Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Stymie Cards - Part 2

From My Stymie Card Collection 
Part 2

Up through 1951 when The USGA and Royal & Ancient Golf Club drafted uniform rules, golf was played a bit differently once everyone was on the putting green.

The rules were strict. You could not pick up your ball before holing out* as you may do now. If it was your turn to putt and a competitor's ball was in the line of your putt, you had to go around that ball or over that ball. Your opponent could not be made to mark his ball.  When you were thus prevented from reaching the hole directly, you were said to be "stymied".

There was no specific rule intended to introduce stymie play into golf. Stymies resulted from the general principle in golf that you do not pick up your ball until you have holed out. So stymie situations accidentally occurred in the beginning.  Some golfers realized the competitive advantage that could be gained by intentionally stymieing your opponent's ball.  And just as in billiards, one opponent could confound another repeatedly.

In 1951, when the USGA and Royal & Ancient agreed to consolidate the rules on both sides of "the pond", the Brits insisted upon maintaining the rule preventing the picking up of a ball on the green. The Americans lobbied for adoption of a rule permitting the marking and picking up of a ball on the green because stymie's slowed play and American golf course operators wanted to squish as many foursomes onto the course as possible. Well, you know the outcome. And when the rules became effective in 1952, the stymie was dead.

Today among golf scorecard collectors any stymie cards they have in their collection are considered to be gold.

 Carpenter Park GC, Illinois - Side 1

 Carpenter Park GC, Illinois - Side 2

 Elks CC, Illinois - Side 1

 Elks CC, Illinois - Side 2

 Green Acres CC, Illinois - Side 1

 Green Acres CC, Illinois - Side 2

 Highland Park Municipal GC, Illinois - Side 1

 Highland Park Municipal GC, Illinois - Side 2

 Lake of the Woods Par 3 GC, Illinois - Side 1

 Lake of the Woods Par 3 GC, Illinois - Side 2

 Saint Andrews, Illinois - Side 1


 Saint Andrews, Illinois - Side 2


More Blog Issues for Scorecards and Internet Links:
To view more of my Scorecard blog issues scroll to the upper left corner of this page and enter the word scorecard in the search field.  This will bring up virtually all of the blog issues for scorecards that I've done to date.

Click on this Internet link to view over 12,300 more miscellaneous golf scorecards

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Blog Statistics:
1031 Blog Postings
The total number of golf scorecard images on this site now equals 18,637
The total number of golf photographs on this site now equals 5,236
The total number of all photographs on this site now equals 15,268

Coming Soon:
Grand National GC (Lake Course)
Prince Edward Island, Canada Scorecards
Castries, St.Lucia
Quebec, Canada Scorecards

My golf scorecard collection statistics as of today:
Total Stymie Cards = 170
Total USA = 94,719
Total Foreign = 45,251
Total Collection = 139,970

Come back soon and often.

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Scorecard Trading:
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Available: For sale and/or trade - Over 68,000 duplicate golf scorecards.  Contact me if you are interested.



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