re: Golfers...How honest are you when scoring?

When I first started, I would never hit out of the trees or crazy lies for a couple of reasons.

1) The game can be very discouraging, and carding a 9 while you bounce around the trees is not going to help, especially early.

2) How am I going to get better on the course when my tee shot is nice and level, but every shot after that is screwed up?

Now, the caveat is that now that I have improved considerably, I play every shot as it lies. Mulligans and such should be decided between the group.

before I play I will establish if it is a practice round or if I will score the round. sometimes I just like to go out and use a few shots to work on some things I need get better. But I like to score at least 2-3 rounds a month just to keep a good handicap.

I don't stop keeping score if I'm blowing up a round. That;s not going to help anything.

I think if you are shooting under 100, play by the rules.
For me it depends on who I'm playing with; if I'm by myself I'm taking no mulligans and playing everything down. If I'm playing with a group we usually play 1 mulligan per round (I try not to use it).
I'll be honest if I'm on a course and the greens are complete shite (think LSU in the winter) I will take any putt inside 4 feet as a gimme. It's bullshite when your ball is rolling at the hole than just jumps out the way bc of the shitty green

I played behind a group at Santa Maria the other day and a guy came back to retee bc he could not find his ball


I wanted to be mad bc they were holding us up pretty bad but I had to commend his following of the rules

I have never gone back to retee after a lost ball, they must have been playing a serious money game

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Someone mentioned that if someone can't find their ball but it obviously did not go in a hazard, they will let that person drop. I allow this in the groups I play with as well. How do you all treat this?

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If it is a money game - stroke and distance.
If a casual round, but still competitive - drop with a penalty similar to hitting it in a lateral hazard.
If just playing for fun - drop and swing away; No penalty.

I think it was a matter of him not being able to find it in the fairway


You know how sometimes your ball just disappears even though there are no woods or water where you hit it

I hate that fricking shite.

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Someone mentioned that if someone can't find their ball but it obviously did not go in a hazard, they will let that person drop. I allow this in the groups I play with as well. How do you all treat this?

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Depends on the situation and the type of round. If it's a tournament you have to go back and retee.

If it is a casual game and everyone saw the ball land and come to rest in bounds and we just can't find it, I will allow a free drop.

If it's a money game I will usually do the same granted you take yourself out of the hole. This happened to me last week during a money game. I ended up winning the hole, but took myself out of it because we couldn't find my ball.

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See, I don't get this. How will you know when you're getting better? I'll know cause strokes will fly off my score when I stop topping balls, hitting in the woods, and getting the ball up in the air with my irons consistently.

You're not setting a true baseline to measure yourself against.

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I may start playing once every few months. I'm not trying to really get into it. I got to be I'm still pretty bad off the tee, but I'm 10 times worse with the irons. If I really kept score, I would have shot at least 140. It didn't help that it was 100 degrees out there. I'll start keeping score once it looks like I might know what I'm doing.

We use to play pretty loose on the rules then a couple years ago me and my buddies starting playing by the book. Honestly it was more fun and I liked knowing my true score.

I agree for a beginner to get loose with the rules, mostly cause you'll never finish the damn round