More Golf Etiquette

The world famous championship Pebble Beach Golf tournament is open to the public under Country Club rules. To fellow Country Club rules on all public courses is big advantage to every golfer on the grounds. 

Consider Others on the Course 

By Alix J. Morrison, Author of “A New Way to Better Golf,” Teacher of Champions 

Conduct on the golf course is most important to all golfers. Let me tell you why. Briefly, you get out of golf just what you put into it. This point was constantly emphasized in my early apprenticeship as clubmaker and assistant pro.

This training was had at the Los Angeles Country Club, one of the best golf plants, always operated under highly efficient management, with a large, exclusive, yet democratic, membership. Everything about this exceptionally fine club proved that it paid to observe the rules and etiquette of golf.

I soon learned that all club swingers do not believe this. In serving as manager-pro at a public course, I had to deal with many hackers who persisted in being exceptions to all rules. This amazing experience strengthened my conviction about the advantages to all golfers through applying the Golden Rule.

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More recently my advice was sought about the management of a privately-owned course that is open to the public. I stressed the point held in the Del Monte operation of Pebble Beach —a course open to the public does not have to be run or treated as a public course.

Fundamentally it is a matter of individual deportment. Seemingly you have gotten away with something when you exceeded the speed limit without being caught by the highway police. But you'll never get away with infractions of the official rules and etiquette in golf.

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Every infraction is as obvious as stripes on a zebra. Even if you break a rule when nobody is around to see you, there remains that factor of self. The more proficient you become at kidding yourself, the less you’re apt to know about what you have actually done. And this must come before you can have any real knowledge of what you can do next.

Golf affords you countless opportunities to show due consideration for others. Learn that by so doing you greatly improve yourself and your game. — The Desert Sun, 1955

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