The Rules of Golf

General Discussion
#41

So maybe a better word is a “thicket”. Low oak trees and bushes and grass. Very challenging to find a ball, and almost impossible to get out.

It’s 175 ish to the point I am aiming at and then need to cover 50 yards of this junk. If I push the ball it becomes more like 150 and 75+ yards to cover.

If I push the ball, pretty easy to establish where I entered. If I hit it hard, I may turn the corner and see it in the fairway. If it’s not there, I know it’s somewhere in the middle of narnia and I walk back to the entry point and drop

Overall, I believe this is significantly faster than constantly playing a provisional. Not sure I really care though because our group just plays lost ball as a red penalty area anyway!

#42

My suggestions are less “rule based” and more about how the game is managed in the US

I’d like to see public courses:

  • encourage people to play the correct tees
  • encourage high handicappers to play stableford
  • encourage more walking / push cart (two high handicappers play much faster pushing their own cart vs. going back and forth between balls in a motorized cart
  • Marshall the courses without being a**
1 Like
#43

@davep043

Unique situation last week. I drive my golf ball just off of the cart path where it wedges between a rocky cliff and huge rock. It is beyond unplayable.

Now, while I am standing on the cart path while addressing this terrible lie, I believe this does not qualify for free relief as I cannot make a “reasonable stroke” or whatever the definition is. I need to take a penalty. Here is my question.

There is a strip of grass between my feet and the horrible lie. This would fall within two club lengths, but I would be standing on the cart path to hit it. There is no way for me to drop the ball within two club lengths without the cart path being in my stance or interfering with the club. Can I take an unplayable penalty and drop to an area where my feet are on the cartpath?

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#44

You can drop anywhere within 2 clublengths of the original location of the ball, cartpath or grass or whatever. If the ball rolls out of the Relief Area, drop again, place if necessary after two drops. Then its a brand new situation, and if the ball is on the cartpath, you can take (free) relief from that obstruction.

4 Likes
#45

I have a real life example of this. Playing in a tourney and I hit it left onto cart path. Happened to be a rules official there so we went through relief from cart path. Well closest relief was in casual water. So I take my relief and drop in the water and then we go through the whole process again. The interesting thing is that I ended up having to take relief 3 times. Once from path to water, then from water but that put my feet back on path and finally to a place where I could actually play it.

Remember that each relief instance is a stand alone.

3 Likes
#46

You are the man! Thank you for the clarification!

#47

Have you been watching today? I didn’t see the Reed situation, but I’m curious about it…

I do wonder at a pro level how you allow people to make judgment calls… seems like a recipe for disaster, but most of the rules of golf are designed for self regulation (or at least that how it seems to me)

#48

I’ve never been in the position of a Rules Official, so take my evaluation with a grain of salt. I did see most of this as it happened. Reed said that someone told him his ball had not bounced. Thinking that it might be plugged, he marked it and lifted it to look. The Rules Official came, seemed to probe the ball’s location and concluded that the ball had indeed broken the surface of the ground, so it was considered embedded. This wasn’t Reed making a judgement call, he asked for and received approval, it looked to me like he did everything correctly.
Now the replay showed his ball DID bounce, so it seems unlikely (not impossible) that it would have plugged on landing the second time. But once he had the concurrence of the official, Reed and done all he needed to do.
I agree that the Rules are intended to interpreted by each player, judgements to be made, since we don’t have officials to help us. At the pro level, players often call in officials to make sure that they both understand the rule (many aren’t really knowledgeable) and that they proceed correctly. As long as the official agrees, the player’s judgement isn’t questioned.

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#49

Thanks. I’m glad he got a rules official involved. Sounds like he did the right thing.

#50

I’m sure we’ll all hear lots more about it. The one thing I wish he had done differently was to wait for the official to arrive before lifting the ball. He’s not required to do that, but it would have looked better.

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#51

Yeah, twitter was all up in arms about it… he’s definitely in the guilty until proven innocent camp. I get why, but it doesn’t make it fair… It will be interesting to see if he can either repair his reputation or silence the critics by winning (more than just this tournament). Long road ahead of him.

#52

He got the official involved AFTER he already picked up the ball. The official couldn’t do anything

#53

He didn’t lift it to look. He picked it up declaring it embedded

#54

Interesting… I’ll have to dig in more. He obviously has a history of taking advantage of the rules (as the nicest way to phrase that) so I’m sure it will get broken down by plenty of people.

#55

In deep rough like that, how would you evaluate if the ball is embedded without lifting it? You can’t see the bottom of the ball or the ground.

#56

In that situation if you think it’s embedded - call the official before you assess. Especially with his history. Also the camera showed the ball bounce so the odds of being embedded are much much lower (see kuchar, Matt vs tour official circa 2019)

#57

Seems like he should have waited on the rules official before touching it from a publicity standpoint…

Would this have been a big deal if it wasn’t Reed? (I don’t know, and didn’t see it). I get he has a history, but if he didn’t break any rules then I don’t really have any complaints… I’m not confident he can lose any more sponsors at this point or become less popular.

#58

Video within tweet

#59

The downside of golf being a game where you are supposed to “keep your own card” is that it allows for Reed to say he didn’t see it bounce, and he thought it was plugged…

I don’t know… Honestly, I don’t know the rules well enough to say what is right or wrong here. Reed has obviously found himself on the wrong side of the rules on multiple occasions but should that matter today?

My understanding is him lifting his ball was within the rules (even if he should have waited for an official), even if the optics of it are bad… but, once again, I don’t know the rules well enough.

#60

He can check to see if it plugged. Fine by me

But there’s no way in the world the thing was plugged. Don’t know what he felt there (or pushed his fingers down there firmly a few times) that would have made him think it was plugged.

Rules official barely did anything and wasn’t going to call anything.

Crock of BS

He won’t get benefit of doubt from anyone until he calls a spade a spade or calls a penalty on himself in crunch time. Like the guy in Hilton head before you could touch ground in a hazard and it cost him the tournament. Can’t remember who that was