My closest course is technically in my street if you go by the address. However it's around 1 mile from the end of the street and in the middle of the countryside. If you are standing on the 5th tee I'd say you are at least two miles from the nearest house out with a couple of farms.

I walk around it occasionally late at night with the dog and it's not a place for the faint hearted.

Has anyone ever come across blatant cheating at their club?

When I was 16-17 I played in small club. Around 80 played in the morning ballot, a dozen or so at lunchtime and just the same 2 or 3 guys in the late afternoon ballot. For countless weeks these afternoon guys always has magic 2's and regularly won the medals by 1 stroke or by countdown. After so long I went out on my own while they were playing in a medal but distance and watched how they done at the Par 3's. None of them made two's during their round yet on the results board the next day they had signed for a couple of two's and were in the money again.

I did once witness the biggest case of cheating that was so bad it was hilarious. I would tell the story but it's so far fetched I doubt anyone would believe it.

A few weeks ago in a comp. It was an away day at Swansea Bay Golf Club. Full HC with a trophy and prize money.
I was in a three ball and two us had missed the fairway into rough on the very first shot. We just couldn't find the balls. We couldn't go back to the tee as all the other groups were waiting so I accepted I'd "blobbed" and walked away. As I did I saw my opponent walk away from his trolley, take a few paces and declare he'd found his ball. I saw a ball in the palm of his hand as he bent down to place it.
He's a nice chap who I've played with before and I'd say I was almost upset. I said nothing but it spoiled the game for me. Luckily he wasn't in the ratings for a prize.

I've never played in any type of competitive game, and we don't stick 100% to the rules so the water is slightly 'muddy' when it comes to incidents of cheating. None of us retakes shots off the tee unless the initial one is obviously lost; and then we'll occasionally drop at point of entry on par 5s and longer par 4s. I know that we need to get used to playing to the official rules if we want to play in competitions but given that we already hit between 40 and 60 over par i'm not sure anyone is that fussed at the moment.

In terms of catching my playing partners 'cheating' - unfortunately one of my friends does have a tendency to knock off a shot or two his score on his worst holes. But then he regularly tees off in front of the pins and sometimes just declares after a bad shot that he's going to drop up on the fairway. So I don't take his score that seriously and would never be bothered if he 'beat' me playing that way.

I assume that you were playing stableford or match play rather than stroke? If I was in that situation and was unable to retake my tee shot because of people waiting behind me then I wouldn't accept a maximum score either.

I'm not sure what you mean?

I meant that personally I wouldn't put a 10 on my card just because i'd lost the tee shot and tight scheduling of tee times meant I was prevented from retaking it. I would take a penalty drop in the area.

Indeed you will because ...


I'm afraid that you can't.

You have to play a second ball from the spot from which the original ball was played. This is called "stroke and distance".

http://www.randa.org/Rules-of-Golf/M...n-Five-Minutes.

I once represented my club in a pro-am. 4 of us had qualified through a series of qualifiers, one of the guy's who qualified was well known for being a bit dodgy with his scores.

At the Pro-Am it was 2 best scores at each hole from the 4 of us and walking down the 12th the guy in question had hit a poor drive short and right in the rough, I watched him hack at it a couple of times then he hit another huge slice which he didn't even look for. I don't think he thought anyone was watching as he walked down to around 100 yards from the green and sneakily put a ball down just off the fairway. He then played onto the green, as a joke I asked him what he was putting for and with a straight face he said PAR.

Usually I wouldn't mind and if people want to cheat then they are only really cheating themselves but as this point in time he was representing our club.

I don't remember what came of it but later in the season at an outing when drinks were flowing someone pulled him up about his cheating and a massive fight broke out in the clubhouse of where we were having our day out.

I understand the rules (well most of them), however as i'm not Rory McIlroy and i'm not playing on the PGA tour I choose to apply them in a sensible way.

Like I said though, i don't play in official competitions or for money, so I wouldn't want to actually cheat anyone or gain an advantage. But in the scenario described by the poster above, if you're playing stroke play i'm not sure what the sensible thing is to do? I mean the only correct course of action is to go back to the tee and delay the entire tournament or forfeit your entire round?

I was describing a full handicap stableford in a "competitive but social" round of golf.
So you just accept you scored zero - or cheat.
You can agree your own rules beforehand as a group given the conditions.
We have "agreements" regarding lost balls in serious amounts of leaves on a parkland course, regular lifting of balls by crows this time of year, lost plugged balls in boggy parts of the course in winter etc.
That's just ensuring golf in crappy conditions is bearable for all.
But in social play when conditions are good enough for golf we apply the rules of golf as best we know them. It's the only way to improve.
In comps you have to apply the rules and you soon become educated to the basics.

This is fine for so long as you are playing purely social golf (you can invent whatever rules suit you and your playing partners) but ...


Yes - in stroke play, I'm afraid that these are the only options available to you.

How about a Digitalspy Golf Day?

Cool.
You'll find me in the 19th 🍷

Works for me. Might be tricky picking a course but I know several around Banbury and at least one is only a couple of miles from M40 J11. I can get me and three others a free round at Silverstone next season but you have to be up for a challenge

I had the day off today so I played 9 at a nearby course. It didn't score as I use my phone and it developed a problem after the second hole - but that was probably for the best! Though I did par a 500 yard par 5 after hitting a poor drive. 3 excellent shots left me with a tap in.

Actually I was thinking today that one of my problems is just how badly I tend to start - then it's just a case of whether I manage to pull things rounds before I get too annoyed. I've tried hitting the range beforehand but it doesn't seem to make much difference.

Well, weather permitting, am playing Sunday morning as well so we'll see if playing today helps.

Have you heard of these things called weather forecasts? Me and my buddy are teeing off on Saturday this week

Can you get free transport there as well? It's a 732 mile round trip for me.

I would be interested in a golf day but it would have to be somewhere not quite as far away as that.

Hmmm :-/

That could be a bit of a problem but it suggests that if I head 150 miles north (Manchester lattitude) that'd be meeting you half way. I wouldn't rule out a visit to the peak district during the summer

I went round Rye today off the whites. Worst score in several months

No particular reason just couldn't really string together any good holes. Lost two balls and came away with 104. I suppose given the conditions (damp, five degrees, breezy) that's not a disastrous score but I thought I'd seen the last of triple digits.

The forecasts are pretty infuriating.

So this morning was the only time this weekend that we were all free to play - so I booked in a tee for 8:30. By Thursday the forecast was that the weather was going to be awful, so I said to my friends lets wait and see what they are saying saturday evening.

When I checked online last night there was an actual weather warning about a storm and forecast for 10 hours of rain, so we agreed to cancel. So imagine my surprise when I wake up this morning to absolutely no wind and the lightest of drizzle - but by then it's too late to rearrange

Yeah. Our forecast started looking better from Friday evening. It went from all day rain to occasional drizzle to just overcast. I was toying with the idea of going out to my club again today but it's still quite chilly and the club is busy so I decided not to bother.

My recent form is nothing I want to encourage anyway. I'm hoping it's just the winter blues. This does happen to me some years. I was taking more divots toward the end of summer and getting more backspin and I think in winter that's translating to fat shots. I also seem to be struggling with direction on my irons at the moment. I think the recent change to strengthen my driver grip has impacted my irons. I hadn't intended the grip change to apply to irons but it's probably unavoidable.

Excellent day out then!
A round of golf, a bite to eat, a drink or two and a punch up!
Excellent value 👍
Any repercussions?

An "incident" occurred in ours last year where a 70+ yr old took objection to a 40+ guy harassing his daughter in a function. It spilled into the car park after closing and the 70+ decked the younger guy who pursued him 😎
Both got suspended.

And here's me thinking that the biggest scandal at a golf club is if someone wears inappropriately coloured socks on course

If my friend ever got good enough to play in club competitions i'm pretty sure he would get banned within a few months - he's just the type of person who can't help but cheat. I refuse to do pub quizzes with him as he spends the entire time with his phone on his lap googling answers.

Our course has been closed now for four days.
It was lashing down today and even if it stops tomorrow it'll take days to recover.
So today about 15 of us turned up at the usual roll up time to have a session on the pre booked simulator.
We have three shots each for £1 on a par three selected from a huge host of major courses.
We play three different courses - so £3 a head - and share prize money for nearest the pin.
It's bloody good fun as each shot is greeted with a hoot of applause or derision - not to mention the "advice" being offered before you actually swing- depending on where your shot went - to the green or in the water/bunker.
If you can play with an audience like that .......
It passed about 2 pleasant hours on a very wet miserable morning.

on the subject of cheating

there was a pro at a course just outside edinburgh who had been booted off the challenge tour after being caught cheating, still kept his pro status tho but was never gonna be anything more than a club pro again

i was part of a 4 man team from my club that was playing in a sponsored event where you got drawn against other clubs on a knockout basis, with the eventual regional winner going on to represent their region at the finals in portugal, and we were drawn against this club in the regional semi-final

the format was 2 pairs in the morning and 4 singles in the afternoon. during the morning round we were chatting away with the 2 guys we were playing against and brought up the cheating incident with their club pro and that he should have been just booted out altogether and not even allowed to be a club pro any more.

turns out the pro was married to the sister of one of the guys we were playing against

so that ended up being a bit awkward