Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-31
GOLFERS KNOW LITTLE
OF RULES OF THE GAME
Most of Them Will Not Take Time or Trouble to Learn
the Laws That Govern the Royal and
Ancient Sport
By WILLIAM H. EVANS

0NE Of these days the golf rules will
" be revised. The United States Golf
Association will not do It on its own re-
sponsibility. A former president has
stated that nothing will be done until
the Rules of Golf Committee of the
Royal and Ancient Golf Club of ST. An
drews can be consulted. which will not be
till after the war And when that time
comes 1t is hoped that the rules will be
rewritten and the phraseology of the
rules changed so that person reading
them Will be able to grasp the meaning
at a glance instead of being Obliged to
read the rules over and over again. The
rules lack clarity. We can get more
thap one meaning from most of them
and the result of this has been countless
arguments, simply because the particular
rule is not counched in understandable
English.
The Lost Ball Rule
First of ALL the lost ball rule will be
without question changed. and instead
OF the penalty of losing the hole in
match play we will be able to play an
other ball fer the loss of a stroke Most
'i US 'hiiiN tiiS StyIn1t ought 10 go DN
the board. The great mass of golfers dc
not like the stymie In many clubs it is
absolutely ignorad But there will be
greater difficulty in eliminating the
stymie from golf than in adjusting the
differences between a lost ball in match
and medal play.
Then IL the rules are rewritten and
IN language that any player can under
stand without the assistance of Phia-
delphia lawyer the players will take
enough time to familiarize themselves
with them.
There are so many new players on the
course nowadays that it is very notice
able at every club. Few of them know
anything about the rules of courtesy of
THE game, simply because they have not
taken the time or trouble to read them.
And. worse than that. most of the new
comers are not familiar with the
simplest rules of the game. They think
nothing of putting their foot back of the
ball in order to get good lie, they
sole their clubs in the bunkers. they
pull up things growing that interfere
with their shots and they break virtu-
ally every rule in the golf book simply
because they do not know they are
breaking rules.
What Do You Think of This?
At one of the clubs yesterday a player
saw one of these new players approach
to another green. Then he calmly took
out his brassey and was just about to
hit the ball when the older player yelled
at him. The beginner waited until the
other player had run over to him and
he learned to his surprise that greens
were not intended to be used as tees.
Golfers who have played many years
break rules every time they play a
round They. will not cheat Intentionally
They are simply careless and will not
take the trouble to get few of the rules
in their head. They press the ground
back of their ball. they pick anything
growing that interferes with the shot
they sole Their clubs in bunkers and
other hazards, tkey drop balls improp
erly and they do a lot of other things
that are not right.
Jack Hoag writes golf for one of the
Chicago papers and he tells story OF
a match in which Judge played and
in which he broke any number of goli
rules. In the same match was an Eng
lishman and he was Indignant when the
other players laughed at what the Judge
had done. Here is what he said;
MY goodness, Mr., Hoag. how can you
, laugh at such >an exhibition of sports
manshp. The man was judge. who
should have been thoroughly, trained to
venerate law and uphold its rulings,
whether in court or on golf course
He represents one of the highest callings
in the land, and from his position or
the bench he administers justice to those
who come before him. That man actually
stepped on the grass behind his ball.
and he insisted that we give him 2
putt that he did not make.
"Thc very stratum of our civiliza ton
is based upon the law and its enforce
ment, and by enforcing it we learn
whether the law is good one or not
and if bad it is repealed. But, good or
bad, every true Englishman endsavors
to live up to the law while it is on the
books 1t makes no difference whether
it is the law of the land or the law of