a few ways to side-step or flat out ignore the Rules of Golf

From Golfing at "Niknar" (Pearl Municipal Golf Course)

Some of these sort of imply that you are not playing solo.

1. Water Hazards:
a. You may swap out to a more "disposable" ball w/o penalty to get over the water hazard, then go back to your "good" ball.
b. If you lose your ball, that's penalty enough. No additional strokes counted against you for an unrecoverable kerplunk.

2. Dirty Balls: Dirty balls suck. You can clean or replace your dirty ball at any time w/o penalty, as long as you replace it appropriately and wrap up the process w/o slowing up play meaningfully.

3. Alternative Scoring: Stableford and Match Play vs. Bogey provide scoring systems I feel are more well-suited to casual golfers and are well-suited to solo play.

4. Number of Clubs Allowed: Unlimited. Go nuts.

5. Air Shot (Whiff): No additional penalty. Your buds laughing at your ass is suffering enough.

6. Really F***ed-Up Lie:
a. Improve it, but move it no closer to the hole in the process.
b. However, if you're in a playable hazard (sand trap, for instance), make every effort to play from within the hazard.

7. Any rule can be suspended, ignored, etc. by agreement of all affected parties.

8. Lost Ball: That's punishment enough. Pick a spot no closer to the hole than you think it ended up, and hit a new ball. If you subsequently find your lost ball, and you like where it's at, backtrack and play from there ***with a one-stroke penalty***.