SUMMERFIELD — Unless it's a "handicapped flag" indicating a disabled golfer, as of Sept. 1 the Stonecrest Golf and Country Club won't allow a flag on carts along its course.

The rule is designed to prevent confusion when a course ranger checks from a distance to see if carts have the special flag and may park close to the greens.

But the rule has created confusion of an different sort, as many veterans and other Stonecrest residents cannot understand why they're not allowed to fly the American flag.

"I think it's kind of ridiculous. Can there be any reason . . . for telling anybody that he can't fly the American flag?" said Chet Williams, who during World War II was a radio operator aboard a B-24 over Europe. "As one who is a veteran, that just aggravates the daylights out of me."

Ray Delane, a Navy veteran of World War II, said he had the American flying on his cart for 7 years — until Sept. 1, when he was forced to take it down in order to play.

"It came down to the wire," he said. "I was the last one to remove one."

"I think that is the rule on the golf course," said developer Hall Robertson. He said that "at least on the golf course they can only fly the handicapped flag."

"We think it's an internal problem that some of the people have developed because of having many handicapped people," said an official at the course who did not wish to be named. It was a matter of spotting the special flag with four, five or six other flags on the cart, the official said.

"They're trying to make an issue of the American flag, but it's not an issue of the American flag," the staffer said. The course couldn't let people fly the U.S. flag but prohibit other flags, for states, universities, sports teams and so forth.

Frank Spencer, a Stonecrest resident who used to fly two U.S. flags on his cart, said he had heard the "excuse" about the rangers being confused by the flags and that the use of handicapped flags was being abused.

But that rule, he said, has "taken away the rights and privileges of the members — of us — to fly our country's flag."