A gentlemanly reminder of the rules, they often change and if your in a club competition, make sure you get a copy of the rules each year - you might just win that matchplay
I often see golfers doing all sorts with their ball when in trouble on the course either in practise games or competitively in amateur competitions, which lets face it normally go undetected by their opponents.
Of course, if your nature is too cheat or bend the rules, you need not continue to read this! But consider this - most tour professionals use the rules to their full advantage, why cant we mere mortals?
It may only be a minor incident, but all important that might win you a match or two. I had an incident a couple of years ago, my ball was next to a non staked tree, in a patch of 50 or 60 tree’s that were GUR clearly staked.
The tree where my ball was, had been staked but the stake removed from the ground, leaving a hole and my ball next to it. My playing partner eager to win, would not give me relief despite clear “vandalism”. I disputed his claim and suggested I had an unplayable ball from a staked area given the location of other GUR staked trees.
After quite a heated debate, In the end I relented and played my shot to 18ft from the pin and putted 2 strokes in for par to take the hole, nett. (My swing was impeded, not my ball). When we got to the clubhouse, I asked the pro for a ruling just out of curiosity!
He said, “your playing partner is right you officially get no relief as the tree was not clearly staked GUR. However, a Player could consider the tree as GUR staked given its location to other GUR staked tree’s and the fact it should be there! I would imagine this would be a local ruling based on course preservation, in this case the un-staked tree, should be staked and therefore relief from the GUR area".
In this instance it would actually have been a massive advantage to me as the only way out from the GUR area was fairway side, which was fair point my competitor made, but I was only asking for 1 club length relief!
The professional agreed following the letter of the rules was harsh in this instance and common sense should be used. If a 'referee' or impartial bystander had been asked, his opinion would have stood as local ruling. Despite this, I won the match, 3&2 without taking relief on the 9th. If I had the rule book with me, I expect I would have won the
