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P lease don’t take offence to this statement of fact, but public-course golfers tend to nudge their golf balls to a bet- ter lie more often than private-course players do. I consider myself somewhat of an authority on this subject because I’ve played half my life at public courses and the other half at private clubs. It’s not a moral judgment. Publinxers are just as honest, ethical and serious about the rules of life as anyone, but the natural convention at your average public course is such that conditions allow for The Nudge. You know what I
10 Rules We Choose to Ignore The Nudge and my three favourite tournament officials By Jerry Tarde
mean: the gentle prod with a clubhead just a few centimetres to a slightly up- graded patch of turf. No harm, no foul. Jack Nicklaus has always argued that the rules should let you roll your ball out of a divot hole. The munici- pal course I grew up on was one giant divot hole. We simply codified “Win- ter Rules” year-round. When betting big money, we insisted on “playing the ball down” – and if you drove it into the woods, you had to keep clapping your hands until you hit the next shot. Bobby Jones used to say there were three kinds of golf: Everyday golf,
20 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024
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