Correct, Correct and Correct. All were done in accordance as stated above. Just to make the #1 instance even more interesting… We reported the first instance, my playing partners (competitors) said we would have granted him relief, but he played 2 balls. And when that was done, I played one out, then went back and played from a mark. The referee went out and said… I wouldn’t have granted relief in that circumstance. So my first ball was the only one that would have counted anyways… I did score 4 on both balls in that instance. The second instance, this was like a 8inch wide 3 - 4 inch deep, looked like a spin out in the center of the first cut. It did prevent my ball from going into the 3 inch rough. Ball was marked, closest point of relief probably was into the fw, but it was equidistant if I kept the drop into the first cut, really was a close call. If I would have dropped into the 3 inch high rough 1 club length, my stance would have been in that rut, so that was definitely out. Pretty sure we did everything properly. Everyone and the referee was comfortable with drop. Mostly the second instance, and it’s not like they have travelling referees in these local events, like you see in the pros… you make your best effort to be in compliance. Hey if the drop had to be in the rough that’s what we would have made it. We all try and make our best call. Know what I mean? It was bad enough declaring I’ll play 2 balls as that slowed down play as it was.
In our saturday rounds, we play the local rules, we had a local rule for a while, when there were no rakes out and you ended up in a bunker, you could lift, smooth out the area with your foot or club, and place the ball on the smoothed out area. I’ve had rules look like they would hurt like I was entitled to a drop from a path, but the closest point of relief was into bushes! So I sucked it up and scraped up a 5 iron.