It’s unfair to create local rules to suit us in golf

In my childhood days, when scarcity of resources was matched by an abundance of creativity, the child who owned the toy made the rules of the game.

Since my parents' generation did not see it fit to indulge their children in many play things, we found ways of making many of our own toys. We made cars from wires, go-carts from bearings and discarded pieces of wood and many others.

Long before National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) needed to protect our environment from polythene bags, we had found an ingenious way of recycling them.

There were boys who were so good at making balls from polythene paper and manila strings. The balls were so sturdy that they withstood rough treatment from our toes for several days.

The boys who had a knack for making these balls became untouchable when we played street football. We dared not annoy the owner of the ball, lest he picked it up and bolted home, leaving us begging for forgiveness at his gate.

If he cried “Hiyo ni haramu!” (that’s forbidden/foul), after being properly dispossessed of the ball during a football match, we gladly gave him a free-kick. The illegal free-kick, we believed would not make a difference in the final score. We were a suspicious lot and we had a saying that “haramu hailali”. To us, foul play was like chickens; they always come home to roost.

Unfortunately, there seems to be golf captains who behave like my childhood friends who made up rules in games to favour their situation, or in some cases, to favour their friends.

The Rules of Golf are very clear on what can be adopted as Local Rules and they are also very explicit that there is no room for committees to create their own.

It is quite injurious to our game when golf captains keep coming up with these ‘haramu Local-Rules’.

Thou shalt not play your ball in a water hazard: Forcing a player not to play their ball in a water hazard by creating a local rule is ‘haramu’. The only water hazards that a player must not play their balls from is an environmentally sensitive area.

Even then, the club must get a body like NEMA to make such an assessment. The Rules of Golf do not forbid play from water hazards and neither should captains.

The golf captain who put up such a Local Rule may have wanted to protect the lining of the water hazard from damage. This however does not justify the creation of a ‘haramu Local Rule’.

Feel free to pluck grass runners that interfere with your play: This is probably the most outrageous of all the ‘haramu Local Rules’ that I have ever seen. The golf adage “Play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it…” means nothing to the captain who put this one. It is so wrong on many levels.

If one’s ball in play lies next to a grass runner, just moving it to a new position so that it does not interfere with the lie or the swing would be a breach of the Rules that require a golfer not to improve the lie of their ball or area of intended swing.

Plucking plants next to one’s ball is sacrilege. The captain who made such a Local-Rule needs to see a priest for prayers.

Thou shalt write your home club on your scorecard or face disqualification: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. This ‘haramu Local Rule’ is the work of lazy golf captains who, when holding a competition that has players from visiting clubs, don’t ask for handicap certificates as proof of stated handicaps (not that it is a requirement).

They would then want to verify the winner’s handicaps online. To do this however, they will need to know where to look. The player’s responsibilities in as far as filling a scorecard is concerned are ensuring the following are recorded; handicap, gross scores and his/her signature and that of their marker.

The committee is required to put in all the other details. It is actually not the player’s responsibility to write their name on the card or add their scores. The Committee would not be unreasonable in requesting the players to write these details but disqualifying a player who does not, is unjustifiable.

Golf captains may take many liberties but bending the Rules of Golf is not one of them. They cannot make a Local Rule that waives a Rule of Golf. There are a number of Local Rules that Committees can choose from. They are in the book.

Let us stay away from ‘haramu Local Rules’.