We Goodboys complain about all sorts of obstancles and hazards preventing us from playing our best (ponds, lakes, woods, slow greens, hangovers, etc.) but we’ve never had to worry about what linksters at England’s Richmond Golf Club in 1940 had to deal with:

RICHMOND GOLF CLUB – TEMPORARY RULES – 1940

1. Players are asked to collect Bomb and Shrapnel splinters to save these causing damage to the Mowing Machines.

2. In Competitions, during gunfire or while bombs are falling, players may take cover without penalty for ceasing play.

3. The positions of known delayed action bombs are marked by red flags at a reasonably, but not guaranteed, safe distance therefrom.

4. Shrapnel and/or bomb splinters on the Fairways, or in Bunkers within a club’s length of a ball, may be moved without penalty, and no penalty shall be incurred if a ball is thereby caused to move accidentally.

5. A ball moved by enemy action may be replaced, or if lost or destroyed, a ball may be dropped not nearer the hole without penalty.

6. A ball lying in a crater may be lifted and dropped not nearer the hole, preserving the line to the hole without penalty.

7. A player whose stroke is affected by the simultaneous explosion of a bomb may play another ball from the same place. Penalty one stroke.

Geesh. And I thought having to play amidst the withering sarcasm and nonstop chatter of Goodboy Ben “The Funny Guy” Andrusaitis was tough!

Thanks to my folks for passing this along.