Golf Etiquette on the CourseWithout appropriate golf etiquette, you are at risk of embarrasing yourself as well as those around you. Golf etiquette is the customary code of polite and acceptable behavior on the course. At the moment you step foot on a golf course, you must respect your opponents and those who actually maintain the condition of the course. Below are a few tips concerning proper etiquette. 1. Repair your fairway divots with the loose grass from your previous shot. Some courses provide sand buckets which may be found on a golf cart or tee boxes. 2. Do not run on the golf course. This may be distracting to other golfers. 3. If you are using a cart, follow the guidelines provided by the course. If it is raining or the course is flooded from a previous storm, you will only be able to ride on the cart path. When the course is relatively dry, a 90 degree rule will be in place. 3. On the beginning hole, the golfer teeing off first has honor. The golfer with the best score on this hole will have honors for the following hole. The honor system is repeated throughout the entire round. 4. Make sure you know the brand and number of the ball you are playing so you do not get mixed up with the balls played by other golfers. You may also make a colored mark on your ball signifying it is yours. 5. Always stand to the side of someone who is taking the golf shot. This avoids damage to yourself and does not distract the person taking the shot. 6. Approach shots usually leave deep indentations when they strike the green and are referred to as "ball marks." A special two-prong fork tool is used to repair these marks. Make sure you repair all of your ball marks. 7. You must also play in turn. After teeing off, the person furthest from the hole plays next. This is one of the most essential parts of appropriate golf behavior. 8. Some golfers are more skilled than others. When you have a group behind you that seems to be waiting for you before each of their shots, it is polite to let them play through. 9. When wearing golf spikes, never walk through an opponent's putting line. Step over their line at all costs. Footprints may cause the ball to hop or deflect in the wrong direction. 10. After hitting a shot from a sand trap, make sure you rake all marks left by yourself and place the rake just on the inside and paralell to the edge of the bunker.
11. NO MULLIGANS! I believe this goes completely against proper golf etiquette. Mulligans are a sign of weakness. Everyone hits bad shots every so often. Learn from these monstrosities and correct them the next time around.
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