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A Slow Play Manifesto

December 31, 2010 By 4 Comments
snow

If you poll enough people, I’d bet money that they would identify slow play as the number one problem that plagues golf. In fact, maybe that will be my next sidebar poll. Those of us living in the United States seem to be especially affected by slow play. Some of the problem, no doubt, has to do with the design of courses. In Europe, many courses were built before the existence of motorized transportation so they were made for walking. Tees and greens are closer together, minimizing the time it takes to get from one hole to the next. I’ve heard that 3 1/2 hour rounds are common, or are even expected. Perhaps an even bigger part of the problem is the culture of players on courses today. Many players either don’t care or just don’t know about the issue of slow play and what they can do to help the situation. That leads me to the purpose of this post. What follows is not something I created. It was sent to me by a

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Gamesmanship Revisited

April 30, 2007 By 2 Comments

Within hours of my post yesterday about gamesmanship, I got a phone call and e-mail from my mom. She was quick to point out that the definition for the word “gamesmanship” according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition indicates that it is a synonym for “cheat” or “trick”. She added, “It would appear that when you emphatically imply that you never cheat but suggest that you use verbal trickery under the ruse of gamesmanship they are not the same thing. Aren’t you very close to crossing the line?” I’d say that gamesmanship does come close to the line, but does not cross it. I sent my mom an interesting article at golfonline.com about gamesmanship. The author, Eamon Lynch says, “Let’s be clear: Gamesmanship isn’t cheating.” Lynch then goes on to quote Dr. Richard Coop, Golf Magazine’s mental game guru who says, “It doesn’t violate the rules but may violate the intent of the game, which is sportsmanship.” She explicitly pointed that blurb out to me. Mom makes a good point there. From there,

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Gamesmanship

April 29, 2007 By 1 Comment

Golf is known as a “gentleman’s game” (ladies too, of course). That doesn’t mean that competition can’t get a little heated at times. I believe in sportsmanship and try my best to be a good, fair competitor. I’ve never cheated and never will. But my highly competitive nature forces me to employ a little gamesmanship at times. This is one of the great aspects of match play. I try to keep it subtle if I’m playing someone I don’t know well. I might overshoot a green with a 7 iron and exclaim that I can’t believe a 9 iron flew that far. I might concede a putt that’s a little long or make my opponent putt a gimme. These aren’t techniques that I invented but believe me, I file away every one that I hear. When I play against my brother or one of my close friends, it goes beyond sportsmanlike. A lot of it could be considered breaches in etiquette. When we escalate a match beyond “just for fun” it can get ugly. Recently,

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