Jim from Portland, Ore., writes:

I’ve all the time made a behavior of putting my stand bag on the tee field whereas my companions and I tee off. However at my native course the opposite day I used to be paired with a man who mentioned that putting a bag on a tee field is dangerous type. Is he proper? Have I been doing it improper all these years?

Pricey Jim:

Some guidelines of etiquette are simpler to defend than others. Take costume codes, for starters. At most programs, it’s frowned upon to indicate up in blue denims and a T-shirt. However why? No specific motive, apart from the truth that some codgers from one other period put the ban in place and other people have been following it ever since. Are denim pants and T-shirts objectively “uglier” or “worse” than wool slacks and collared shirts? They aren’t. There may be, in different phrases, a subjective randomness to guidelines round apparel. When you begin asking why they exist, you understand that the reasons largely boil all the way down to a parental-sounding, “as a result of we mentioned so!” That doesn’t imply you shouldn’t respect these guidelines. It simply signifies that there’s no clear clarification for them, apart from an unquestioning adherence to the way in which issues have all the time been.

Different guidelines of etiquette make extra rational sense. Like, say, the expectation that you simply yell “fore” when your ball is rocketing towards one other group. That one’s straightforward to clarify. It’s a easy matter of security.

Let’s have a look at your query in the same gentle. The Etiquetteist would have an interest to know why the man in your group objected to what you probably did. Did he not just like the “look”? Did he discover it “impolite” or “disrespectful”? If that’s the case, he’s within the tiny minority. There isn’t a established customized within the recreation that prohibits putting a bag on a tee field. Tour caddies do it. Many on a regular basis golfers do it. You weren’t violating business conventions. Within the subjective sense, that’s, you had been within the clear.

As for the target aspect of issues, in terms of the place you place your bag, solely three questions matter: Is it in somebody’s means? Is it slowing down play? Is it damaging the turf

Except your bag was by some means within the line of fireplace or impeding somebody’s backswing, you had been within the clear as effectively. You weren’t slowing issues down, and also you definitely weren’t damaging the turf. Take it from veteran superintendent Mark Patterson. “Generally,” Patterson says, “tee tops are managed in the identical means as fairways. So, you are able to do just about something apart from drive a cart throughout it.”

There are some uncommon exceptions, Patterson says. At a small handful of ultra-exclusive golf equipment, the place the tees are maintained virtually like greens, you could be requested to maintain your bag off the tee. However that wasn’t the case right here. You, Jim, had been at your native course, and also you occurred to be paired with a ninny. Not like your bag, he had no leg to face on.

Josh Sens

Golf.com Contributor

A golf, meals and journey author, Josh Sens has been a GOLF Journal contributor since 2004 and now contributes throughout all of GOLF’s platforms. His work has been anthologized in The Finest American Sportswriting. He’s additionally the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Enjoyable But: the Cooking and Partying Handbook.