Golf/skins question

[poindexter]

Extremely low stakes (buck a hole) on a muni par three course.

The four in the group have known each other for years. In casual games, two in the group are pretty liberal with their 'gimmes' around the hole. Say from two feet and in. The issues in gimmes has come up before but wasn't specified before play last night.

Last night, player one has a birdie putt which he misses by roughly 18-24 inches. A birdie would have won the hole for him. After the missed putt, which went long, player one walks up and casually rakes it back, but misses the rake putt. He gives himself a par regardless. his argument is that it was a gimme putt, and if he would have taken the time to line it up, he would have. Another player in the foursome says, no, that the casual rake putt was a putt, and that player one missed it.


What does the sj.com group think?

 

[Moderator1]

You don't assume it is good - someone has to say "that's good."

 

[JC]

You can't give yourself a gimme.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Rules are rules.

 

[poindexter]

Rules are rules.

We didn't have any rules, that's the problem.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Even still, it's pretty reasonable to assume you can't give yourself the putt -- especially after you just half-assed it and missed.

 

[JC]

Your buddy is a douche for arguing it.

 

[playthrough]

Yeah, I would never be That Guy who calls out the other guy for raking a gimme. Especially in a buck game. That said, no giving yourself gimmes. Pause for a second and look at the other guys with scorn, that sometimes gets your 2-footer conceded.

 

[JC]

Yeah, I would never be That Guy who calls out the other guy for raking a gimme. Especially in a buck game. That said, no giving yourself gimmes. Pause for a second and look at the other guys with scorn, that sometimes gets your 2-footer conceded.

I wouldn't call him out either but once someone did, he should have taken it and moved on.

 

[User 11148]

You don't assume it is good - someone has to say "that's good."

You can't give yourself a gimme.

Even still, it's pretty reasonable to assume you can't give yourself the putt -- especially after you just half-assed it and missed.

Right, in a single group, it's usually a hole-by-hole thing -- your opponents give it or it ain't been given. On the other hand, there have been times when I said, hell no, we give putts within a given length or we don't give 'em at all. I've never done that because of problems I've had, but sometimes there's one guy in the group who you really shouldn't give anything to. And I find it very uncomfortable conceding putts of X length to some players but not to others.

 

[JC]

We have one guy who really takes liberties with his gimmes. If anything is ever said he pouts like a baby for the rest of the round.

 

[User 11148]

Yeah, that happens. Usually takes care of itself, however, as people quit playing (for any stakes) with such people.

 

[Moderator1]

Years ago, I covered the Richmond Golf Association amateur final. A good assignment, you could bill the company for a solid lunch and the area had some strong golfers. Final was a 36-hole affair. Late in the championship match, one of the guys hit a putt from about 15 feet away right to the lip of the cup. He walks up and picks up his ball. His opponent says, "I never said that was good."

Caused a bit of a stir. Was the guy being a ****? To me, he was not. They'd been giving each other very short putts all day, he just hadn't had a chance to say anything with this one. He was sizing up his own putt, getting ready and next thing you know the ball is in his opponent's pocket.

You don't get to say it is good. Someone else has to say that.

 

[JC]

Years ago, I covered the Richmond Golf Association amateur final. A good assignment, you could bill the company for a solid lunch and the area had some strong golfers. Final was a 36-hole affair. Late in the championship match, one of the guys hit a putt from about 15 feet away right to the lip of the cup. He walks up and picks up his ball. His opponent says, "I never said that was good."

Caused a bit of a stir. Was the guy being a ****? To me, he was not. They'd been giving each other very short putts all day, he just hadn't had a chance to say anything with this one. He was sizing up his own putt, getting ready and next thing you know the ball is in his opponent's pocket.

You don't get to say it is good. Someone else has to say that.

If it is on the lip I think he was being a ****, but the other guy should have waited to have it given to him.

 

[Moderator1]

I don't think there's any question he would have given it to him but he snatched it up so fast.

 

[User 11148]

There was a Ryder Cup many years ago when Ballesteros was playing somebody and he didn't concede a very short putt. Turns out he just wanted his opponent to mark the ball so that he could use the opponent's marker as a reference point for his putt. Entirely within both the letter and spirit of the rules, but the opponent -- I can't remember who -- acted a bit like a **** at first and then stirred the crowd up a bit. Pretty distasteful.

 

[playthrough]

At the last Solheim Cup an American lagged one up close and picked it up, then Suzann Petterson of the Euros said it hadn't been conceded. Very messy.

 

[User 11148]

I'm OK with conceding putts ... it's long been a part of the game ... but a part of me prefers putting them out. No way any of this nonsense occurs if that's the rule.

 

[Rhody31]

Friendly rules, if 18-24 inches has been good all day, the raked putt should be good. If you're giving putts left and right - which is fine - you've established what the circle of friendship is. If the putt needed to be putted, someone should have said "that's got a little meat left there" or something like that to let the guy know he needs to mark and putt.
Another thing to consider is what kind of putt it was. If it's a straight uphiller, it's good. If it was a downhill slider and he was pulling it because he didn't want to puke on his shoes, then he's the ****.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

Can't ever give yourself a putt. I play an extremely low-stakes game every week, and we can get pretty generous, unless there's a lot of carry-overs on the line. Then both of us will sometimes develop lock-jaw on short putts.

But neither of us would ever think of picking up without it being conceded.