Hoylake's Old Local Rule That Might Have Sparked An Open Championship Punch Up!

Golf is a sport of gentlemen, but was it also so?

Our discussion at breakfast on another fine morning at Royal Liverpool Golf Club centered on an old local rule that could have gotten opponents so fired up they might have needed boxing gloves rather than golf clubs. The rule is referred to in Guy B Farrar's 1933 book "The Royal Liverpool Golf Club. A History"

We've all looked at a lie that an opponent has declared "unplayable", knowing that it was of course eminently hittable. This rule sorts all that out in a very practical way!

The local rule states that:
 "When a player declares a ball unplayable his opponent has the right to challenge, and on his adversary refusing to play it, may endeavour to take it out of the hazard.  If he succeeds in three strokes, or less, the ball should be considered playable, and the number of strokes so played by the adversary shall count to the score of the proper player of the ball; but should the adversary fail to extricate the ball in three strokes, the number of strokes so played shall be added to his score, and the ball considered unplayable and treated accordingly."





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