Golf etiquette was built to protect the game and the other players in your group. Half of what gets enforced now protects a vibe instead. This is our attempt to sort the real rules from the costume.
Our take: A muni that turns away a new golfer in clean jeans is choosing empty tee times.
A muni that turns away a new golfer in clean jeans is choosing empty tee times.
Three things. Safety, pace, and leaving the course as good as you found it. If a rule does not serve one of those three, it is a preference wearing a rule's clothes, and preferences do not get to boss strangers around at a public course.
Tradition holds a game together, and a course full of people doing whatever they want stops being relaxing fast. True. Which is why we keep the real rules hard: fix marks, keep pace, warn on errant shots, respect greens. The costume rules can go. The core rules should get stricter, starting with pace.
A posted pace clock, a pickup rule for beginners, and a marshal with authority to move a group along. Enforce those three and most etiquette disputes resolve themselves, because almost every dispute on a golf course is a slow round wearing a disguise.
Private clubs can dress their members how they like. It is their house. Our argument is with public golf borrowing private club costume rules while charging public golfers resort prices for a six hour day.
Which etiquette rule would you kill tomorrow, and which one would you actually enforce? Name both.
Please cite a specific hole, a price, or a round you have played. Selected reader responses are featured in follow up coverage.
Is this anti tradition?
No. It is pro the traditions that protect other players: pace, safety, and course care. The costume can evolve.
Do private clubs have to follow this?
No. Their house, their rules. This is aimed at public golf.