Code of Conduct Experience

Has anyone had experience of playing a course that has posted a Code of Conduct (Rule 1.2b) as a Local Rule that creates penalties (golf penalties or disciplinary sanctions) for actions in breach of the Code?

In our Hard Card there is a paragraph with essentially 1.2b implemented. So all official competitions (not club comps) have that applied.

Hard Cards are essentially a custom list of already known local rules. My question is really about whether anyone is being exposed through a declared Code of Conduct - or Hard Card if that is where a Code is posted - to new/different penalties that do not exist in the Rules or in any Model Local Rule. For those unfamiliar, Committees are now permitted to invent their own penalties for play on their course, including 1SP and general penalties - section 5H in the Committee Procedures explains it.

Indeed, our HC includes the list of various penalties. However, each breach is posed by the Committee so there is no list of how many PSs one gets for each breach. There is a list, though, telling what kind of breaches there are as example.

Could you share a couple examples? Other than penalty strokes for slow play, I can't think of an example.

Neglecting care for the course (not raking a bunker, not repairing a divot hole), indecent language, throwing a club, damaging course or other property, insulting another player, personnel or any other person.

Slow play is a separate issue, nothing to do with 1.2a.

No kidding? You can be penalized for not raking a bunker?

Yes. It depends on what the local Committee has included in their specific Code of Conduct - failing to care for the course, or damaging the course through negligent actions, is a common element of codes of conduct. Most Local Rules would include a warning for a first offence, penalty for subsequent breaches.

If you ask me, you SHOULD be penalized for not raking a bunker.

Hmmm. Interesting, although I have yet to see a good explanation as to why having a beautiful drive in the fairway end in a divot is considered "rub of the green" yet one should expect a bunker to be manicured by other players.

What happens if I don't consider your effort to rake the green suitable. Can I impose a one stroke penalty if in a match?

Posing reductio arguments doesn't advance the cause.

Perhaps you would like to explain further as to why someone should receive a penalty for not raking a bunker. Or perhaps let the person who said "you SHOULD be penalized for not raking a bunker" explain their position further.

After all, there is a contingent of golfers who think raking of bunkers is ridiculous, and others who believe at the very least bunkers should be more penal and raked with a different style of rake, such as gap toothed, than currently used.

You might find it could ease your anxiety if you considered that there are different cultural norms in other parts of the world.

Lol. You're making a lot of presumptions without any substance which indicates you must have some internal conflict over this issue but are unable to express your feelings clearly. Perhaps you should move along since you have nothing to add to the discussion.

They are penal enough when perfectly manicured.

Certainly in this part of the world, anyone consciously not raking their own footprints or other disturbance they have made in a bunker, would be given a pretty fruity earful.

And in my part of the world also - same goes for replacing/repairing divots and ball marks on the putting green. Care of the course is a high priority for the people that I play with - leave it better than you found it.

And, as a referee, I have no problem enforcing code of conduct issues on the course, although our code of conduct process allows an initial warning unless the incident is particularly egregious.

As already explained a bunker is penal enough even when properly raked. Furthermore, in my country there still exists the Etiquette of Golf, and that gives various guidelines how one should conduct oneself on a golf course. I am rather confident you have seen such guidelines yourself even though you seem to be reluctant to respect them.

Let me squeeze this in a form of an example. You are the first group to play in a competition and the staff has used a considerable time to prepare the course for you and the other competitors, including raking the bunkers. Now comes oikos1 and hits his ball into a greenside bunker receiving a perfect lie. As it happens after having played from that bunker oikos1 could not care less of the Etiquette of Golf and does not bother to rake the bunker. So a player from the next group hits his ball into the same nunker, and as it happens, right in one of the deep footprints oikos1 left there. Happy now, oikos1? That other player sure was not.

I hope this broadens your perspective.

Oikos1 wrote:

'After all, there is a contingent of golfers who think raking of bunkers is ridiculous, and others who believe at the very least bunkers should be more penal and raked with a different style of rake, such as gap toothed, than currently used.'

That is completely irrelevant and to be honest rather childish. People have different opinions on many issues but that does not absolve them from doing what rules and regulations say.

Same thing happens in the fairway. Player takes a huge divot, another player's ball rolls in it. Yet that's a tough break. No one has yet to actually justify the idea that a bunker should be raked to an unused or pristine condition.

Perhaps all of the "rules" traditionalist's might learn something from this read: https://www.golfadvisor.com/articles/a-place-for-rakes"Having made something of a study of the matter, I have found that bunkers are a 20th century advent. In one famous photograph of The Old Course at St. Andrews, Hell Bunker, the fairway hazard on the 14th hole, is shown with two golfers and three caddies standing in it and a third player observing from above. There is no evidence of a rake, or anything close to grooming having gone on. To say the least, the floor of the bunker is scruffy. In other words: a real hazard."

Or perhaps this one: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/why-we-should-do-away-with-bunker-rakes"Pine Valley has many, many bunkers -- some small, some large, some soft, some hard some coffin-shaped, some bottomless, some seemingly miles across -- but no rakes. The club’s maintenance regularly smooths everything out, but, if your ball ends up in a footprint (or behind a rock or under a cactus), that’s your tough luck, and you deal with it. As you should."

I'm actually a bit shocked at the expectation a bunker should be a pristine part of the course, and one could also suggest it's "childish" to expect a bunker to be raked, let alone penalize a player for not raking the bunker.

'I'm actually a bit shocked at the expectation a bunker should be a pristine part of the course, and one could also suggest it's "childish" to expect a bunker to be raked, let alone penalize a player for not raking the bunker.'

Try to live with the fact that there are different views from yours.

'Same thing happens in the fairway. Player takes a huge divot, another player's ball rolls in it. Yet that's a tough break. No one has yet to actually justify the idea that a bunker should be raked to an unused or pristine condition.'

This is another childish view. A divot replaced may or may not stay in place the next time the lawnmower runs over it. Besides, a ball landing in a divot hole happens ever so rarely that it cannot be compared to the frequency of hitting a ball into a bunker.

I repeat myself, try to live with the fact that there are different views from yours.

Lol. I understand there are different views. There are always different views. That's why I posted the articles, which I noticed you chose not to address, even though you rudely continue to attempt to belittle me with your "childish" remarks. At least I know Nicklaus is on my side when it comes to making bunkers more penal.

The reason given here for raking was because a bunker is already penal enough. That reason literally made me laugh. It doesn't really matter to me because you're the one that needs it to be raked to make the game easier and ultimately you have no control over that. Foot prints be damned!

It makes much more sense now as to why you would want to impose a penalty on someone for not raking a bunker, which was my original question as it seemed so preposterous. It's actually quite funny that somehow the person who didn't rake the bunker should get a penalty yet you are the one who hit your ball in the bunker. Regardless, it's a soft position and I'm certain with courses going months without rakes here in the U.S. there more than likely will be courses which drop the rakes altogether.

No raking certainly follows the mantra "play the course as you find it".

Jack tried wide-toothed rakes at Muirfield one year. It would be completely fair to say that the experiment was not well received. The bunkers were absolute hazards.

Not wishing to be a party-pooper, but I prefer to see discussion about whether bunkers should or should not be raked occurring somewhere else, keeping this place for issues around or direct experience of Code of Conduct penalty examples not otherwise included in the Rules of Golf.

'No raking certainly follows the mantra "play the course as you find it".'

I doubt that mantra is supposed to be followed by not caring for the course, and that is exactly why our Hard Card contains the license for the Committee to penalize players for not caring for the course. I'd rather putt on an even surface instead of one that is filled with craters created by balls landing on the green and not been repaired by the players. Or should they also be left untouched to satisfy your mantra, oikos1?

So far I have not heard of any incident in which penalties would have been issued to a player for a breach of 1.2a but I will keep my ears open. FWIW I think this will not happen very soon as a much bigger problem of PoP has not yet caused too many penalties issued either even though that has been a key focus for quite a few years. The threshold of issuing a penalty for something like PoP or CoC breaches has proven to be relatively high.

"If you ask me, you SHOULD be penalized for not raking a bunker." - Mr. Bean

Don't know why you don't think the discussion is absolutely on point in regards to the title of the thread. Perhaps it's the uncomfortable feeling many have knowing bunkers have become a place of sanctuary, not a penalty area.

"I'd rather putt on an even surface instead of one that is filled with craters created by balls landing on the green and not been repaired by the players. Or should they also be left untouched to satisfy your mantra, oikos1?"

Oh contraire. Apples to oranges and you further make my point. Hitting the green is a reward. I take great honor in fixing my divots. And I fix unrepaired divots of others.

Hitting in the bunker is supposed to be penal.

I certainly understand why golfers would want to have bunkers raked. I have a different opinion and have attempted to expose why manicured bunkers are a much preferred lie these days rather than having the ball land in six inch green side rough, roll down a shaved hill to leave a 30 yard uphill pitch or roll off the shaved hillside of a green into the water. It's why pros literally say "Get in the bunker".

My shock was such that the idea a player should be penalized for not raking a bunker is a bridge too far. And that further exposed the act of raking bunkers as being totally unnecessary.

I will respectfully move on from this one unless a response is warranted.

Bunker is not a penalty area and has never been. Maybe you should read the Definitions of Bunker and Penalty Area. And just to distinguish them from this discussion point of view, Penalty Areas do not have to be raked or in any way maintained by the players, unlike bunkers.

Whoa. I said bunkers are supposed to be penal. Are you suggesting that's not true? Because that would be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard about bunkers. In fact, earlier you stated that bunkers are "As already explained a bunker is penal enough even when properly raked". Your exact words!

Dig deeper please. I know you won't read any of these articles. Posting just for the record."Early golf developed on links land, where sand blew across the course and 'burns' (small rivers) ran across it to the sea. In time these were shaped into the hazards that they are today, especially the sand, putting it in pits called bunkers. The sand bunker is incontestably Scottish as there is no evidence of it in any other game anywhere else. Bunkers may also have been inspired by the quarry pits which proliferated on many links, such as Aberdeen, Bruntsfield and Gullane. The etymology of the word bunker itself is variously ascribed to the 16th century Scots word 'bonkar', meaning a chest, or, by some, to Scandinavian or Old Flemish. The word Bunker in golf does not appear until the 1812 Royal & Ancient rules of golf.The word 'hazard' is French in origin, as Caddie, reflecting the strong connections between Scotland and France in earlier times.When courses were created inland they incorporated the tradition of these hazards as the Bunker and the Water Hazard."https://www.scottishgolfhistory.org/origin-of-golf-terms/bunker/"On these old courses, the golfing greens were sited so as to maximize the bunker's threat to golfer's shots. Hence the sand traps, properly called "Bunkers" came to be named "hazards" in the rules of golf and golfing. Later on in golf and golfing course architecture, golf architects would place these insidious "traps" so as to penalize wayward shots."https://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/44474/golf_guide/reasons_for_the_presence_of_golf_bunkers.html

This is what you wrote in your post #25: ' Perhaps it's the uncomfortable feeling many have knowing bunkers have become a place of sanctuary, not a penalty area.'

Try to keep up with what you write.

Go ahead and add lack of reading comprehension to your skill set. "not a penalty area" Apparently you also do not understand juxtapositions of extremes.

It's quite obvious your tact now as you have done nothing to address your own words, but I will post them one more time and then I'm done with you as you are clearly being disingenuous at this point.

"If you ask me, you SHOULD be penalized for not raking a bunker.""As already explained a bunker is penal enough even when properly raked."-Mr. Bean

Best wishes to you next time you find yourself in a bunker/sandtrap/hazard. Hopefully the players who have played before you haven't made it even more penal for you.