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a friend and i were playing a leisurely game and a question came up about what legally counts as a stroke or not. i swung with the intention of hitting the ball, but i completely missed. since i didn't hit it i felt that it shouldn't count as a stroke, my friend thought it did. can someone help me out?

According to the rules, yes that is a stroke. In a tournament, you HAVE to count it. But if you are playing leisurely with your buds I think you should have a choice

If you swing with the intention of hitting the ball, that's a stroke. It doesn't matter if you hit the ball or not.

If you take a practice swing or address the ball without intending to hit the ball, but accidentally hit it, it is a one stroke penalty and the ball should be replaced where it originally lied. But if you unintentionally hit the ball on the tee box, replace the ball with no penalty.

And just for further clarification, the reason the unintentional hit on the tee box is *not* a penalty is because the ball was not yet in play.

An interesting variation on the above is: If you whiff your tee shot, then accidentally hit the ball while addressing your second shot, that accidental hit *is* a penalty, since the ball was officially in play after the whiff.

thanks guys!

yea its a stroke, the club made this kid count it as one.

If it was just a bounce game surely your mates would cut you some slack? Any other time the i am afraid it must be counted.