120 - No Having Fun...

Don’t you just hate miserable, joyless, nitpicking sods that seem to have nothing better to do than ruin the fun for everyone? Now I know that it is necessary from time to time for the powers at be to step in to stop the great unwashed masses killing themselves with stupidity but when I read that a Canadian judge has banned the undeniably brilliant ‘Happy Gilmore swing’ my head nearly exploded.

Justice Arthur J. LeBlanc has ruled that swing made famous by Adam Sandler “breached the standard of care owed to other players on the course” after drunken Travis Hayter hit a playing partner during a pre-wedding round. “I’m convinced the Happy Gilmore shot would’ve been less controllable than a normal tee shot because it involved a run up continued Judge LeBlanc, “and because the defendant had been drinking through the day.”

In my opinion it is the ‘drinking through the day’ part that is the key. Of course the Happy Gilmore swing is more wild (for those who haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about it is a tee shot where the player takes a run up before smashing the ball down the fairway in one movement) but surely being rat arsed and messing about on the course with a gang of friends is going to cause more problems to more people.

How long is it before they ban players who have a horrendous slice or hook? If a new player (or completely awful one) cannot reasonably control where their Nike Juice ball is going to end up then surely they are ‘breaching the standard of care owed to other players on the course’? Going by the recent ruling, no new players will be able to play on a course before they have reined in their drives. Will there be golf driving tests in Canada now?

Thankfully this petty ruling doesn’t apply to the UK but it is only a matter of time before those joy-thieves at the Health and Safety Executive step in follow the lead set by Judge LeBlanc. Don’t be surprised if you see a Daily Mail campaign to stop the spread of this menace to the Royal and Ancient game of golf (they will probably blame the whole thing on immigrants too).