Rory McIlroy’s decision to walk off the golf course halfway through the second round of the Honda Classic was the golfing story that dominated the newspapers and internet over the past week. I’m not going to speculate on his wisdom tooth explanation, indeed I’ve never had the misfortune to experience such pain, although I have experienced excruciatingly painful scoring which I suspect was the greater catalyst for his decision.

On reflection, McIlroy has since conceded it was the wrong decision, but whatever way you look at it he produced a ‘No Return’ or “NR” as it’s more commonly known. As many of you may know from my previous tirades, the NR is a particular bugbear of mine, so now seems a fitting time to air my grievances.

Life as Rory McIlroy – last year’s Honda Classic Champion, two time Major winner, World No.1, Nike’s golden boy, role model, etc – inevitably brings with it pressure and a glaring media spotlight. Brian Davis also withdrew but most of the world never heard about that.  But the ludicrous amount of attention isn’t a reason to excuse him as it’s also the reason he makes so much money. Ultimately, he gets paid to set an example to golfers around the world and has a duty to his sponsors and those paying to watch.

But, for me, it’s not the fact that Rory has such a high profile that demands he ‘stay in the game’, it’s simply one of the unwritten (or even the written) rules of the game.  If you’re unfit, don’t start.  Once you’ve started, you play on to the best of your ability unless injury genuinely means you can’t.  And a damaged ego or mental fragility doesn’t constitute an injury in my book – just ask Camillo Villegas who shot 64 in the first round to lead, followed by 77 to miss the cut.  Now there was a reason to dump your clubs in the lake and walk off.

The professional ranks are bound by more stringent rules than the rest of us, and indeed Rory will be accountable to the PGA Tour, but from an amateur’s point of view, the reason the NR bugs me so much is linked to the handicap system.

Apart from the odd ‘trophy hunter’, most amateur golfers aspire to lowering their handicap to a level befitting their skill. We might have a goal, an aspiration, which will be different for varying standards of golfer.  You might want to reach a handicap in the mid-teens or single figures, or aspire to becoming a Category 1 player, getting on the club team or even good enough to play in the prestigious national amateur events.  Each aspiration will be as individual as we are as a golfer.

These ambitions are achieved through playing well in competitions and having your handicap adjusted in relation to the ‘Competition Scratch Score’ (CSS). The CSS for the competition is determined by the scoring of the field, so we all influence it, be it those that scored well, those that played to their handicap (or within their buffer) and those that played dreadfully.  It serves as reflection on how difficult the conditions were on the day. There is one exception though – those that NR.

Like it or not, the CSS can often be the difference between achieving your targets or falling just short, and by no fault of your own, somebody else deciding to NR as opposed to finishing their round can make the decisive difference. All completed scores affect the CSS, whether they are the round of your life or one that’s well into three figures, but an NR doesn’t.

A perfect example would be where conditions during a competition are proving so tough that the large majority of players are shooting way above their handicaps and decide to NR instead of battling it out and returning a completed score.  At the same time, one or two players might be playing the round of their lives and scoring well below their handicap. Instead of a high CSS highlighting just how well those few good scores must have played (and subsequently lowering their handicaps), the large number of NRs will keep the CSS artificially low and so the form players’ handicaps won’t be cut by the correct amount. When the difference between changing handicap category and qualifying for a national amateur event is 0.1, an NR therefore DOES make a difference to others!

I’ll confess that I have NR’d in the past, and that I’ve done it on more than one occasion, but I would also add that I haven’t done it since fully understanding the implications to others. I actually think that might be one of the problems – many people simply don’t realise why the NR is so irritating. I’d have to extend a degree of latitude to those that, until now, were none the wiser.  But no excuses anymore!

Players that do NR often say they didn’t want to affect the speed of play, or bother their playing partners with dozens of provisional balls and lengthy hunts in the woods, or that an unfortunate injury befell them just after holing out for a 12 on the second.  Of course, there are legitimate reasons for not handing in a card but I suspect that the majority are down to embarrassment and crossing the threshold of an acceptably poor performance – nobody knows what score an NR really is, therefore nobody knows how embarrassing the score really is. Personally, knowing what the ramifications of an NR are, I’d rather walk into a clubhouse having signed for a score way in excess of just a bad day. I suspect many others would too, if they knew the situation.

Embarrassment is a poor excuse.  For a start, who cares what other people score?  It’s not as though people think any less of you as a human being and we all know what it’s like to have a nightmare round where your game deserts you entirely. Perhaps I’m selfish, or maybe it’s the competitive nature of the sport, but I don’t care a jot how other people play. The only score I care about is my own and seeing a high score on a competition board only makes me feel a little better about posting my terrible score.

Nobody is immune, not me, not Rory, not you. But at least that score at the bottom of a competition board demonstrates respect for everyone else in the field.  Perhaps the true NR acronym is exactly that… No Respect.

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