Is Honour Overrated?

I was paired with this 64 year old British gentlemen while playing today with a member who invited me to his pte club

I had a pretty decent front nine (by my humble standards) and had the Honour on most tee. If I asked my playing partners to go ahead, they will insist that I tee off first.

At one of the tee box, in the back nine, I stepped into the tee box and take a practice swing. Just as I was about to address my ball, the British gentlemen step out of his cart into the tee box and exclaimed, "if I may ask, why do you think you should have the Honour?"

That caught me by surprise cos in my regular foursome in Sg, we always play 'ready golf' and anyone ready should step up and tee off in the interest of time

If I'm honest, I must admit that I was shaken by it. He meant no malice it's just that he was demanding his right to tee off first even he may take a couple more seconds to get ready. I think I never had the Honour again in the back nine.

For the record, the British gent won the bets between the 3 of us (I came in 2nd lost on count back) and my fren, the member came in last. So he bought us drinks.

My point is, do not assume. It will make an a$$ outta u and me. Well at least to me! What do you think? Do you guys practice Honour strictly?

Check around with all before tee off bah.

Usually, my kakis all flexible de....all in the interest to speed up play.

pocketace wrote:

I was paired with this 64 year old British gentlemen while playing today with a member who invited me to his pte club

I had a pretty decent front nine (by my humble standards) and had the Honour on most tee. If I asked my playing partners to go ahead, they will insist that I tee off first.

At one of the tee box, in the back nine, I stepped into the tee box and take a practice swing. Just as I was about to address my ball, the British gentlemen step out of his cart into the tee box and exclaimed, "if I may ask, why do you think you should have the Honour?"

That caught me by surprise cos in my regular foursome in Sg, we always play 'ready golf' and anyone ready should step up and tee off in the interest of time

If I'm honest, I must admit that I was shaken by it. He meant no malice it's just that he was demanding his right to tee off first even he may take a couple more seconds to get ready. I think I never had the Honour again in the back nine.

For the record, the British gent won the bets between the 3 of us (I came in 2nd lost on count back) and my fren, the member came in last. So he bought us drinks.

My point is, do not assume. It will make an a$$ outta u and me. Well at least to me! What do you think? Do you guys practice Honour strictly?

Honour on the tee box is for the best scorer on the last hole. it should be strictly enforced unless its pre-agreed amongst your usual kakis.

its like jumping the queue and especially in tournaments, they have the right to ask you to reload.

thank you for asking.......

never practise.. maybe trained by nsrcc style.. "Ready go"

I like the honor thing to be enforced.

Why? I always Kena ppl saying...." Duval u go first......u cant hit the flt in front"

Duval_S wrote:

I like the honor thing to be enforced.

Why? I always Kena ppl saying...." Duval u go first......u cant hit the flt in front"

oh pls.....we know that ain't true.

Oops......

Duval_S wrote:

I like the honor thing to be enforced.

Why? I always Kena ppl saying...." Duval u go first......u cant hit the flt in front"

Bro, I am in the same situation as you too Hahahah

Anyway, all my golf buddies are those "ready go type BUT we always ask the person in honour for permission to tee off before him ... If not, very bad luck, believe it or not

To be honest, I hear a lot comments about how one does this or that in the spirit of the game, but I notice it's only done so when it benefits the person doing it. When it doesn't, it's out the back door.

There are many unspoken rules to the game, but just because it's not in the rule book, we choose to ignore them because it doesn't suit our personal style of play.

Be it stepping on someone's line, dragging one's feet on the green, standing directly behind someone's line of sight, talking, coughing or sneezing while someone is teeing off, ripping the velcro on your glove on someone's backswing, and the one that rankles every golfer but most never do it anyway, is raking the bunker.

The above are all taboo and not in the spirit of the game, yet.....

I'm not surprised that the British gentleman stopped you, let's not forget that this is their game, and they can be expected most of all to uphold the honour and traditions of the game they invented.

A friend of mine who plays inter-club league golf once had the fortune of playing a British course, I forget which, and was paired with a local couple. His ball landed in the bunker, he hit out, after which he raked the area where he hit from. As he stepped out of the bunker, the lady asked him what he was doing. He looked back at the bunker puzzled, and the lady then chided him for not raking the rest of the bunker where there were footprints. He was told that it was only polite to do so and everyone does it.

Granted, traffic may not be as heavy at their courses than in Singapore or JB, but given that there is no one behind, we should. I learned something new myself when I heard this story, and how I practice it is to rake as much of the bunker as possible within reason of time when playing. At the very least, rake my own area if there is a flight behind.

If we are to play in the spirit of the game, IMHO we should uphold the honour and tradtions of golf as is practicable to do so. I say practicable because with such high traffic on our courses, it only makes sense to play ready golf.

But it still makes good sense to know what is the correct conduct so that we may carry ourselves with good decorum as a Singapore golfer when required to do so.

I don't practice honour on the tee for speed of play, but we should ask on every hole if it's alright for us to be first to step up to the tee box. Or agree at the start as Asahi mentioned. But should honour be invoked, then we should honour whose honour it is. As DGman said, honour is for the best scorer of the last hole. When you play competitively, honour is everything on the tee box.

For us social golfers, there is also the matter of gamesmanship. When bets are on, the order of teeing off can have a profound psychological effect on the opponent.

Say someone competitive always likes to tee off first and you allow him to do so. Then when it really matters, you stop him saying it's not his honour, what do you think it will do to him?

Oops, similar situation Pocketace, but different character... hee hee..

Birdman wrote:

To be honest, I hear a lot comments about how one does this or that in the spirit of the game, but I notice it's only done so when it benefits the person doing it. When it doesn't, it's out the back door.

There are many unspoken rules to the game, but just because it's not in the rule book, we choose to ignore them because it doesn't suit our personal style of play.

Be it stepping on someone's line, dragging one's feet on the green, standing directly behind someone's line of sight, talking, coughing or sneezing while someone is teeing off, ripping the velcro on your glove on someone's backswing, and the one that rankles every golfer but most never do it anyway, is raking the bunker.

I know u are referring to kian.

Thanks all for your insight. I thought I was being mindf£&ked hahahah
I should have taken it in my stride and play back nine better. I meant no ill intend, it's just that I never knew it was such a big deal. Now I learn

Anyway, can someone enlighten me a bit. Pardon me to OT my own thread a bit. We were playing stableford. Brit gent is 14, I'm 16 and my fren the member is 20 hcp. Brit gent calculated our stableford points at the end of the round and he announced that he won me on count back. But on the 18th hole, I made a bogey and he made double bogey. It's a index 4 hole. I just couldn't quite figure that one out. anyone??

Thanks

Err... my maths fail.

Need exact scores to tell... And if he were to stop u from teeing off knowing that u are a guest to the club, then i m sure he don't like to lose, especially to people of a higher hcp. Just my opinion

duffader wrote:

Birdman wrote:

To be honest, I hear a lot comments about how one does this or that in the spirit of the game, but I notice it's only done so when it benefits the person doing it. When it doesn't, it's out the back door.

There are many unspoken rules to the game, but just because it's not in the rule book, we choose to ignore them because it doesn't suit our personal style of play.

Be it stepping on someone's line, dragging one's feet on the green, standing directly behind someone's line of sight, talking, coughing or sneezing while someone is teeing off, ripping the velcro on your glove on someone's backswing, and the one that rankles every golfer but most never do it anyway, is raking the bunker.

I know u are referring to kian.

Disclaimer:

Any behaviour mentioned that resembles those of any living person is purely coincidental.

I do not know whether it is how most British gentleman behave the same in their invented game like golf. I had a British gentleman joined my flight with another 2 more golf buddies of mine.

We did not have any issue on who is honour as the honour will all won by one of my low HCP friend.

However, the British gentlemen did complain to us that we did not shake hand with everyone and thank you for the game.

I only do that to stranger but not with my golf buddies except scolding them or him for winning my $. Yes, I did forgot to shake that British gentleman hand after the last hole

Please do not forget to remove your golf cap when doing so.

duffader wrote:

And if he were to stop u from teeing off knowing that u are a guest to the club, then i m sure he don't like to lose, especially to people of a higher hcp.

Oooh.... then maybe Pocketace really got mind f**ked.

Slicer51 wrote:

Please do not forget to remove your golf cap when doing so.

Pak, you just reminded me of another tradition.

When playing in the UK, please remove the golf cap when entering the clubhouse, or you will wonder why everyone is staring at you. It's considered rude.

Birdman wrote:

...
I'm not surprised that the British gentleman stopped you, let's not forget that this is their game, and they can be expected most of all to uphold the honour and traditions of the game they invented.
...

Jialat ... Can not speak Singlish liao... It's their language after all

pocketace wrote:

Thanks all for your insight. I thought I was being mindf£&ked hahahah
I should have taken it in my stride and play back nine better. I meant no ill intend, it's just that I never knew it was such a big deal. Now I learn

Anyway, can someone enlighten me a bit. Pardon me to OT my own thread a bit. We were playing stableford. Brit gent is 14, I'm 16 and my fren the member is 20 hcp. Brit gent calculated our stableford points at the end of the round and he announced that he won me on count back. But on the 18th hole, I made a bogey and he made double bogey. It's a index 4 hole. I just couldn't quite figure that one out. anyone??

Thanks

Hope this helps

http://www.leaderboard.com/GLOSSARY_COUNTBACK

Happy golfing and have a great weekend !!

Birdman wrote:

duffader wrote:

And if he were to stop u from teeing off knowing that u are a guest to the club, then i m sure he don't like to lose, especially to people of a higher hcp.

Oooh.... then maybe Pocketace really got mind f**ked.

which is why a strong 18 HC is helpful in a situation like this...

win or lose.... no adverse result

Aiyah he took the score card...
Ok Nvm then, I'm happy with my game for my hcp
got one birdie some more, happy like bird Liao. Also made a long putt to save par
My zen zim, what do I do without you?

slinger wrote:

Birdman wrote:

duffader wrote:

And if he were to stop u from teeing off knowing that u are a guest to the club, then i m sure he don't like to lose, especially to people of a higher hcp.

Oooh.... then maybe Pocketace really got mind f**ked.

which is why a strong 18 HC is helpful in a situation like this...

win or lose.... no adverse result

9points wrote:

pocketace wrote:

Thanks all for your insight. I thought I was being mindf£&ked hahahah
I should have taken it in my stride and play back nine better. I meant no ill intend, it's just that I never knew it was such a big deal. Now I learn

Anyway, can someone enlighten me a bit. Pardon me to OT my own thread a bit. We were playing stableford. Brit gent is 14, I'm 16 and my fren the member is 20 hcp. Brit gent calculated our stableford points at the end of the round and he announced that he won me on count back. But on the 18th hole, I made a bogey and he made double bogey. It's a index 4 hole. I just couldn't quite figure that one out. anyone??

Thanks

Hope this helps

http://www.leaderboard.com/GLOSSARY_COUNTBACK

Happy golfing and have a great weekend !!

Thanks buddy!

pocketace wrote:

Thanks all for your insight. I thought I was being mindf£&ked hahahah
I should have taken it in my stride and play back nine better. I meant no ill intend, it's just that I never knew it was such a big deal. Now I learn

Anyway, can someone enlighten me a bit. Pardon me to OT my own thread a bit. We were playing stableford. Brit gent is 14, I'm 16 and my fren the member is 20 hcp. Brit gent calculated our stableford points at the end of the round and he announced that he won me on count back. But on the 18th hole, I made a bogey and he made double bogey. It's a index 4 hole. I just couldn't quite figure that one out. anyone??

Thanks

On count back usually means over the back nine, not just the last hole.

pocketace wrote:

Thanks all for your insight. I thought I was being mindf£&ked hahahah
I should have taken it in my stride and play back nine better. I meant no ill intend, it's just that I never knew it was such a big deal. Now I learn

Anyway, can someone enlighten me a bit. Pardon me to OT my own thread a bit. We were playing stableford. Brit gent is 14, I'm 16 and my fren the member is 20 hcp. Brit gent calculated our stableford points at the end of the round and he announced that he won me on count back. But on the 18th hole, I made a bogey and he made double bogey. It's a index 4 hole. I just couldn't quite figure that one out. anyone??

Thanks

Bro, looks like u are enjoying in Marutiaus huh
OCB is not only on the last hole.
Normally its last 9 holes, if tie last 6 holes, else last 3 holes etc

okok for our next game I will let u have the honour on all holes and I will take the $$$ at the end of the 18 hole

Bro skybobo (and bro Poresia too, if you are reading this), we better enforce the Honour etiquette and get used to it. I dun want you guys to get into the same awkward situation as me when you guys get paired with strangers next time