It’s not easy
to find ways to convince folks to do what’s good for them.
For example, as a child watching Saturday morning
television (a very long time ago), I frequently watched a commercial for a
maple-flavored oatmeal.
If I recall correctly, the ad would show a parent
waving a spoonful in front of a child as if it was an airplane, singing
something like "Mrowwn, maple-flavored, mrowwn--Maypo!"
The oatmeal-laden spoon would then "land" right in
the child’s mouth.
Dave Marrandette’s "Can I Get A Ruling?" reminded me
of this old advertisement—but in a good way.
In both instances the creators are trying to
convince potentially unwilling participants to do something they might not
like. In the child’s case, it was eating something nutritious. In
Marrandette’s case, it’s the recurring problem of generating interest in
learning and applying the Rules of Golf.
Fortunately, Marrandette’s methods should be helpful
to a lot of golfers.
Instead of a dry description of the Rules and how
they work, he uses the power of parables.
There’s nothing like a colorful anecdote to show how
a rule works, and there are plenty of examples from the professional golf
tours to cover the typical incidents.
Here’s one from the chapter, "How do you spell
R-E-L-I-E-F?"
Chip Beck hit near an out-of-bounds stake, and
without skipping a beat removed the stake to clear the area for his next
shot. Almost immediately he realized his mistake, but the damage was done,
adding two penalty strokes to his score. Marrandette uses this story from
the 1992 Greater Greensboro Open to cover the movable obstruction rules
(it’s not), and also points out that the error cost Beck $81,563 in prize
money.
I assume Beck hasn’t touched a boundary stake ever
since.
Most of the chapters in this slender, easily-read
book cover a single basic part of the Rules, fleshed out with several
stories taken from events of the last fifty years or so. Several of these
yarns will be familiar to long-time golf fans, but Marrandette manages to
keep them fresh in the re-telling.
In addition, he explains how some of the rules have
evolved, in part to address fairness or competition issues caused in part by
the prior drafts. For example, the chapter on time includes several
instances in putting, where the ball hangs on the lip of the hole. The
current 10-second time limit included a loss-of-hole penalty for match play
and a two-stroke penalty for medal play when it was first instituted in
1984. Four years later the penalties were reduced to a single stroke, but
this easy-to-understand rule can still be a bit tricky to apply.
Marrandette recounts the Lee Janzen incident in the
1998 NEC World Series of Golf to prove this point.
Marrandette also discusses not only the how of the
Rules, but also the why. The geography of golf, spread out over 120 acres or
more, requires the players to police their own conduct to an extent not seen
in nearly any other sport, especially at the professional level. The Rules
act as a code of golfing ethics to which all players usually adhere, which
helps keep at bay the Hobbesian alternative (otherwise, the game would be
nasty, brutish, and short). This distinction from other sports is most stark
in the game’s requirement for players to call penalties on themselves, no
matter what the consequences.
In addition to citing several stirring examples of
this ethical conduct from the professional ranks, Marrandette also gives a
few instances from amateur competition. I especially appreciated two stories
from high school golf in Massachusetts and Florida. The examples these young
players set were in the best tradition of sportsmanship, and their stories
deserve a wide audience.
This is a well-done book about a potentially dry
part of the game of golf. High school and college golf coaches should find a
way to have their players read it before the start of every season.
If nothing else, they’ll be tickled by the great
cover photograph of a golfer trying to chip a ball from the nook of a tree
branch, while standing on the branch itself. That scene alone might help
convince them to open up the book.
Review date: January 24, 2005
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