6/30/16 - Balboa

I played 18 holes with the same ball.  That's always nice.

Not much to report from a rules standpoint, but if you are dropping the ball, you have to do it from shoulder height, not waist height.

I'm probably getting pretty picky at this point.

Simulated Golf

I played a round on a simulator a couple of weeks ago, and I was wondering at what point it would be legitimate to post a simulated round for handicap purposes.  Your lie is always good on a simulator, and I haven't seen one that does putting very well, but at some point....

6/26/16 - Village Country Club

I was up in Lompoc for my high school reunion this weekend, and I got to play the Village Country Club.  I lived 2 miles from there in high school, but never played it.  It's suffering from the drought a little bit, but it's a nice course!

I was hit with the full Dustin Johnson on #15.  I placed my putter behind the ball before my stroke, and the ball moved.  Not just a fraction of an inch like DJ, but about a quarter turn.  So I got a bonus stroke on that hole!

6/21/16 - Torrey Pines South

I played TP South yesterday.  It was my worst round in a while, but I have to remind myself that it's a tough course (slope 133 from the white).

Not much came up with regards to the rules.  At one point, someone else marked my ball, which was in someone's line.  I was walking while everyone else was riding.  I'm fine with that in casual play, to speed up the game, but I was wondering if it was a violation.  As far as I can tell, this would be a violation of rule 20-1.  The player's partner can mark the ball, or "another person authorized by the player."  That would cover the caddie, but probably not another player.

As I said, it helped pace of play, and I'm fine with it.

While researching this, I found the decision below interesting.  This also happened during the round.
20-1/6.5
Ball-Marker pressed down by opponent
There is no penalty if the marker does not move.
There is no penalty if the opponent was authorized in this action.
If the opponent was not authorized, and the marker moves, then there is a one stroke penalty on the opponent.

Note to anyone interested in playing TP South - The work is done on the fourth tee, so it's back to being a beast of a par 4.

US Open

A link to my poll on DJ's penalty yesterday...

poll

6/18/16 - The Crossings at Carlsbad.

I took an on-course lesson today, and I learned that blue stakes mark an environmentally sensitive area. It plays like a hazard, except you do not have the option to play the ball as it lies. You must drop and take a penalty stroke. I think this is just a local rule for The Crossings, but other courses may use it.

Rancho Bernardo Inn

We played a better ball tourney at Rancho Bernardo Inn today. Not much from a rules perspective, other than one player in my group having to do the "ride of shame" due to his ball being unexpectedly OB. At least it wasn't the "walk of shame."

It never hurts to hit a provisional.

I think the handicap rules for this format are interesting:

• Men get 90% of their handicap, women get 95%.
• If partners are 8 strokes apart, or more, then both players get another 10% reduction

See Sec 9-4.b(ii) here:

http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/Handicapping/handicap-manual.html#!rule-14387

Thanks to our handicap chair, Noel Alfonso for this info.

Mission Trails 6/10/16
I played the same ball for 18 holes, so very little to report from a rules standpoint today.  I played a provisional a couple of times, but never had to use it.
At one point I commented to my cart-mate that I wanted to use a 3-wood, but it was in my trunk.  He offered to let me use his.  I politely declined.  I chose my 14 clubs, and left the 3-wood in the car because I didn't think I would need it.

Riverwalk 6/4/16

Our club played a tournament at Riverwalk on the weekend, and there were a few interesting rulings in our foursome:

Nearest point of relief on a cart path
If you are a right handed golfer, and your ball comes to rest in the middle of the cart path, then your nearest point of relief is going to be on the left side of the cart path (assuming the cart path runs parallel to the hole).  Your stance is taken into account when determining the nearest point of relief.  The rule doesn't say nicest point of relief, it says nearest.
My ball was about 3/4 of the way on the right side of the cart path, and I took relief on the right side.  It was very close.

Ball Unplayable (but not lost)
One of the guys in our group hit his tee shot on a par three into a nasty area of scrub.  He then hit a provisional onto the green.  He spent a couple of minutes looking for his first ball, and he unfortunately found it. It was in a bush about waist high.  It was clearly unplayable.  Once he found the ball, then his provisional was no longer an option.  If he hadn't found his first shot (if he didn't looked very hard), then the provisional would be playable, laying three.
The nearest point of relief was further behind the nasty bushes.  That was an option, as was going back to the tee.  But the provisional is not a legal option in this scenario.

Unmarked Ground Under Repair
There were large areas of bare dirt in the fairway on several holes.  There was no marking indicating that it was ground under repair.  As far as I can tell from the definition of ground under repair, and from reading Rule 25, no relief is available.  Our group played this way, but other groups played it as ground under repair, even though it wasn't marked.  What say you?

Balboa - 6/1/16
Provisional, provisional, provisional!  That's my rule of the day.  It never hurts to play a provisional (Rule 27-2).  I sliced my tee shot OB on #8.  So I hit another one.  I was pretty sure that my second ball would be found and playable, but I wasn't certain.  So I hit a provisional.  I could see that one from the tee, so I knew that it would be playable.  When I got to where I thought my second ball would be, it was nowhere to be found.  It could have been under leaves, or it could have trickled through the boundary fence (though I didn't see it OB either).  So my provisional became my ball in play, and I was laying 5.  But at least I didn't have to do the walk of shame back to the tee box.
Per Rule 27, a lost ball is the same as out of bounds.  It is not the same as a ball hit in a hazard.  The penalty for a lost ball is stroke and distance.  You can't just drop one where you think the lost ball should be.