Wednesday, March 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
WITH THE NEW golf season upon us, I would like to think many local golfers -- both high and low handicappers -- will review their course etiquette and brush up on rules of the game.
To me, there is nothing more frustrating than following golfers around a course who are intolerably slow and don't care one whit about it.
There is no excuse for ignorance on a golf course. One invariably finds that those who have the couldn't-care-less attitude about holding up play have that same pathetic mentality about care of the course.
If you are playing in a group with an ignoramus or two who are oblivious of etiquette, please give them a nudge.
Obviously, they are the type who meander all over the layout as if on a sight-seeing tour, never replacing or sanding their divots. Ball marks are left unrepaired and carts are invariably parked anywhere and everywhere except where designated.
Please watch the players in your group and don't hesitate to advise them if they are unaware of what is required. If you are holding players up, the correct thing is to call them through. And there is no hardship in repairing ball marks and divots.
If you are requested to do these things or asked to rake a sandtrap, do it with grace.
Etiquette and knowing the rules is what the game is all about.
In a related matter, driving out of a golf course parking lot and seeing beer bottles and pop cans littered here and there, plus piles of cigarette butts that some clown has inconsiderately dumped from his auto ashtray, also is irritating.
I do not condone that practice in shopping center parking lots either. But I'd like to think a person who plays golf is a little smarter and a lot more caring.
Next time you have that "one for the road," don't open your car door and just drop the container. Take it home with you, or put it in the garbage where it belongs.
Congratulations to Dennis Smith, who had the thrill of recording his maiden hole-in-one last week while playing the Las Vegas Country Club.
Wielding a 4-iron on the challenging sand- and water-guarded, 176-yard, par-3, third hole, Smith covered the pin all the way. His shot hit about seven feet in front of the hole and slowly rolled in for the perfect ace.
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