Should bad golfers be forbidden to play back T pieces? The etiquetteist weighs in

Should a golf course have the right to dictate which T pieces you play? The question led to a recent debate about Reddit (and was kick On the podcast on the front), where a user posted a photo of a board on a non -created course.

“If your handicap is older than 15,” the plate was: “You should not use a rear t -shirt.”

Interesting rule. Is it reasonable?

An old shops maximal is of the opinion that the customer is always right. But that can’t be wrong anymore. Customers always make bad decisions. They buy at the bottom of the pyramid schemes. They finance cars that they cannot afford. They order mayonnaise on their corned beef.

If the etiquette player knows one thing for sure about people, it is that we excel in the wrong one, including taking more golf course than we can handle. What to do is another matter.

Should 15 handicaps play the tips? Probably not. But neither should they be forbidden to do this, provided that they do not play.

In this case, the correct answer to the wrong decision of a customer is not prohibition. It is education. Do you remember those additions with Jack Nicklaus and other tour stars that encourage everyone to “move forward”? Such a kind of messages – that the game is nicer and more varied when it is played on the basis of a distance that is suitable for your game – is a more sensible approach than to record limitations.

In more recent years, the industry has accepted other ways to obtain the word on Tee Boxes. For example, the “7-iron solution” is a data-controlled system of the USGA that works exactly as the name suggests: if you know how far you get your 7-iron, the system can tell you how far back you should play.

Erin Hills, a multiple major champion host location in Wisconsin, is one of the many courses that have brought the system into play. The guidelines are placed in the Caddy Barn of the building and on the hut of the starter. Other courses offer TEE-BOX recommendations on their score cards based on handicaps for players.

With the Ryder Cup that is approaching at Bethpage Black, it is worth pointing to another form of conviction: the famous sign of the 1st tee of the Black, which advises golfers that the job is intended for the ‘very competent’.

That is the type of placard that the etiquette player can support: copper beware. Is it foolish-proof? Absolutely not. But it’s better than a mandate. You are a high handicapper and do you want to play the rear T-pieces? That’s a bad decision. But it is also your business, as long as you don’t hold. The fact that the customer is often wrong does not mean that retailers have to regulate their behavior.

Every golfer has the right to masochism, just as every deli protection is free to smear mayo where he does not belong.