Mid-American Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher announced what could become a tradition last week during football media day activities. The gist of it is that conference schools are encouraged to fly the MAC-themed pirate flag after wins over Power Five schools, or other big non-conference victories. Hence, bowl wins might be cause for hoisting the banner, as well.
Steinbrecher indicated . . .
Last year, Mid-American Conference football teams posted wins over Power Five members Nebraska, Rutgers, Kansas, and Kansas again. On the basketball side, Buffalo knocked off Pac-12 champion Arizona in the NCAA tournament.
Who do you think will be the first MAC team(s) to fly the flag?
Until recently, my answer would have been, “Yes, every other hole -- trees, sand traps, bad lies … and so forth.”
However, several days ago,I was stunned to learn of another kind of stymie. Apparently, the practice of marking one’s ball if it was in the way of another player’s putt doesn’t go back as far as I thought it did. At least in match play, until the early 1950s, if my ball came to rest between your ball and the hole, tough luck for YOU!!
You were stymied, and unless my call was within six inches of the cup (1938 rule change) or your ball (1952), you just had to take an alternate route - either around or over my ball.
That’s right, I said “over.” It can and was accomplished on occasion.
I’m not very good at billiards, so I’m happy to be marking balls on the green as we do now.
Check out an example of playing a stymie HERE.