THE RULES OF GOLF.

Shannon News, 5 January 1926, Page 4

THE RULES OF GOLF.

ON CLAIMING PENALTIES. ,[ , , *•■ (By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion). Somebody'recently put to me an interesting point about the rules. It concerns that special regulation for match-play tournaments which says that "competitors shall not agree to exclude the operation of any rule or local rule, nor to waive any penalty incurred in the course of the match, under penalty of their disqualification;" He explains that, at one hole his opponent used a club with. which to scrape aside a leaf from the line of the putt. As every player ought to.know loose impediments, which it is desired to remove from the putting green, may only he lifted —not scraped away with any kind of implement. The penalty i for a breach of this rule • is the loss I of the hole. My inquirer, mindful of the regulation which prescribes disqualification as the punishment for players who agree to exclude the operation of a rule, claimed the hole. He was right in law, and he remarks that he thought his action was the only one to take in the circumstances, because if he had condoned the breach the committee of the club would have been compelled, he presumes, to disqualify both players. AH the same, his opponent was very indignant, and obviously did not try afterwards to win the match. • "Here we have bad blood arising from a perfectly simple hard-and-fast point of law," says my troubled friend. "I had no desire to - do anything unsporting, and, in a friendly game, would not have made the claim. This being a' tournament match, I thought that I had to make it. Was I right?"

Probably four people out of every five who play golf observe the principle of abstaining from claiming a "pound of flesh" when a rival derives no benefit front an infraction of the rules which he commits in innocence or by accident. The situation may be different when he secures a real advantage, but it would be poor comfort to succeed by technicalities. In tournaments, however, it is common to find the plric-t letter of the law enforced on account of the clause which prescribes disqualification as the punishment fdr players "who agree to exclude the operation of any rule." Contracting out of tha Rules. I once made inquiries in authoritative quarters on this subject, and was infdrmed that the Bules of Golf Committee does not intend th.e regulation to impose the drastic condition which most golfers find in if. I am informed that that sense of the order turns upon the word "agree" in the phrase: —"Competitors shall not agree to exclude the operation of any, rule." This means that they shall not come to a compact in the matter. For instance, it prohibits them from arranging to exclude shyness when they are engaged in match-play tournaments. But it does not make it obligatory for a competitor to lodge a claim if, during the round his opponent commits a breach concerning which they have entered into no agreement. He is entitled to claim, but he is not compelled to do so. Personally I always feel rather nettled when a rival takes his putter, to scrape aside leaves from the line of a putt. And there is plenty of it at this season of the year, for the players who adopt the procedure are just about as numerous as ' those who lift fallen l eaves —the only method of removal allowed by the law—when they interfere with the putt. . It is usually suffici'ent, however, to tell a delinquent on the way to the next teeing ground that he has broken a rule. Few of us would care to claim the hole for it. The main point is that, even in tourna•ents, the hole need not be claimed. Only if the players had contracted out i of the rules to scrape aside leaves instead of lifting them would the law come necessarily into operation, and then both competitors would have to be disqualified. It might not be a bad idea for the Rules Committee to make the spirit of the special regulation for tournaments more evident; It is clear to people who study the language of the rules very closely, but that is precisely what very few people do. Consequently, claims are sometimes made unwillingly for accidental and trivial infractions which, in private games, would be ignored. Often one hears of a player explaining to a rival: —"I was sorry to have to claim the hole, but the special rule gave me no option." Most of us like golf to be played according to law, even in the most friendly rounds, but it is a pity that there should exist, owing to a misunderstanding, a widespread belief that the policy of grasp is encouraged by one particular rule for tournaments. Season in Bunkers. In point of fact, the whole tendency of the St. Andrew's authorities during recent years has been to promote the sporting spirit in golf by indicating that it is not necessary to claim penalties for innocent or accidental breaches that do not improve the player's position. Presumably this propaganda, conveyed mostly in the form of decisions on questions addressed to the Rules Committee, has been rendered necessary by the 'entry of so many new players, representing all sections of the community, into the game, and \t has undoubtedly had spod effects. It has been made clear, for example, j that sweet reasonableness is intended ( to 6 xist in connection with the rule which begins:-"When a ball lies in or touches a hazard, nothing shall be done which can in any way improve its lie; the club shall not touch the ground, n ov shall anything be touched or moved

ibefore the player strikes at the ball." Until the last few years this was taken to mean that a golfer in a hazard dare not do anything save stand in it and swing at the ball, taking care to touch nothing in any other way. There was a notable instance of this in the semi-final of the amateur championship at Muirneld in 1920, when Mr. G. L. Mellin im>t Mr. C. J, H. Tolley. Mr. Mejlin was in a bunker, and, failing to get out at the first attempt, he carefully smoothed over the marks which he had made in the sand before going farther tinto the bunker to play his next shot.

The hole was promptly given against him because he had touched the Band while'his ball still lay in the bunker. Everybody thought the decision correct. The Rules Committee has since explained, however, that it is only improving the lie of the ball which is a breach. M r - Mellin was much too far from his ball to affect its lie when he smoothed over his maTks, so that today he would not be penalised for this act of etiquette—although there is no need to perform it in quite such a' hurry.