Lower Your Golf Scores - Follow the Rules

"Oh, no - not another blah-blah about the rules!"

So says Joe Sixpak who just wants to see if he can hit his $330 driver farther than his buddies. On the green he wants to hear: "Close enough - pick it up!". Maybe that's you - maybe it's somebody you know.

One remarkable fact about the game of golf is that there is so much skill and honor involved. No matter that it can be played with all ages, both sexes,is great exercise and requires a rare commodity - mental discipline!

I like to think of it as the "real" man's game. Maintaining the high honor and respect for the system with its history and great names is as much a part of the game as making an honest birdie putt.

The rules of golf brings out the best in the players - physically, mentally, socially and just about any other way you can imagine. Courtesy and respect for the other guy is paramount. The honor system in golf requires you add a stroke on your score for an error - even if no one else saw you do it.

So quit teeing-up in front of the markers, tapping your ball onto the little tuft of grass two inches away from where it lies, taking a "free" drop from the rough and so on - you know what I mean. We have all seen infractions all too often At the very least agree on any rules "modifications" before you start play from the first tee - not after.

Skim over a rules book once or twice during the season. When my partners take liberties with the rules I handle my emotions by saying to myself, "Well, ok, he just disqualified himself and so I win by default!"

That's reality. But what I do is just focus on MY game as if I am playing by myself and let the other guy do whatever he wants. Getting into a heated argument will not help your score, I promise.

Most guys and a lot of gals enjoy a challenge and golf is definitely a challenging game and one of the biggest challenges is to play by the rules.... I hope you agree.

When you join the USGA you get a compact little rule book as one of the benefits. Visit http://www.usga.org