'After 18 Holes I Was Ready To Put My Headphones In The Bin' - Should This Ambiguous Golf Rule Be Abolished?

“Can you play a round of golf wearing headphones and write about the experience,” my editor asked. “Surely that’s not allowed under the Rules of Golf?” I retorted.

Startlingly, it is. Rule 4.3a (4) covers all the nuisances of this exceptionally odd (if you ask me) rule, but to summarise, basically don’t listen to or watch anything that will give your game an advantage. So, no music with a specific tempo beat that could help improve the rhythm and timing of your golf swing, or a calming voice to help conquer your nerves under pressure on the first tee.

I can list many things that my headphones are invaluable for, such as noise cancellation watching a movie on a flight, clarity of sound quality during work zoom calls when the background is busy, and even going for a beach run to give me an upbeat bounce to motivate my feet to move faster and freer. Golf is most definitely not one of them.

The thought of playing an entire round, ears covered, listening to something that couldn’t be deemed ‘helpful’ to my game appalled me. Add to that, my editor wanted me to do it in a competition round with a group of friends, not alone, and I was apologizing before I’d even teed off.

“I’m so sorry if I shout or ignore you today,” I gestured on the first tee as the headphones went on. I felt completely rude, but having explained the circumstances of the article, off we went. I chose to listen to a property podcast, figuring that learning something beneficial would be a good business choice, and teed off.

The first thing that was strange was not hearing the sound of whoosh and swish as the club hit the ball. The second was the difficulty I had focusing my mind on the shot in hand, when my brain was absorbed, my mind wandered elsewhere. I have never been brilliant at multitasking.

The best players in the world have the mental prowess to be totally distracted by spectators and noise at all points during their tournament rounds, except right at the moment when they address the ball. That’s the champion’s winning edge that very few of us possess.

After six holes I’d already had enough. I was missing the social side of the sport, conversation with my friend. I was fed up with having to slide a headphone off one ear every time I needed to ask a basic question like whether my playing partners wanted the pin in or out for a putt. I may as well have been playing all alone, this was so unsociable. The only thing that my headphones were good for was keeping my ears warm.

What I missed more than anything else were the sounds of nature - the birds singing, the whistle of the wind whipping the branches of the trees, the rustle of squirrels scurrying through the undergrowth. You don’t appreciate how wonderful this natural chorus is until you take it away and the sounds of your surroundings are gone. Call me a traditionalist, a purist, I don’t care. Golf is an outdoor sport and this was spoiling it.

I recently interviewed some inspirational players on the G4D Tour, some blind, others deaf. Wearing headphones made me feel like an alien on the golf course, for many of the G4D competitors this is their reality. I truly felt grateful for the gift of hearing after this game.

On a couple of occasions I put the podcast on pause to focus on making a putt. Then there was just eerie silence as the noise-canceling feature of my headphones worked. What a weird way to play golf! The joy of listening for a putt to drop is gone. It was also making me worse on the greens as I anxiously sneaked a peek at the hole, as soon as the putt was struck. to see if the ball went in. This is something I have worked hard to avoid, to prevent my body moving the putter off-line.

Of course, your experience of wearing headphones to play golf will depend heavily on the type you wear. Mine just happen to be noise canceling ones, whereas a brand like Aftershokz, which are bone conducting, will allow you to continue to hear things while listening to music. I have friends who wear these while out running or cycling for safety, so that they still hear the traffic.

I hadn’t considered the safety implications of wearing headphones on the golf course until a ball whizzed across my fairway from a distant tee. Even if the guilty golfers had shouted “fore” I would not have heard it. From that perspective I am quite shocked that this is allowed by the Rules of Golf.

Purely from a safety standpoint it is as dangerous as crossing a road with noise-canceling headphones on - downright stupid. The sensible solution would be to play with just one earbud in so that you can still hear shouts of “fore” as the volume of music in just one ear is at an appropriate level.

As for the etiquette, after 18 holes, four long hours later, I was ready to put my headphones in the bin. They had ruined my enjoyment of the game and I scored worse. It was embarrassing how little I had interacted with my playing partners. It is my personal view that wearing headphones in the company of others shows a lack of good manners and is a sign of seriously limited social skills.

I recently played in the England Golf county finals at Stover golf course in Devon and I was shocked at how many of the younger generation were practicing with Apple AirPods in. Not a rules issue but an alarming one nonetheless. Was it really because they didn’t want to be distracted in practice or just a lack of social skills?

Wearing headphones to warm up certainly gives you an air of unapproachability. These youngsters are modeling the behavior of their favorite tour professionals, the role models who they see hitting balls on the tournament driving range with them in. As a practice companion I get it.

I even think that wearing headphones if you are out playing a few holes all alone is acceptable. In this situation, I would make the most of playing upbeat music that will make me feel good, or even give my swing timing a boost, because I’m just out there for fun, it’s not a competition. There’s a few fantastic music tracks with a rhythmical tempo in the charts that would do many slow swinging women the world of good. It might encourage you to increase your swing speed, adding a better beat for flow and boosting timing and power.

Music can also be a great distraction tool if you suffer with shot anxiety, taking your focus away from the pressure of hitting the ball, the worry of the outcome of where it will go. Just letting your mind drift away. I often sing a song in my head to keep me happy on those less-than-perfect swing and scoring days. It’s not breaking the rules.

There’s no doubt that listening to music on the golf course is a controversial topic. Traditional golfers like me prefer to take in the natural soundtrack of the outdoors and consider music distracting to their play. However, listening to some light tunes on the course alone can be a great way to make a few holes more enjoyable, if it’s the right safe environment, and many golfers enjoy using headphones to listen to their favorite songs while warming up, which is popular at the driving range.

I have never played golf with anyone in a competition who was wearing headphones. Honestly, I think that if it ever happened at my club it would be shut down by the committee in a heartbeat, that there would be zero tolerance for it.

So while I think that playing golf with headphones on can have its time and place, personally I won’t be doing it again. A game of golf is leisure time, not work time for me. I want to relax, enjoy my surroundings and take in the sounds of nature. The real joy of the game. Headphones gone.