There are moments – sometimes in the office or on the highway or just overhearing a conversation – when the idea of good behavior can feel like an antiquated notion.
Not everyone lives in the “Yes, ma’am, no ma’am” world and who among us hasn’t been guilty of ignoring others to stare into our phones? As for appropriate language, good @*%!#&^% luck avoiding people whose everyday vernacular would earn them an R rating in a movie theatre.
Golf, which prides itself on decorum and rule-following, has its own challenges when it comes to behaving the right way, though it still justifiably puts a heavy value on proper etiquette.
Here’s the rub, though:
If you’ve ever played the game, you know how &*@#^%!* frustrating it can be and there are times when nothing feels better than banging a sand wedge into a cart path, at least until you see the damage to the bottom of the club that can’t be undone.
“I don’t like when people beat up the golf course because we deal with it, and I think breaking clubs makes us look very, very spoiled,” Max Homa said last week while admitting that he is guilty of saying things out loud that should have been said in his inside voice.
The subject of good behavior was raised in the aftermath of the Masters, where Bob MacIntyre gave the middle-finger salute on the way to making a 9 on the par-5 15th hole and Sergio García, among the career leaders in temper tantrums, broke his driver slamming it into a cooler on the second hole at Augusta National.
García, it should be noted, is a serial offender when it comes to behavior. Spitting into cups, repeatedly slamming his putter into a green like a man trying to kill a snake and mastering the blame game are painted on his CV.
Whether you’re playing with your regular foursome or playing in the Masters, it’s a bad look.
And that was before he was caught on camera tossing a club in frustration Sunday at Harbour Town.
Golf is different from other sports when it comes to etiquette.
Basketball coaches spend games trying to convince the officials to ignore the obvious. Baseball players and managers long ago made arguing with umpires a bit of performance art. Hockey and fighting go together like burgers and fries.
Once in a while, someone acts out on the golf course in front of the cameras. It’s understandable but it’s not acceptable, not in golf anyway.
“We want to inspire the next generation to be better than us, so we need to be held to a higher standard,” Homa said.
It’s not too much to ask, especially if you do it politely.
Ron Green Jr.
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