BBC news presenter Naga Munchetty may be a stickler for the rules, but when it comes to playing winter golf she's not adverse to occasionally breaking them.
Women & Golf columnist and BBC news presenter Naga Munchetty may be a stickler for the rules, but when it comes to playing winter golf she's not adverse to occasionally breaking them.
Although I am a stickler for the rules, I have wantonly broken them whenever I played social golf over the winter and it kept me playing. The “winter swindle rules” included preferred lies anywhere other than a hazard or “really thick” rough, “gimmees” the length of a putter head to the start of the handle and, when not playing for money, the odd mulligan could be thrown in too.
When I was first told about this I declared that it was ridiculous and not proper golf. However, after a couple of rounds of hitting off mud, worm-casts, thick tufts of soggy wet grass and putting on greens where the holes hadn’t been changed for a week because of the weather, I was ready to embrace the “rules”. It was a revelation!
By sitting the ball on a decent piece of grass I was giving myself the chance to strike it well, and everyone was enjoying the same advantages so it was fair and there weren’t depressing sub-20 point scores coming in every week. This game is tough enough, so why not give ourselves a break every now and then?
The above is an extract from Naga's column in the latest issue of Women & Golf magazine, on sale now. Never miss an issue click here to subscribe and enjoy W&G delivered to your door.
