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.