Should members get banned for a basic lack of etiquette?

The Secret Tour Caddy has lit a fire in NCG Towers.

Not literally, but there was a lot of heat when the mystery looper suggested that the fines tour professionals get for not raking bunkers or replacing divots should be implemented in the club game.

The STC quoted thousands of euros being thrown at players for not maintaining golf courses, while players at his home course constantly misbehave and go unpunished.

Steve Carroll and Matt Chivers of NCG tackled this debate and passionately argued both sides. Should club players get banned for neglecting basic golf course maintenance?

Golf rules and etiquette: Should heavy punishment be given to club golfers?

Ban the idiots who leave our courses in a mess

It’s not just the flat cap I’ve bought that makes me realise I’m getting older. It’s my growing intolerance, writes Steve Carroll.

Stuff that used to be water off a duck’s back now irritates me intensely. I’ve become a ‘grumpy old man’.

And etiquette – or the lack of it we see today – seriously pushes my buttons. When did we become such a set of slobs?

Why is every bunker like Margate Beach? All some of them need is a bucket and a spade. They would get more use than the rake.

Why does every fairway look like a digger driver has been practising their technique? Don’t even get me started on the moon craters that resemble our greens.

Some thinkers reckon it’s down to Covid – that being locked away for months at a time removed some of the social structures that bound us. You know, stuff like manners and decency.

My view is less profound: people are just idiots.

Fining, suspending, or even banning those who fail to clean up after themselves has a certain appeal. If it meant not having to receive the weekly club email begging members to look after their course it would be worth it.

I’m not really sure how you could enforce it, though I suppose every other part of our lives is followed by CCTV so why not the 8th?

But if the mere threat could make a material difference to the quality of our courses then it’s got to be worth a shot.

Anyway, this is my utopia so I’m having it. Hand out the banning orders. 

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Let’s not get too hasty

You should obviously rake bunkers and you should obviously replace divots, but how often are you actually a victim of these obstacles on the golf course? writes Matt Chivers.

A lot of golfers want the rules bent so they can roll their ball out of divots (Just imagine the chaos and dishonesty that would cause), but how often do they actually hit their ball in one? It rarely happens.

Fining or banning members for not carrying out course maintenance is an entirely unrealistic, unenforceable, and unfair concept.

Let’s say we’re playing golf at Truman Burbank’s home club, where the eyes of the world are watching. You innocently forget to rake a bunker or replace a small piece of turf, and an email one hour later banishes you from stepping foot on the property again.

If you deliberately ruin every bunker and fairway you see then, yes, you are an idiot and I hope you get banned. But we’re all guilty of missing some grains of sand and overlooking the wedge of grass we’ve just removed from the fairway.

If I get banned for that, I’m bringing the whole club down with me. He didn’t rake the bunker last Wednesday on hole 5, check the tape. Ban them.

Golf clubs are already full of busybodies more bothered about other people’s business than theirs. Let’s not encourage this behaviour by handing out petty bans for inconsequential things.

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