12/24/17 - Blacklake

I played a course that I wasn't really familiar with on Christmas Eve, and I encountered an unusual local rule.

I hit my approach shot into what looked like it had once been a lake.  With the drought in California, it's not that unusual to see ex-lakes.  It was marked with blue-tipped stakes.  I assumed it was a hazard, so I took a drop (and a penalty stroke) and hit my approach to the green.

The local rule indicated that the areas surrounded by blue-tipped stakes should be played as casual water.  Free relief.  Odd.

I had already posted my score when I noticed the local rule on the scorecard (see below).  Hopefully my handicap chair can fix it.

12/9/17 - San Vicente

A player in our foursome asked about relief from a staked tree.  I had never heard of such a rule, so I had to look it up.

It's a Local Rule that can be adopted - Protection of Young Trees.  It's in Appendix I, Part A, Section 2b.  Under this rule, the marked tree would be treated as an Immovable Obstruction (Rule 24-2b).  This is a free drop within one club-length of the nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole.

There was nothing about it on the scorecard, but the fact that the course staked the trees implies to me that they expect the local rule to be in place.  Of course the player didn't ask about it until after he had played (without taking relief).

You learn something new with every round...

11/26/17 - Balboa

I've played Balboa when it's damp before, but I've never seen standing water on a putting green.  Until this morning.  There was a substantial puddle on the first green.

Rule 25 (abnormal ground conditions) covers casual water.  The water must be visible before you take your stance (this was).  Through the green (ie before you get to the green), you get relief if the casual water impacts your swing or stance (not your line).  It's a free drop within one club length of the nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole

On the green, you get relief if the casual water impedes your swing or stance, or if it is in the line of your putt.  On the green, you must place the ball at the nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole.  Note that this could be off the green.

Note that this means if you are in the fringe, and there is casual water in your line, you do not get relief.

10/22/17 - Balboa

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  I haven't been playing as much as I would like to, and I haven't been blogging about it at all.

I played Balboa 18 today, and one player hit a putt too firmly, and it hit the flagstick laying on the ground.  I was pretty sure that was a penalty, but I wasn't sure of the details.

Rule 17 is all about the flagstick.  There are only 34 rules of golf, and the flagstick is one of them.  For today, 17-3a was the relevant rule, specifically the underlined portion - "The player's ball must not strike the flagstick when it is attended, removed, or held up."  That's a two-stroke penalty, and the ball must be played as it lies.

Of great interest in Rule 17 is 17-4 - Ball resting against flagstick.

"When a player's ball rests against the flagstick in the hole and the ball is not holed, the player, or another person authorized by him may move or remove the flagstick, and if the ball falls into the hole, the player is deemed to have holed out with his last stroke; otherwise, the ball, if moved, must be placed on the lip of the hole without penalty."

Just a refresher here, a ball is holed when it comes to rest at the bottom of the cup.  So be careful on your hole-in-one.

Interestingly, I was close enough to the flagstick that I had a thought on attempting to quickly move it.  I could not find anything in Decisions on the Rules of Golf regarding whether or not this would be legal.  I imagine so.

7/19/17 - Coronado

A fellow competitor complained about grass clippings around her ball just off the fairway, and I told her that she could brush them away (loose impediments).  In doing so, she accidentally moved her ball.  Ooops.

This is a violation of rule 18-2, and is a one stroke penalty, and the ball must be placed in the original position.

This rule is under discussion for changing in 2019:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/test-item-graphics/

The proposal would not change what happened above, though.  The proposed change is only for instances where it is unclear whether or not the player caused the ball to move (the Dustin Johnson rule).

6/16/17 - Rancho Bernardo Inn

Number 4 at Rancho Bernardo Inn is a long-ish par 3 with a water hazard between the tee and the green.  On the green-side of the water hazard, left is out of bounds.  There is a drop zone on the green-side of the water for balls hit into the hazard.

So can you use the drop zone for a ball hit over the water and out of bounds?

I say no.  A drop zone is always a local rule.  The best information I could find on that specific local rule was here:

RBI Men's Golf Club By-Laws

The way I read it, the drop zone is for balls hit into the hazard.  In addition, it's optional.  I supposed the local rule could be written such that it was mandatory, but I don't believe that is very common.

The same should apply to a lost ball that is not believed to have gone into the water.

Out of bounds penalty is stroke and distance, so the player must re-tee and hit his or her third shot from the tee.

Am I right?

5/6/17 - Bonita Golf Club

Rule 24-2 covers immovable instructions, which includes a cart path.  A cart path is defined as an artificially-surfaced road or path.  Thus this would not include a dirt path, so relief is not granted for that.

Relief is granted if the immovable obstruction interferes with the player's stance or swing.  It does not include relief from the line of play (except on the putting green).  So if you have to chip over, through, or around a sprinkler head, that's just the rub of the green.

For our last tourney, we put a local rule in place, granting relief from a dirt cart path.

The link below shows pretty well where you should drop.
http://www.golfdigest.com/story/rules-cartpath-drop

4/29/17 - The Crossings at Carlsbad

My ball crossed the line of a lateral hazard next to a bunker.  The strip of grass between the bunker and the lateral hazard was just a couple of feet wide, and sloped towards the bunker.

I was aware of Rule 20-2-c(i), which says that if your dropped ball rolls into a hazard, then you re-drop.  Rule 20-2-c(ii) covers the case where you're dropping in a hazard, and the ball rolls out of the hazard (also re-drop).

Since I was racing the sunset, I didn't bother to drop (twice) and then retrieve the ball from the bunker, which was the obvious outcome of dropping it.

I was not aware of Decision 20-2c/3.  Decision 20-2c/3 states that you can't take this shortcut.  You have to go through the process of dropping twice before placing.

Oops.

Sand and loose soil

Our club handicap shared this.  I was not aware.  Sand and loose soil are not impediments, and can only be removed on the putting green.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGSwSCF7v24&feature=youtu.be

3/11/17 - Riverwalk (Mission / Presidio)

Our monthly tournament was at Riverwalk this month.  On the first hole, my second shot went left of the green, and I couldn't tell what was over there.  Hazard?  OB?  Nothing?  So I hit a provisional.  The provisional landed nicely on the green.


It turns out that my original shot was right by the cart path.  It was easily found.

But if I hadn't found it?

If there was a hazard where I believed my ball had gone, then I would have had to drop there, and I would be chipping my fourth shot.

If I couldn't find the ball and there was no hazard, then that would be a lost ball.  I would play my provisional, which was on the green laying four.

If there was OB, and I believed that my ball was OB (even if I didn't find it), then I would also be playing my provisional (hitting my fifth shot).

I had tree issues where my original ball was.  I was tempted to have not found it, but it was hard to miss.  You don't have to spend the requisite five minutes looking for a ball, but mine was hard to miss.  So I chipped on, made the putt, and got one of my only pars of the nine. So it worked out okay.

1/15/17 - Balboa

Rule 14-4 says that it's a penalty to strike the ball more than once in the course of a stroke.  This happens to me far more often than I would like.  I would really love to see super-slo-mo video to see how the hell I'm doing it.  But I hear and feel the ball hit the club while in flight.

It happened at Balboa last week.  But it was a bit unusual, and I wanted to look it up.  I hit a shot really fat, and on the follow-through, the club hit the ball a second time.  But it was actually the first time.  I hit the stroke so fat that I really didn't make contact with the ball on the initial part of the stroke.  I just chunked a bunch of grass and dirt into the air, and the ball went with it.  And on the follow-through, the club hit the ball.

I took the penalty for double-contact, and I figured the rule would cover that scenario.  It actually doesn't.

The rule I actually broke was rule 19-2 - Ball in Motion Deflected or Stopped.  The penalty is the same (one stroke).

1/7/17 - UCSD Casual Golf Club January Tournament - Eastlake Country Club

It was a bit damp at Eastlake with all of the rain we have been getting lately.  We covered a few things prior to the round with the members:

Casual Water
Bunkers with Casual Water would play as GUR
No lift clean, and place

What we did not cover was rule 25-2 - Embedded ball.  It came up on a par 3, when my tee shot was embedded just off the green.  We weren't sure what the rule was, so I played two balls.  I played the first one as it lies, out of the severely embedded lie.  Then I dropped another ball, and played that from a regular lie.  I ended up scoring a 5/2 with each ball, so it didn't matter.

The consensus in the clubhouse was that I should have been entitled to relieve.  But Rule 25-2 includes the clause "in any closely mown area...."  Since my ball was in the rough, off the green, I was not entitled to relief.

A group can adopt a local rule to allow relief in that scenario, but we had not adopted such a rule.

1/2/17 - The Crossings

I played The Crossings, and I was only able to finish 16 holes before it got dark.  So can I post that score for my handicap?

The answer is yes.  If you play 7 to 12 holes, then you can post a 9-hole score.  If you play 13 or more, then you can post an 18 hole score.

So what do you do with the holes that you didn't play?  You post par plus (or minus) any strokes allowed by your handicap.

My index is presently 20.8.  The slope at The Crossings is 125 from the whites.  That means my course handicap is 23.  So I get one stroke on each hole, and then two strokes on the five toughest holes.  Hole #17 is a par 3, and is the number 14 handicap.  So I got a fictitious bogey there.  And hole #18 is a par 4, and is the number 2 handicap.  So a hypothetical double-bogey.  I was at 84 through 16 holes, so I posted a 94.