Picture the scene. It’s a social round. Someone has said, ‘fancy putting a card in?’ and you’ve clicked a scorecard on the app.
It’s all going swimmingly until you tug one just a little offline from the tee. Yes, you should hit a provisional. But you don’t. ‘It’s not far in, we’ll find it.’
Except you’re thrashing through rough, time’s up, and the group behind have their arms folded. You’re a one-person traffic jam.
The rules say you’ve got to march back to the tee. But this isn’t a medal. Are you really going back? Or are you just shrugging your shoulders and tapping ‘pick up’ on the app, knowing you’re not doing your best?
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Admit it. You’ve faced this. Some of you will be appalled I’ve even suggested you’re not immediately walking to the tee. Others might think about just dropping one down, adding a penalty, and carrying on.
More likely, you’re taken the easy option in the app and given up on the hole.
‘What’s the problem? It’s not cheating, is it?’
Well, the Rules of Handicapping don’t like it. They ask you to attempt to make the “best possible score at each hole”.
But if a card wasn’t on the line, if this was just a weekly knock, you wouldn’t think twice. You’d drop and move on. So why can’t you, even when you are putting in a card?
It’s why I think we need to look again at the Alternative to Stroke and Distance Local Rule.
Alternative to Stroke-and-Distance: A rule ahead of its time?
When it was introduced by The R&A and USGA as part of its rules revamp in 2019, it caused a bit of a furore.
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It proposed that if you hadn’t already played a provisional, you could essentially drop on the edge of the fairway where the ball was lost or out of bounds for a two-stroke penalty, rather than having to go back to the tee.
Model Local Rule E-5 was never aimed at top events. It is “appropriate for general play where golfers are playing casual rounds or playing their own competitions”.
But it was controversial. Critics (I was one of them) feared it would be abused, with players taking liberties when estimating where their ball had gone astray.
CONGU, which ran handicapping back then, refused to allow it in competitions and supplementary scores. And that was that.
But the World Handicap System has changed everything. With general play scores now a huge part of handicapping, stroke-and-distance is a big barrier to pace and the integrity of scores.
General play rounds aren’t going anywhere. Golfers are entering millions of them. Nearly half (47%) of all scores submitted in England this year have been general play. They are here to stay.
So if some players may already ignore stroke-and-distance when playing social rounds, why not give them a legitimate rules option so they don’t have to?
Could it be manipulated? Of course. But isn’t it worse when players simply abandon a hole and settle for a nett double bogey after one shot? Which can inflate handicaps faster?
Allowing this Local Rule now would keep golfers moving, would give them an incentive to finish holes properly and, as a result, add credibility to scores within WHS.
This Local Rule won’t stop people complaining about the system. But if we want to take a step towards greater integrity, why not start with something that’s already within the rulebook? It’s time to unleash it.
Now have your say on the Alternative to Stroke-and-Distance Local Rule
What do you think about the Alternative to Stroke-and-Distance Local Rule? Should it now be reconsidered by handicap chiefs? Would you use it if it was brought in at your club? Let me know your thoughts by emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or by leaving us a comment on X.
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