Rules for Americans playing links golf for the first time.

[Paul Gray]

I'm with Ryan on this.


Nothing suggests tourist more than being over OR under dressed. By all means have a jacket and tie in the car to slip on if required, just don't go too mad with the Bertie Wooster routine. Britain is not a quaint, olde worlde theme park.

[John Percival]

Martin is spot on!!!

My own suggestion is to avoid the 'heroic' from  the deep fescue.
Full wedge, face slightly open, out to the fwy.

Anything more invites physical catastrophe.

And do enjoy the game as it is meant to be played.

[John Kavanaugh]

Bill,


The number one rule should be...Don't read this thread. Whatever happened to putting your money down and having fun on your terms and no one else's. Everything doesn't have to be a book report. Notwithstanding the accompanying illustrations.

[RJ_Daley]

Are there some significant differences in custom and culture between clubs in Scotland and Ireland?  If one feels more comfortable with the more appropriate yet casual style, would Irish clubs be more casual, particularly as the tourist season winds down?  Would one find a more likely opportunity to enjoy local people and their golf customs if a bit off season, post September at either or both Ireland and Scotland?  Or, would locals feel like it is more 'their time' and not be as quick to welcome a tourist in fall? 

I'm contemplating/deliberating a mid to late Oct. GB&I tour to play perhaps 6-8 courses over a 2-3 week period with as much emphasis on having a good look about the towns and country and their culture as much as just golf.  Maybe one round every two to three days.  I'd like to travel light, likely to rent car and travel alone, and would prefer getting to an interesting golf course town and arranging a round to play impromptu within the day or two or three I'd be in that particular locale. If weather looks fair a day or two out and mid-week, I'd like to drop into various courses and see if a round can be booked.  Does this sound like a good plan to those experienced GB&I travelers and golfers? 

[Andy Shulman]

I'm with Kavanaugh.  I'm glad I didn't read this thread before my first trip to Scotland.  I might never have gotten on that plane because you guys make the whole thing sound like a hurried, cold, soggy slog with bogeys (let alone pars) hard to come by.


And, while I agree with those who've said to not try and reinvent your game, practicing a lower trajectory knockdown shot prior to the trip would be my #1 recommendation to avoid turning the average par-4 into a par-6 (or 7!).


As for caddies, read John Updike's short story, "The Trouble With a Caddy" for a different, but enlightening, perspective....and some great laughs!

[Bill_McBride]

The jacket and tie thing is more of a clubhouse policy, not playing golf per se. And outside of Sunday's every club I can think of has a bar for serving those in golf attire.

Typically called the "spike bar" because you can wear your golf shoes.  Other places, North Berwick comes to mind, no golf shoes in the clubhouse beyond the changing rooms. 

[John Cowden]

,,,and a rule, as any club's, that I'm happy to abide by.  What a delight to sit upstairs in the bar and watch the play on 18.  Just another reason why North Berwick is golf heaven. 

[RJ_Daley]

Are changing rooms and showers usually available to visitors?

[mike_beene]

This is a very appropriate thread. Failure to check on customs leads to an unfortunate syndrome often called ( correctly)"Ugly Americanism" or simply "rudeness"

[Tony_Muldoon]

Are changing rooms and showers usually available to visitors?

Yes they are but at the "2nd tier" clubs it would be advisable to bring your own towel.
 
Dick October will be quiet and you'll be able to get on just about every course in GB&I - but not always at weekends.  Don't worry about the Jacket and Tie, judging from your contributions on here I think you'll fit in just fine.
 
Please do drop a hint or two about your plans, I might hang around the pro shop in the hope you'll blow through town.
 
Might be worth a thread of its own.  "Help me plan my meandering...."
 

[Mark Chaplin]

Ryan the wannabes you refer to tend to be the members of the course you are coughing up £200 to pay.

[Niall C]

Bill


No rules but just suggestions;


1 - Go native and don't take a caddy. If needs be buy a strokesaver and ask before you go out about yardgae markers. Often they have markers or yardages on the sprinkler heads. That should give you a clue. Just enjoy the freedom to work things out for yourself and the chance to enjoy the banter within your group without any interlopers joining in.


2 - now that you know the yardage for the shot, instantly forget it    Links is about feel, not exact distance, although knowing roughly how far to go is helpful as is whether the hole dog-legs left or right after you go over the hill. If playing two rounds a day, I'd suggest maybe having a "5 clubs only comp" between you when playing the smaller course. There's nothing like that for making you improvise and play feel shots like having to go down the shaft on a 5 iron because you don't have the "correct" club in the bag. Much better than playing foursomes IMO and you don't have to lug or pull a heavy bag.


3 - yes you are on holiday so you want to feel comfortable and I'm sure all those clubs can accommodate you if you would prefer to show up in golf gear. However please remember you are playing members clubs and a bit of decorum and respect for the rules of the club would be expected/appreciated. As others have said, a jacket and tie will usually get you into areas you wouldn't normally be able to go in golf gear. Suggest you email the club for advice.


4 - how a links plays varies from day to day, moment to moment and depends largely on the weather. Some days it will be relatively calm and some days it will be blowing a hoolie. Depending on whether it has been wet recently the course may be running and at other times not. That's just the way it is. Don't make assumptions on how it's going to be, just play it as it lies.


5 - Playing in the wind - shorten your swing, swing slower and take a good bit more club ie. take the spin off the ball. All about controlling the ball. Sometimes a 3 wood off the tee is a much better play than a driver, even on a long hole.


6 - a lot of these courses are fairly compact on a fairly open landscape, therefore other groups would probably appreciate it if you didn't tend to shout across fairways to your playing partners.


7 - remember to take your hat off when in the clubhouse.


Niall

[Ally Mcintosh]

Dick,

I think you might find a little more golf culture in Scotland and a little more off-course culture in Ireland.

As a Scotsman who lives in Ireland, I'm in a good position to advise on both. Be delighted to help you out if you drop me a PM. I'm sure I can steer you in the right direction.

Ally

[Brent Hutto]

Dick,

I have very limited experience with a scant two dozen clubs in England, Scotland and Wales (none in Ireland, alas) but the places I've visited tend to fall into two categories. There are clubs where you'll encounter members dressed in jackets (if not ties) in the clubhouse most days of the week and there are clubs where that is only a Sunday thing. Of my small sample, slightly more of the latter than the former.


But I've yet to encounter anyone playing golf in woolen jackets, ties and dress slacks as you might see in a depiction of golf in the early 20th century! Seriously though, I've also not encountered at a UK private club any cargo shorts, untucked shirt, baseball cap backwards wearing Joe Sixpacks of the type you'll see at many a USA public or resort course.


My own practice has become to pack a jacket and a couple dress shirts if I think I might do a bit of socializing over lunch or dinner in the clubhouse at some point during the week. If it's totally a hit and run solo golfing type trip with no social component, I pack lightly and do without the fancy clothes.


For specific examples I'd cite at Harlech and Aberdovey. On my one trip (so far) to Wales there were plenty of golfers wearing shorts and athletic shoes with a golf shirt of some type. But even within a small local area on the coast of Wales there was a definite difference in manners of dress between those two clubs.


Also at Brora in Scotland I'd have a hard time picturing the locals hanging out in the clubhouse bar wearing anything beyond the same  type of clothes I typically play golf in at home.


Examples of the other end of spectrum the more dressed-up memberships (in the clubhouse) that I can recall were at Walton Heath, Ganton and Royal St. Georges.


But anyway, shorter version is you'll almost certainly want to pack some dress clothing but you probably will not be wearing it on a daily basis unless your itinerary is mostly very upscale clubs and/or in the south of England. Which I suspect is not exactly the itinerary you have planned...

[David Ober]

Played last year in Scotland and had the time of my life. Played Carnoustie, The Old Course, The Jubilee, The Castle (yuck!), and Kingsbarns.


We had great weather for our trip. The wind was never more than 15 to 20 mph, which is a fairly typical afternoon wind at my home club, so I do have to take issue with your statement about wind. Other than that, I agree with everything you mentioned. I could play golf in Scotland every day of my life. I absolutely loved it there and can't wait to get back. Not sure if I ever will, but boy was it wonderful.

[Paul Gray]

This is a very appropriate thread. Failure to check on customs leads to an unfortunate syndrome often called ( correctly)"Ugly Americanism" or simply "rudeness"

Well said.


I can't imagine JK being anything other than 'that American.' To be fair, most Brits are similarly guilty of such pathetic behaviour when taking their Union Jacks on a two week trip to Spain each year. The mentality of an empire continues to leave ugly stains for years to come.

[David Kelly]

If you need advice on how to act when visiting a foreign country then you should probably just stay home. Or become an adult.

[Pete_Pittock]

nothing about golf, but make sure your clubs and shoes are very clean before going through customs, both ways.

[Pat Alpaugh]

I'm curious why some of you suggest that people play Stableford.

[David_Tepper]

"I'm curious why some of you suggest that people play Stableford."

Pat A. -

In Stableford, any score on a hole of (net) double-bogey or worse is pointless (literally and figuratively ). Because of this, there is no need to finish a hole when you have run off the rails. Unless you are a very good golfer (and even if you are), that will likely happen once or twice a round.

FYI, the Scots refer to a (net) double-bogey as a "blob."

DT

[Bill Brightly]

play stableford

OK, I am up for playing stableford. We can use that for a daily bet and pay the top three finishers. But how do we use stableford for the two man team bets that will occur in each foursome?

We are all from the same club with established handicaps. Is there a simple way to convert a Nassau to a stableford-based bet?

If all four golfers are making double bogey or worse, is the hole simply halved?

[Brent Hutto]

Bill,


You can certainly apply a Stableford type net-double limit in a match play situation. Craig Disher and I have done that once in atrocious conditions (i.e. raining too hard to see where your ball was going, on a course that was fairly narrow in places). But generally speaking the Stableford advice is more like "You don't want to be keeping medal scores at Dornoch in a 30mph wind" type of thing.


But if it were me in a 4BBB Nassau type game I wouldn't worry about it. As long as one partner on one team has a ball in play they can win the hole. I'd just treat it the same as match play at home, if a hole gets totally out of hand for everyone you can always just call it a half and move on.


Sometimes under difficult conditions it's rather fun to grind it out in match play and let a 8 beat a 9 or some such nonsense. Kidn of last man standing (I remember Tony M. and I halving a hole with 8's at Deal one time, whichever hole it was that has the ancient Roman road on it, from which I think I played my fifth stroke).


Hopefully with best-ball such extreme scenarios won't happen more than once a round or so...

[Carson Pilcher]

Using a putter from 125 yards out is sometimes the correct shot to play.

[Bill_McBride]

A bunch of us played Wallasey Golf Club near Hoylake, where Dr. Frank Stableford invented his scoring system, where one picks after net double and records zero as his score for the hole.  Two points for net par and one for net bogey, three for net birdie.   There is a sign by the second tee memorializing the system, and you can see why.  The hole is a long par 4, a dogleg right with knee or hip deep rough on both sides.  You could spend hours out there looking for errant balls on every shot!

[Tony_Muldoon]

Sometimes under difficult conditions it's rather fun to grind it out in match play and let a 8 beat a 9 or some such nonsense. Kidn of last man standing (I remember Tony M. and I halving a hole with 8's at Deal one time, whichever hole it was that has the ancient Roman road on it, from which I think I played my fifth stroke).

Brent I have many happy things to recall about palying golf with you but let's just say I don't recall Bob Hope including that in "Thanks for the Memories".