Harry and Sally – Holes 1 – 9

Published on 20th April 2023 in New to Golf

The story below is a quirky, slightly humorous attempt to help beginner golfers understand the complexities of the game of golf in the areas of Rules (Reference R&A Player’s Edition of the Rules of Golf; YouTube), Etiquette and Scoring using the Flinders Golf Course as an example.

Legend

RED = RULES ; BLUE = ETIQUETTE; GREEN = SCORING

After seven days of torrential rain, Harry and Sally decide to take advantage of a beautiful Sunday afternoon and play a game of golf at the Flinders Golf Club. What could possibly go wrong???

Harry and Sally Jones have recently graduated from the Pathway to Golf Program at Flinders Golf Course. They have received their handicaps. Harry – 36 and Sally – 45 and are keen to play a game of Stableford, remembering that when you equal your personal par you score 2 points and 1 over your par is only 1 point. Beyond that, you pick up the ball and move to the next hole.

Playing off 36, Harry’s personal par is 2 strokes over the regular par for every hole (2 strokes x18 holes =36). Sally has 2 extra strokes on the 9 easiest holes, indexed 10-18 and three extra strokes on the 9 hardest holes indexed 10-18 (2 strokes x 9 =18 + 3 strokes x 9=27; 18+ 27 = 45)

A little nervous, they arrive 20 minutes before their tee off time and check in at the Pro Shop. They then collect their sand buckets. Both tee off the first tee beautifully! Phew! It is always great to do a good first drive!

The 1st hole is a Par 4 and that means that they can have 2 extra shots on this hole. (Hole 1 is rated #18, i.e. the easiest.)

Harry sinks his putt with a score of 6 and so does Sally.
As they are playing Stableford, they both score 2 points as they have made their personal par.

Buoyed by their great start, they move at a good pace onto the 2nd hole. Harry gets there first. They have already agreed to play “Ready Golf” and as he is ready, he tees of first. Sally multi tasks by marking her scorecard and keeping a watchful eye on the direction of Harry’s drive! Harry records his score while Sally tees off.

The 2nd hole is a Par 4 but because of its degree of difficulty, Sally get three extra shots to make her Par, i.e 7 shots. Harry only gets two extra shots i.e 6 shots.

Sally drives a little to the right and a bad bounce sees her ball land under the bushes on the right.

Harry drives and his ball also heads to the right and lands on the path.

Harry and Sally walk towards their golf balls, each debating their options.

Sally finds her ball but it is unplayable so chooses to take lateral relief. (Rule 19.2 (3)) She measures two driver club lengths from where the ball lies under the bushes, to a point no nearer the hole, marks it with a tee and replaces her driver in her bag. She drops her ball from knee height within the relief area behind the two club lengths, then plays the ball with her 7 iron to get back on the fairway. She has now had three strokes, including a 1 stroke penalty for taking relief under Rule 19.

Unplayable Ball:     Rules of Golf Explained: Ball Unplayable (New for 2019) – YouTube

Harry is on the path and scratches his head. He remembers one of his buddies talking about an Abnormal Course Condition, including an Immovable Obstruction.

Rule 16 ***Diagram

Ah, that’s right. A path= a free drop! Great!

He drops his ball at knee height in the relief area and then, in this case, uses his 5 hybrid to get back on the fairway.

Immovable Obstruction     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN655Xbefco

Dropping a ball                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_7BumkAQt4

Harry has now played 2 strokes.

Then Sally has an air swing (which must be counted as a stroke) and Harry tops his third shot.

Sally’s fifth shot goes over the back of the green and Harry’s 4th shot lands in the left bunker. Oh dear!

Like most people, Harry has a dislike of bunker shots. He fails to swing through and the ball bounces off the bunker wall and lands right back at his feet! He is not happy. On his 6th shot, he manages to get out of this bunker but the ball has landed in the bunker to the right of the green! He has only one more stroke to still score one point but alas the ball is back in the left bunker again! He has now wiped the hole- no points. He promptly uses the rake to smooth both bunkers and replaces the rake in line with the direction of the hole.

Sally in the meantime is at the back of the green with her sand wedge. This is not her favourite club but her little chip shot – her 6th shot- lands on the green. She then makes a very nice putt and holes out for 7 shots total. She scores 2 points for this hole because she has made her Par.

The 3rd hole is Par 3 and both Harry and Sally get two extra shots i.e.5 shots.  

Just as Sally is concentrating on her drive, John says in a very loud voice “Wonder how the footy’s going?”

Sally’s drive is a disaster! The ball disappears into the bushes. She scowls at Harry and then prepares to play a “provisional” ball after Harry tees off.

Sally announces that this time she going will be driving with a new provisional ball and identifies it as  – a white Callaway 1. She is mindful that she must declare the ball “provisional” or it will be taken as the ball in play.

Rule 18

Provisional ball             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An-EqBFa2L8

As luck would have it, Sally sees her original ball out to the right just past the bushes, in the rough. Not too bad after all and this is the ball she must play. She picks up the provisional ball as she heads on down the fairway.

Harry’s second shot lands on the green and he makes two putts for a total of 4 strokes for this hole.

He scores 3 points. (i.e – 1 under his par of 5) Sally scores just one point on this hole as it has taken 6 shots to hole out. i.e- 1 over her par of 5)

The 4th hole- Par 4. Both Harry and Sally get 2 extra shots i.e 6 shots.

Harry, a little sheepish after his inappropriate loud comment on the previous hole, takes his drive. Unfortunately, he hooks the ball to the left and heads over the bushes straight into Bass Strait!

His ball is clearly Out of Bounds – OOB. (Rule 18 – One penalty stroke) He drives again for his third shot. (First shot+ penalty + third shot)

Sally aims for “Granny’s Corner” to the right of the first coffin but unfortunately the ball lands in the ditch on the right. She checks the back of her scorecard for some specific local information on the Flinders Golf Course and is delighted to see that the roadside ditch is considered an Immovable Obstruction and she can take a free drop. (Rule 16.1 Page 94)

This time the refence point is the nearest point of relief back on the course.

They both battle this hole, finally landing on the green. They take care to park their buggies to the side of the green closet to the next tee. A severe wind storm the night before has covered the green with sticks and leaves. There is a small broken branch in Sally’s line of play. She remembers that you may remove leaves and other loose impediments in your line of play and once your ball is on the green you may also mark the position of your ball to pick it up and clean it. (Rule 15)

Loose Impediments     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Y5UM3m1U8

Both Harry and Sally wipe this hole as they have counted 8 strokes. Sally thinks to herself that next time, she must remember to pick up her ball after 7 strokes in order to save time.

By now, they are both a little disappointed, but the ever optimistic Sally reminds Harry what her buddy told her. Every new hole is a fresh start and so they cross the road and head for the 5th hole.

The 5th hole- Par 5. This is a long hole. Harry gets 2 extra shots and Sally gets 3.

Harry slices his drive to the right and it lands in the long grass by the trees near the 14th green. Sally drives straight down the middle and onto the fairway.  Harry heads off to look for his ball.  He knows he has only 3 minutes to find it. (Rule 18.2a)

To keep the play moving, Sally hits her second shot and then heads over towards Harry to help him search for his ball.

After almost 3 minutes, Sally finds it when she accidentally kicks the ball in the long grass. Harry replaces the ball in its original spot and hits his next shot for no penalty. (See Rule 7.4 Page 48)

Searching for lost ball               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YOuKHYKPvM

Harry is enjoying the ocean view, but Sally reminds him that they need to keep up with the group in front. No daydreaming Harry! Pace of Play is always important to remember!

Speed Up play 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbLVD4Wyt_E&list=PLNpGrarwmJJ93Wf6G7wnjgYx-ZPbxRIrS&index=4

The result on this hole is encouraging. Harry scored 7 i.e he scored 2 points and Sally scored 9, (Par 5 + 3) so she scored just 1 point.

The 6th hole – Par 4. Harry gets 2 extra shots but Sally gets 3. This is rated #1  on the Stroke index – the hardest hole on the course.

It’s tough driving up and over the hill but they soldier on. The wind has picked up and a howling gale is coming across Bass Strait, directly from Antarctica!

On the 6th green, Harry’s ball is blown 6 centimetres along from where it landed. As he hadn’t marked his ball, he knows he will need to make his putt where the ball stopped. Great, it is closer to the hole, he thinks! Sally on the other hand had marked her ball before the gust hit. The gust of wind moved her ball too, so she simply returned it to its original position. (Rule 13.1 d) She makes her putt. The ball hits the flagstick and goes in! She knows that with the new rules there is now no penalty for hitting the flagstick/pin. (Rule 13.2)

The 7th hole – Par 4 Harry gets two extra shots and Sally gets three.

Sally is ready so she tees off first and drives right into the area marked Ground Under Repair. (GUR)

The torrential rain from the week before has resulted in huge puddles and boggy, muddy conditions on the fairway. This area has been marked with a white line. And so she takes a free drop, within one club length from the nearest point of relief, no nearer to the pin.

(See Rule 16.1b,  Diagram)

Immovable Obstruction     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN655Xbefco

Dropping a ball  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_7BumkAQt4

Harry slices his ball to the right and goes straight into the dam! The area is marked with red stakes. Therefore, it is a RED Penalty Area.

Harry knows that he has hit his ball into a penalty area. He may play the ball as it lies, if possible, or take one of the following three options, each will cost him a one stroke penalty.

*** Very clear diagrams can be found below.

  • Stroke and Distance Relief (See Rule 17)
  • Back on the Line Relief (See Rule 17)
  • Lateral Relief (See Rule 17)

Penalty areas  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVCde0tmsaM

The 8th hole – Par 4. Harry gets two extra shots and Sally gets three.

As they are walking to the tee, they notice that two young guys have actually arrived on the the 7th  green and are getting ready to putt. They are surprised because they hadn’t noticed them before. After discussing with Harry, Sally waves them through, that is, she lets them go on ahead so that they are not waiting for them. Sally is always keen to do this because she tends to get flustered when she knows someone is hitting behind her.

On the 8th tee, Harry slices his ball yet again, straight into the cypress trees and although gravity helps a little, he can see his ball leering down at him, caught in the fork of the tree, 3 metres above the ground. What can he do?

Ball in tree (Skip the ad)      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZku7RyJm-A 

Unplayable Ball Rule 19

The ball is too high to hit it out of the tree so he chooses Stroke and Distance relief. Rule 19.2 and hits another ball from the Tee, a great shot this time, straight down the middle.

He is now at three strokes but he is a long way along the fairway.

Sally’s drive lands in the rough just before the fairway and her second shot lands just short of the bunkers on the left, still short of Harry’s drive.

Her third shot advances along the fairway and is now equal to Harry’s.

Harry’s fourth shot lands just short of the green and Sally now has her turn in the bunker on the right with her fourth shot. This is a tough one and after four swings, to her dismay, she is still in the bunker, so she picks up her ball and watches Harry chip onto the green (his 5th shot) but after two more putts he is still two metres from the hole, so he picks his ball up too. They have both wiped this hole. (Remember, this is a Par 4 hole and Sally gets 3 extra shots to make her par of 7; 8 shots=1 point; > 8 = wipe)

Hole 9 Par 3: Both Harry and Sally get 2 extra shots to make their personal par.

Harry and Sally love these short holes and both sink their putts after 5 strokes. They have both made their par – 2 points each. Hurray!

P.S. Sally finally forgives Harry because her footy team won.

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