FINALLY AN ANSWER TO A QUESTION THAT HAS PLAGUED GOLFERS FOR A LONG TIME

First, the situ.  The golfer will hit a bad shot now and then.  The worse the golfer, the more now.  If said golfer could eliminate what I call the stupid shot, his score and psyche would improve tantamount.

Somewhere along the line (probably in Scotland where they invented golf and still seem quite erudite about it) someone added the mulligan.  A great idea.  A do-over at no cost to the player.  All he does is announce something like, "Mulligan time," and drop another ball.  Brilliant.

Except even that has been stretched to include a mulligan on each 9 holes, or taking mulligans whenever one chooses.  Which reminds me of some friends I have played with that regularly take 3 or 4 foot puts for themselves, but expect me to putt two footers.  But I digress.  Somewhat.  When my wife and I play and have not had a chance to practice putt, we take a  mulligan putt on the first hole if needed.  The Q-rule, I call it.  But I digress, again.

The traditional one mulligan per round can be used as a "breakfast ball", where the golfer can hit two shots off the tee, if he is displeased with the initial drive.  In many foursomes, that is the only mulligan for the round.  Others have a breakfast ball and a floating mulligan to be used at any time during the 18-holes.

The mulligan can, and probably should save the player 2 strokes if he hits the ball out of bounds or into the water. But on occasion, a guy gets so angry at himself after looking up, for instance, that he opts to hit another ball and pocket the errant shot.

As an incentive not to use a mulligan, I have come up with the answer to the age old problem and the beauty of it is it only distorts the score by one stroke, not two. If you play a mulligan-free round, you get to subtract one stroke from your final score as a reward.

It makes perfectly good sense, it speeds up  play, and it turned my 79 into a 6-over par 78 in one of my better rounds this year the last time I played.  I already have the Q Rule so this one I'll call the Big M.