In this video, Neil Tappin and Jezz Ellwood discuss the etiquette mistakes golfers most commonly make... and how to avoid them!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Prince's Golf Club and this video on seven etiquette mistakes. Now in the
00:05rules of golf the word etiquette actually doesn't exist anymore. Instead it's covered off by the
00:10standards of player conduct which is rule 1.2 in the book and it's all of those things that ensure
00:16that you're a joy for other people to play with as you go around the course but also that you're
00:20keeping the course in as good a condition as you possibly can. Right let's head out now and take a
00:25look at the seven etiquette mistakes that are well worth avoiding. This one is about where to stand
00:35and where not to stand when someone's about to hit a golf shot. Now obviously you don't want to get too
00:39close to anyone for obvious reasons but then beyond that there are certain places that you can stand
00:44that could be slightly distracting for golfers. Jess what would your advice be here for people? Well
00:48having played for a number of years I think most people on the tee would prefer you to stand over
00:54here where you're in there as long as you're not doing anything distracting where they can sort of
00:58see you. I think it's when there's people lurking around behind you that people get a little bit edgy
01:03about it. I don't know why maybe they think they're not quite sure how close you're standing and they
01:08worry about hitting you but I think people would much prefer to see you in their eye line than not as
01:13long as you're not doing anything rummaging around in your back another ball or zipping something up
01:18and doing anything distracting. Yeah one thing I would add to this is that if you're playing into the sun
01:23in your and your sort of visibility down the fairway is it feels like it's a bit restricted
01:27it can be useful to have someone sort of slightly more behind yeah to be able to catch the fly to
01:32the ball a bit better but on the whole we'd say you know for right handers to the right of the golfer
01:36left handers to the left of the golfer is probably the best option where it comes to standing right
01:40first and then once you're stood there yes so obviously standing in this spot you're in their
01:44eye line so make sure you're not doing anything distracting so don't rummage around for another ball
01:49or do a zip up and wait for the player to play and then it's your turn to do whatever you want to do
01:54then just give them a bit of time to play their shot and then do whatever you need to do yeah it's
01:59about awareness ultimately a lot of this video is that just having that awareness for other people
02:04making sure that you're not doing anything that's going to potentially distract them from the shot they're
02:08about to hit jez do you mind oh yeah sorry sorry yeah this one is about shadows so you might not
02:25think it's a big deal but actually if you're uh trying to play a golf shot and somebody else's
02:29shadow is in the way it can be quite um distracting can't it it can be distracting and people might think
02:35well golfers are quite fragile aren't they and they should be able to cope with that but this is
02:39a sport where you're starting the movement it's not a reactive sport and anything that uh distracts
02:45your eye line just as you're about to take the club back or take the puffer away can really throw
02:50you can't it we all know that it can i think on the green if you're trying to put through shadows
02:53it can be quite hard to pick your line and then in other areas of the golf course if you've got your
02:57shadow there and then the head of jezz's putter here just moves slightly that can really put you off
03:02and it's just those small things like so many in this video it's just having that modicum of
03:07awareness for the your surroundings for other people just to make sure that you're not doing
03:10anything that's putting them off okay so this one is about the condition of the golf course jezz
03:20what people need to know well i mean there is an obligation at the very start of the rules to care
03:24for the course it's uh rule 1.2 standards of player conduct and part of caring for the course is to
03:32repair pitch marks and repair divots repair and replace and repair divots um and we have all
03:37seen pictures on social media of greens littered with um pitch marks haven't we i think some clubs
03:43have even gone out and placed a ball at the point of every pitch mark just to try and emphasize the
03:48point yes and it's quite a scary picture when you see it like that badly repaired pitch marks so
03:53um a lot of clubs i've been at have a big enormous pitch mark repair man called mort which stands for
04:00make one repair two which isn't a bad philosophy yes so even if you have if there's a pitch mark
04:05here that my ball has made when it landed on the green i'll repair this but if i also see another
04:10one nearby i'll also repair that as well it's just a good practice to get into because if you don't
04:15you will be leaving these little marks around the place that will just make the hole feel a little
04:20bit untidy and it over time if people keep doing that it creates that kind of buzz of discontentment about
04:26the condition of the golf course when actually the green keepers and the people working in the golf
04:30club it's not their fault yeah i mean you've got to be particularly careful on short par threes or
04:35holes where a lot of people are playing a short approach shop a full wedge shot in so those are
04:40the holes three you look out for and obviously uh time of year when conditions are soft you've really
04:45got to be on the ball with the pitch mark repair scenario yeah and also let's not forget divots as
04:49well you don't get relief from divots as you know uh when playing golf so if you've made the divot and
04:54it's clearly visible and you've got it there take the time to put it back it makes all the difference
04:57doesn't it it does the last thing you want is to end up in a divot knowing that um you're going to
05:01have to play it yes so i'm going to repair this pitch mark here and then i'm going to hit my puck
05:24i'll see that okay so when it comes to etiquette this one is probably up there with the most
05:34important things you need to know and that's about the pace of play if golfers have one thing in
05:37common is that they don't enjoy playing you know really slow rounds of golf where the pace of play
05:42grinds to a halt chest what can people do to make sure that doesn't happen well there's a very long
05:46list of things you can do um which we've investigated before but we don't want to go into all of those here
05:51if i was to pick out one that particularly bugs me maybe it would be the group gets the next tee
05:56the person who should be playing marks his scorecard works out what everyone else took on that hole
06:01before actually getting up and hitting their shot and that just slows the whole thing down
06:06there's plenty of time after that person's played their shot to then sort the scorecard out yeah and
06:11then there's things like ambling around the golf course i mean no one's asking you to race around
06:14the course but just be aware of those around you and then i think the one that bugs me is when people
06:19watch a playing partner hit and then they start figuring out how far they've got to go to the
06:24flag what the wind's doing etc etc and it just it's small things like that it might not seem like a big
06:29deal but the more it happens the slower play becomes and actually that causes a knock-on effect
06:34so just be aware try and keep the pace of play up and it shouldn't be a problem
06:47yes what ah is that a bit quite a loud zip isn't it sorry about that point here is about making uh
06:55noises when somebody else is about to play whether that's a zip or clanging coins or keys or t's in
07:01your pocket something like that be very careful very careful it's um people like to concentrate
07:08on their shot as much as possible it's only a few seconds and i don't think it's too unreasonable to
07:13be as quiet as possible while they're doing so yes it would be i can understand the point that people
07:17making when they're thinking well golfers can be a bit precious in this scenario but it would be
07:21different if there was a constant amount of noise in the background but so often there isn't and then
07:25a sudden noise can put you off and make no mistake jess if you did that we were playing i think i'd
07:29probably blame you if i hit a poor shot in that scenario any excuse
07:40okay jess this one is another one about the condition of the golf course in particular
07:44bunkers which i appreciate during covid times this is tricky what's the advice do you think
07:48for people here well i think that the advice is to try and leave the bunker in the kind of condition
07:53you'd hope to find it in so although we haven't got rakes i think some clubs are issuing players with
08:00portable rakes aren't they but not many um it's just to do what the best you can do with what
08:04you've got at your disposal and for me i think smoothing with the feet is usually the best option
08:10in most kinds of sand which i think is probably what's happened here and i have to say you know
08:15in the current climate that we're playing at the moment i'm pretty happy with this lie here whoever
08:20has been here before me has done their best to make sure that anyone coming after is going to get
08:24a fairly good lie i've got a fairly good lie and no real excuses you haven't so um i'll give you
08:3112 feet would be a good shot still from here slight down slope
08:37that's it well come back down the slope might do no in the summer it might have done but that's not a
08:44bad effort from there is it and that's obviously so much easier to play than if that had been in a
08:48filthy great foot markers you've got just behind you there exactly so now i need to do my part
09:01okay so another one that relates to pace of play jes what are we talking about here
09:04well basically i'm talking about slower groups letting faster groups through so
09:09you're slow for whatever reason that day you're paired with a couple of guys who aren't the quickest or
09:13one of you's having a complete howler it's backing up behind you just let the group behind through
09:18they'll be on their way unhappy you'll feel less pressured and it's just a better situation for
09:23everybody okay so really simple advice if you're in a slower group let the faster group through so
09:28there you have it that's our look at seven etiquette mistakes as we said quite a lot in this video it's
09:33all just about having an awareness having an awareness for what you're doing and for the players
09:38around you just to make sure that you're a joy to play with and that you're keeping the golf course in a
09:41good a condition as you possibly can and thanks for watching see you next time