Betting is good for golf

Lee and Gary head out to the golf course for a quick nine holes. On the first tee, Lee turns to Gary and says, "What do you say we make this time worth something. Play you for $5?" Gary agrees, and they start their rounds.

It's a great game, and the two lifelong friends reach the No. 9 tee box with Gary ahead by one stroke. After Lee hits a great drive, right down the middle, Gary steps up and promptly hooks a ball into deep rough and trees.

"C'mon," Gary says to Lee, "help me find my ball. I'll look in this patch of trees, and you look around over there."

They look and look and look, but no ball can be found. The five-minute time limit on searching for lost balls is about to run out. Gary gets desparate. He gives a quick glance over to Lee to see if he is looking, then swiftly reaches into his pocket and drops a new ball into the rough.

"Found my ball!" Gary shouts out triumphantly.

Lee looks at his friend with great disappointment. "After all the years we've been friends," Lee says, "you'd cheat me at golf for a measly five bucks?"

"What do you mean cheat?" Gary asks indignantly. "I found my ball sitting right here!"

Lee lets out a heavy sigh. "And you'd lie to me, too? All for a tiny little sum of money? You'd cheat me and lie to me, for what? For five bucks? I can't believe you'd stoop so low."

"Well what makes you so sure I'm cheating and lying, anyway?" Gary asks.

"Because," Lee replies, "I've been standing on your ball for the last five minutes!"

Sounds like a plan for my Sunday game....

Haha.. So morole of the story?? always look for lost ball by yrself.. =P

Tammie wrote:

Haha.. So morole of the story?? always look for lost ball by yrself.. =P

or ever so "willing" to look for your opponents ball.....

we need to have golf ethics.....

btw, the friend found the ball but hid it from him for 5min means he is trying to cheat?
New to golf so not sure abt this also. lol..

It can be both way... either he himself is trying to cheat or he is testing his friend...

I heard that we can only look for our ball for 5 mins... is that a rule or only ethiquete?

Rule or etiquette, one thing for sure is, 1 ball from flight behind sure to come flying if spend more than 5 min.

taskie wrote:

It can be both way... either he himself is trying to cheat or he is testing his friend...

I heard that we can only look for our ball for 5 mins... is that a rule or only ethiquete?

Yes, it is under the rule 27-1c Ball not found within five minutes .. will be under penalty of one stroke.

You might be correct that he is testing his friend but if just for testing better, better do it within 5 minutes .. Maybe 4 min and 59 sec and call out " I found your ball " if not your friend need to take one stroke penalty

asahi wrote:

Rule or etiquette, one thing for sure is, 1 ball from flight behind sure to come flying if spend more than 5 min.

You properly correct but how many of us will check the time 1st before we start looking for our ball ? I always forget to do it but just keep looking and looking

Next I will bring a stop watch rather than my GSP .. since I am always looking for the ball because Indonesia fairway glass were rather long

Tammie wrote:

Haha.. So morole of the story?? always look for lost ball by yrself.. =P

No, the morole of the story is to learn to hit our shot straight and than we do not have this joke anymore .. Just kidding

Hi, Slicer51..

A bit off topic. In Indonesia, I often found that if our ball is in fairway, we can pick up and clean our balls like when we are in green. Is it true in Surabaya too?

Slicer51 wrote:

taskie wrote:

It can be both way... either he himself is trying to cheat or he is testing his friend...

I heard that we can only look for our ball for 5 mins... is that a rule or only ethiquete?

Yes, it is under the rule 27-1c Ball not found within five minutes .. will be under penalty of one stroke.

You might be correct that he is testing his friend but if just for testing better, better do it within 5 minutes .. Maybe 4 min and 59 sec and call out " I found your ball " if not your friend need to take one stroke penalty

one stroke....AND distance

taskie, that sounds like winter rule. Local rule, depend on the club.

I remember this rule was effected at last Barclays Spore Open.

taskie wrote:

Hi, Slicer51..

A bit off topic. In Indonesia, I often found that if our ball is in fairway, we can pick up and clean our balls like when we are in green. Is it true in Surabaya too?

Yes, rather off topic. Sorry eden

Not really, unless the ball is EMBEDDED. "Most" local rule here allow embedded ball in any closely-mown area through the green may be lifted, cleaned and dropped, without penalty.

It good to check thee local rule on the score card specially when you are betting with friends. Friendly game, just kick the ball to another place if you do not like the original lay Heeee (just kidding, I never do that .. Cheating is not in my game and i do not play with player that cheat too )

hehe. I do that sometimes.

Slicer51 wrote:

Yes, rather off topic. Sorry eden

Not really, unless the ball is EMBEDDED. "Most" local rule here allow embedded ball in any closely-mown area through the green may be lifted, cleaned and dropped, without penalty.

It good to check thee local rule on the score card specially when you are betting with friends. Friendly game, just kick the ball to another place if you do not like the original lay Heeee (just kidding, I never do that .. Cheating is not in my game and i do not play with player that cheat too )

Nothing off topic to bother about since this is just a joke post however others may not be able to benefit from any "serious" golf discussion.

Rules 25-2: Embedded ball
A ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in the ground in any closely mown area through the green may be lifted, cleaned and dropped, without penalty, as near as possible to the spot where it lay but not nearer the hole. The ball when dropped must first strike a part of the course through the green. "Closely mown area" means any area of the course, including paths through the rough, cut to fairway height or less.

Eden, you are correct that " others may not be able to benefit from any "serious" golf discussion ". I will transfer this to the proper post and we can discuss further.

I ever discussed the same topic in Malaysia forum and you may be interested to know how one of the rule guru explained regarding this statement

"Closely mown area" means any area of the course, including paths through the rough, cut to fairway height or less.

Please look out for it ... Thx