A lot of golf courses are starting to crack down on using cell phones while playing golf and even in the club house. What are your thoughts on this?

I use my cell phone a ton during the day and even during the evening. I have migrated from hating to use one to being very dependant on it. Friends say that they will probably bury me with my phone.

But I don’t believe that the golf course is the place to be yak yakking on the phone. I’ve played with people who have added 30 minutes to a round of golf all by themselves. I sometimes feel (maybe more than that) that they ought to be shot. And the phone always seems to ring when it’s their turn.

I believe that a round of golf is not only a great way to spend an afternoon or a morning, but it’s also a chance to get away from things for a while. I normally take my phone, but I don’t use it. I put it on vibrate and leave it in the golf cart. I check it periodically and only return calls if it’s a very important issue (family emergency is about the only important issue when I’m playing golf).

That being said, I believe that golf clubs, especially the “exclusive” type country clubs, are taking it a little too much to the extreme. I have recently seen people accosted by the “cell phone police” in the club room of these golf clubs just for taking their cell phone out of the holster. In one case the person was actually turning it off.

So my final word (you believe that don’t you?) is this: let’s all take a deep breath and try to use some common sense--- all of us average golfers will try to commit to not using our cell phones on the golf course except in extreme emergency (your boss not knowing you were playing doesn’t qualify) and all of the golf “cell phone police” will back off and not attack us when we remotely appear to be thinking about the possibility of using our phones.