Whichever side you take, the modernized rules of golf have come a long way from the antiquated and rigid rules applications in the past. And as you’re about to see, some of these rules were just absolute and unbridled madness (and by the way the rules below are spelled, capitalized, and written in their original form).
Rule: “When a Ball lies in sand, mud, or amongst rubbish, no obstruction shall be removed; but in cases where the Ball is so placed, that the Player finds he cannot play it, it shall be in the power of his adversary to play it.”
In the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews Rules code of 1851, a player required the consent of his adversary before declaring a ball unplayable and taking a one-stroke penalty. And if the adversary thought the ball was playable, he was given the opportunity to make two strokes with that ball and advance it to a playable location.
If the adversary succeeded, the two strokes he took would be added to the other players score, and play would then resume on that hole from that location. The idea for this rule originated from an earlier 1828 code from Burntisland Golf House Club code, but was short-lived and changed five years later. No doubt, the rule must have led to certain fisticuffs.
Scottish Warriors Prepare to do Battle!
Rule: “If… the player’s ball strike his adversary, or his cady, the adversary loses the hole; if it strike his own cady, the player loses the hole.”
This match play rules gem came from the St. Andrews Rules of 1812, and apparently back then you could just take direct aim at your opponent and his caddy (spelled cady back then), and if you successfully drilled either of them, you won the hole.
Now I’m not saying this rule turned gentlemen golfers into hooligan antagonists, but old-school golf as a contact sport sounds like it was pretty damn hostile... and awesome.
Caddies Get No Respect – or Old Balls
Rule: “No Golfer shall under any pretence whatever give any old Balls to the Cadies. If they do, they shall for every such ball given away forfeit sixpence to the treasurer.”
Seriously, what’s up with this 1773 rule from the Members of The Society of Golfers in and about Edinburgh at Bruntsfield Links. We’ve seen some pretty awful situations where players disrespected their caddies over the last few years. The most recent being when a player angrily threw a head-cover at his caddy during a profanity-laced tirade that ended with the caddy being fired on live TV. But even that didn’t approach the widespread and systematic level of disrespect shown towards caddies back then. You couldn’t even give your caddy a used golf ball!
Now maybe old used golf balls were really valuable in the 18th century, or had some magic power to lay golden eggs or seduce beautiful women. Short of that however, the pressures of being a caddie clearly outweighed the perks. Another rule from the same society stated, “No member of this Society shall pay the cadies more than one penny per round.” A penny for your thoughts caddy? It would surely be an earful.
What Lies Beneath
Rule: “If your Ball lies amongst Human Ordure, Cow Dung, or any such nuisance on the fair green, you may, upon losing one, lift it, throw it over your head, behind the nuisance and play it, with any club you please.”
There are just a million things wrong with this 1776 rule of the Bruntsfield Links. How ridiculous that they even had to make a rule for this? Why did they capitalize the poop stuff? And does finishing the rule with “play it with any club you please,” make my ball landing in poop somehow all worthwhile in the end?
Putting aside for a moment any hygiene issues with this rule, it’s hysterical to me that you could take relief when your ball landed in a pile of doody, but you still can’t take relief today when your ball lands in a divot. In that sense at least, the boys from the Age of Revolution were truly ahead of their time.
🤣😂⛳🏌️♂️
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