Linda
I was surprised to see a tee peg in the club grip referred to as a training aid and even more surprised to learn that it is prohibited - up until now I had thought this merely to be a convenient place to store a tee peg, although I have seldom used it myself [Ask Linda #345].
I suppose that if the tee-peg remains tightly wedged during a stroke and since the club shaft changes shape quite dramatically (which presumably has a marginal effect on the volume of air in the shaft and therefore the air pressure) that there may be a resulting effect which an ardent physicist might be able to shed light on.
Other than that I am struggling to see the logic which can generally be seen behind rules, given a little pondering.
A related question - aging and lazy golfers sometimes make use of an inexpensive suction ball-retriever on the handle end of a putter - is this also prohibited?
Lou
Dear Lou,
Sticking a tee in the end of your grip to use as a visual aid to assist you in your swing is a breach of Rule 14-3. It is an artificial device to assist you in your play.
All of you aging and lazy golfers out there who are using an attachment on the end of the handle of your putter to remove the ball from the hole will be happy to learn that this suction ball retriever does not infringe any golf rule. This is because it does not provide a visual aid or assist you in any other way when you are using your putter. Save your back and use the device.
Linda
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