
Finally, be careful when taking a practice swing so that you do not damage the course, especially on the teeing ground. I have never seen a golf professional actually take a divot while making a practice swing on the tee. Golf is a treasured game; let’s resolve to keep it that way.
• • •
For the readers who have had the glorious pleasure and excitement of having played the course at Pine Valley (the highest slope rating in the United States and perennially the No. 1 rated course in the world), I’d like to quote an Englishman, Pat Thomas.
Writing in the “Manchester Guardian,” he said, “There is a sense of privilege as well as rare experience in visiting Pine Valley, for it has no parallel anywhere. No course presents more vividly and more severely the basic challenge of golf—the balance between fear and courage. Nowhere is the brave and beautiful shot rewarded so splendidly in comparison to the weak and faltering; nowhere is there such a terrible contrast between reward and punishment, and yet the examination is just.”
If you ever get the opportunity to play Pine Valley, don’t pass it by.
