Golf - Some Day You May Need A License Just To Play?
Golfers, be thankful that you live in the good old USA, because if you lived in other countries where there are not enough courses, you might have to be licensed to play. Will this ever happen in our country? Well, maybe only in highly populated areas. Courses in less populated areas are probably happy to get business from any level of golfer. Of course, one can assume that pace of play is the problem with inexperienced golfers, but in reality I have seen some pretty good golfers who are awfully slow, and conversely some less talented players who play briskly. Nevertheless, you can't license people based on their pace of play, so a logical criteria would seem to be the player's handicap. Courses that are overcrowded and never have any trouble booking all tee times are candidates for this sort of licensing. Realistically, they could allow higher handicap players to play only during off-peak periods. If pace is the real issue, I would suggest that any course could create a local rule to abolish the stroke and distance penalty. In the name of pace, nobody should ever, ever, ever have to walk back to the original spot to hit another shot. That is just stupid, stupid, stupid. Don't get me started on what I think of some of the other ancient sacred rules that supposedly cannot be changed, I could go on forever. (see www.geocities.com/golfwithjoey)