Gimmie....Gimmie...Gimmie

After the last two contentious entries on local rules, this one should be less negative (at least that’s the

plan). We’re onto rule i in the REGL local rules, regarding putting. A short one, here it is:

"Putting: “Gimmies” are permitted for those putts shorter than the length of the flag stick.

Either player from the opposing team may concede a putt. Once a putt is conceded, it is

dead, and no further strokes can be accrued."

Conceding a putt effectively finishes a hole, and under match play rules... completely ok

with the gods of golf. HOWEVER, we play a hybrid of match and stroke play, and part of our

point calculation is the comparison of each team’s accured total strokes (the 3 points for team net).

There’s even a prize for low net of 5 or 10 bucks based on the total. In stroke play (which is

the format (allegedly) that we follow for rules), each player must hole out on each and every

hole — this is to protect the field in a stroke play event. All of those concessions every week

in league play probably artificially deflate our collective handicaps, since some of those

would have inevitably been missed.

Famous story here — ties together the King (Arnold Palmer), the Golden Bear (Jack

Nicklaus), Oakmont, the U.S. Open and gimmies. 1962... the Open at Oakmont, 18-hole

playoff between the King (and his army) and the very young Jack. Arnold got waxed pretty

good that day, losing by three strokes (74 to 71). With Arnold already in the hole on the 18"

after a bad double bogey and Jack with a 2-footer left for bogey, Arnold picked up Jack’s ball

and offered his congratulations. Only one problem — Jack had to hole out since this was a

stroke play event. The approximate position had to be located and after a minute or two,

Jack had his first major championship trophy. Even the King had lapses with the rules of

golf.

I give and receive conceded putts in REGL, and I must confess, concessions probably save

a couple of minutes on each and every putting green. In a perfect world I think I’d like to

see all putts holed and then we wouldn’t get into grousing about someone not offering a

concession. No one HAS to offer to concede a putt, and the offering and non-offering can

create some gamesmanship during a match. However, on balance I don’t have a problem

with concession being part of REGL (it might be one local rule I can live with). One word of

caution — the concession does count as a stroke —I remember hearing a story that a player

new to the league hearing “that’s good” thought the stroke he just hit which missed the hole

was the one that was “good”, and generated a slight argument when the scores were tallied

at the end of the night. A player misses a par putt and it comes to rest a foot to the right of

the cup. His opponent then says “that’s good”, which means the upcoming putt to finish

the hole is conceded — meaning the player cards a bogey for the hole. I usually use the “that’s good” language, but a simple thumbs up or the opponent picking up the ball and giving it to the player are all equally good as long as both parties are sure a concession has been made.

As the local rule clarifies, in order for a putt to be conceded, it must be within the length of

the flagstick — hence you can’t artificially drive down someone’s handicap by telling them to

pickup on every hole. The concession can also come from either player on the opposing

team, although I generally defer to my partner when the future of their singles match is still

in doubt. And once a putt has been conceded, you can’t revoke the concession — the hole

is over for that particular competitor. So, you might want to be careful in carelessly

awarding a concession — you might be giving or getting a stroke on a particular hole and the

concession may me the hole is lost just by virtue of conceding — think before you speak.