I don't want to start a long back and forth argument about USGA and the Rules of Golf, and I certainly am not "flaming" anyone. We all have opinions and since this subject has arisen, I have an opinion. I'm no fan of USGA. There are a couple of rules about which I am considerably distressed, but more about them later.
The O.B. stroke and distance rule doesn't bother me at all. If you hit it out, how long does it take to hit another ball? A minute or two? If you have hit it out - even if you think you've hit it out, you have the option of hitting a provisional ball. The same goes for possibly lost balls. So, while I can empathize with a golfer's distress over the O.B. rule, I think its really not much of a problem. Determinining where a ball went out is almost always a guess, particularly a ball hit by a driver. Further, I would argue that dropping from, say 250 yards from the tee isn't even remotely fair to the rest of the field. What if, for instance, a player hit his provisional ball only 200 yards? Wouldn't he have a huge advantage by dropping 50 yards further down the fairway? Or worse, suppose he hit his second, provisional ball, out of bounds? Allowing a drop may be o.k. when you're playing with your "friendly foursome" on weekends, but when you're competing against "the field," whether it be only another foursome, or 160 other players, you must protect the field. Eliminating distance penalties is unfair to the rest of the competition. While we're at it, how about "in the leather" for putts? Or "gimmees" in stroke play, for that matter? What about "rolling it" to improve your lie when conditions don't justify the practice? How many guys habitually "bump it" in the fairway? I know a lot of guys who do it and when tournament time comes, and bumping it is disallowed, can't play worth a damn. How about the guy who makes a snowman and says, "aw, gimme a 6, that's all I can take"? The time for adjusting is apres golf, not during the round. Yet guys do it all the time. I could go on. I play Wednesdays and Saturdays with a group of about 16 to 24 other golfers. We play for a relatively significant amount of money. We are as cordial and friendly a group of guys as you'd want to meet. But on the course, we play by the rules. Hit it out? Tough shit! Hit another one. Spike mark? Too bad. Stuck behind a tree? You shouldn't have hit it there. Y'all know where to find "sympathy" in the dictionary. However, the rules I truly hate are these; if a ball comes to rest in a fairway divot, you play it as you find it. I think that's a really unfair rule. If your ball is plugged in its own hole, through the green, you can dig it out, clean it and place it in a perfect lie. If there are ballmarks or holes on the putting surface, you can repair them to give yourself a perfect line to the hole - BUT - and here's my second most disliked rule; if there's anything other than a ballmark between your ball and the hole, on the green, tough! You can't fix it. I really hate those 2 rules. So, I like the original rules: "Play the course as you find it, play the ball as it lies, and if you can do neither, do what's fair." TFlan ----- > > From: D William Ggle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 3:34 PM > > <snip> > > Where I live, there is golf and there is "league golf". Almost all > > competitive golfers around here, save the members of private clubs, play in > > various leagues on public or daily-fee courses. Every league I know has a > > rule to play OB -- and even lost balls -- as a lateral hazard. It is > > downright annoying to EVERYBODY on the course to enforce the rules of golf > > as written on these courses; that is the reason for those league-golf rules. > > There is no loss of integrity when everybody agrees that those are the > > rules. > > > > But wait! The USGA does not allow that as a local rule. Not many people know > > this (I didn't until I started reading from "The Decisions"), but there are > > lots of things you CANNOT make a local rule. This very reasonable (IMHO) > > modification for busy courses is not allowed as a local rule. Can you say > > "ostrich"? I knew you could. > <snip>
