Golf

Is setting your golf bag on a tee box an etiquette no-no?

Placing golf luggage on tee bins is a frequent observe. But is it poor kind?

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Jim from Portland, Ore., writes:

I’ve at all times made a behavior of inserting my stand bag on the tee box whereas my companions and I tee off. But at my native course the opposite day I used to be paired with a man who mentioned that inserting a bag on a tee box is dangerous kind. Is he proper? Have I been doing it mistaken all these years?

Dear Jim:

Some guidelines of etiquette are simpler to defend than others. Take gown codes, for starters. At most programs, it’s frowned upon to indicate up in blue denims and a T-shirt. But why? No explicit motive, apart from the truth that some codgers from one other period put the ban in place and other people have been following it ever since. Are denim pants and T-shirts objectively “uglier” or “worse” than wool slacks and collared shirts? They usually are not. There is, in different phrases, a subjective randomness to guidelines round apparel. Once you begin asking why they exist, you notice that the reasons largely boil all the way down to a parental-sounding, “because we said so!” That doesn’t imply you shouldn’t respect these guidelines. It simply implies that there’s no clear rationalization for them, except for an unquestioning adherence to the best way issues have at all times been.

Other guidelines of etiquette make extra rational sense. Like, say, the expectation that you simply yell “fore” when your ball is rocketing towards one other group. That one’s straightforward to clarify. It’s a easy matter of security.

Let’s have a look at your query in a comparable gentle. The Etiquetteist would have an interest to know why the man in your group objected to what you probably did. Did he not just like the “look”? Did he discover it “rude” or “disrespectful”? If so, he’s within the tiny minority. There isn’t any established customized within the recreation that prohibits inserting a bag on a tee box. Tour caddies do it. Many on a regular basis golfers do it. You weren’t violating trade conventions. In the subjective sense, that’s, you have been within the clear.

As for the target aspect of issues, in the case of the place you place your bag, solely three questions matter: Is it in somebody’s means? Is it slowing down play? Is it damaging the turf

Unless your bag was someway within the line of fireside or impeding somebody’s backswing, you have been within the clear as nicely. You weren’t slowing issues down, and also you actually weren’t damaging the turf. Take it from veteran superintendent Mark Patterson. “In most cases,” Patterson says, “tee tops are managed in the same way as fairways. So, you can do pretty much anything other than drive a cart across it.”

There are some uncommon exceptions, Patterson says. At a small handful of ultra-exclusive golf equipment, the place the tees are maintained nearly like greens, you may be requested to maintain your bag off the tee. But that wasn’t the case right here. You, Jim, have been at your native course, and also you occurred to be paired with a ninny. Unlike your bag, he had no leg to face on.

Josh Sens

Golf.com Contributor

A golf, meals and journey author, Josh Sens has been a GOLF Magazine contributor since 2004 and now contributes throughout all of GOLF’s platforms. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sportswriting. He can also be the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Fun Yet: the Cooking and Partying Handbook.


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