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Unfortunate Ernie

Ten minutes before our tee time, we receive a text message from our fourth, Ernie. He says he’s running late, but should be there in ten to fifteen minutes.

At our appointed time, the three of us that are there on time, go ahead and tee off. Within two minutes, over the hill comes Ernie in a mad dash.

He arrives and immediately apologizes, grabs his driver and jumps on the tee. He laces a blistering drive right down the middle from the Gold tees. It broke our hearts to tell him we were playing from the Blue tees.

Still a bit rattled from his tardiness, he reloads and tees up on the Blue tees. In taking a practice swing, he notices a branch overhanging that interferes with his swing. He breaks off a part the branch and mutters a few words under his breath.

His tee shot curves left heading for the out of bounds. It rattles around in the trees and may or may not be out of bounds. Ernie says that he’ll hit a provisional.

He decides he might be better off to use the left hand side of the tee so he will have absolutely no chance of clipping the remaining overhanging branches. However, in order to do so, he moves one of the tee markers over just a bit so that he can get a comfortable stance for his drive.

Thoroughly shook, he decides driver may not be the right club. He calls over to us and says,”Should I hit three wood?” We drop our heads and look away.

He puts his driver back in the bag and reaches for his three wood. We see a surprised look on his face when he notices he has two three woods in the bag; he forgot to take out that extra demo he used yesterday on the range. Ouch, fifteen clubs in the bag!

Ernie nails his three wood down the middle and we’re finally off the tee. After a quick search, we find that Ernie’s original ball is out of bounds.

“Not a problem” says Ernie. “Watch this!” He rips four iron right at the flag. The ball bounces once and disappears into the hole for a smooth 16!

A smile covers his face as he calmly states “I love this game.”

One stroke penalty: Rule 27-1, Two stroke penalties: Rule 6-3a, Rule 11-4b, Rule 13-2, Rule 13-2, Rule 8-1, Rule 4-4a

Remember, use the index or the table of contents to find the correct Rule that applies to the situation and follow the Rules of Golf to help yourself to enjoy the game of golf.

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