12/22/2019 - The Crossings at Carlsbad

I knew that if your ball was on the green and another ball hit it, then you put your ball back, and the other player plays their ball as it lies.  I wasn't sure what the rule was when your ball is in the fairway, so I looked it up.

This is covered by Rule 9.6 - Ball moved by outside influence.  The rule is the same as if it were on the green.  You replace your ball, they play theirs as it lies.

If both balls are on the green when the stroke is played, then it's a two stroke penalty on the person who hit the putt.  So if another player's ball is anywhere near the line of your putt, then you should ask them to mark it.

Our club has an informal rule that if you can roll your putt over another players' mark and make the putt, then you get to keep their mark.  I have never seen it happen.

12/9/2019 - The Golf Club at Terra Lago (South Course)

I played (poorly) in the SCGA Tournament of Club Champions.  I started out with a 12, but it got better from there.

I had two interesting rules conversations.  The first with with an SCGA rules official while we were waiting on a tee box.  I referred to a hole we had already played (#17).  There was a bunker behind the green, and it just kind of faded into a waste area.  I asked the rules official what the demarcation between the bunker and the waste area was.  He answered honestly - He wasn't sure, but he would find out.  When I turned in my scorecard, they had an answer for me....  Sort of.  He said that it was not clearly marked, and that if they had called for a ruling, they would have ruled based on the area of the bunker that had been groomed.  I thought that was interesting.

The other was a conversation regarding the "drive of shame" (driving back to the tee box after not finding your drive, and not hitting a provisional).  I mentioned that our group had our group had to do it two or three times.  Another participant whom I was eating lunch with indicated that they had used the Local Rule on the card referencing Desert Area Options.  According to the scorecard, you could either play the ball as it lies, or take a one stroke penalty and go to the fairway.  But that means that you found the ball.  I think that group mis-applied the local rule.  Ooops...

12/1/2019 - Encinitas Ranch

We have had a ton of rain lately, so I knew that I might have an embedded ball at some point during the round.  The 2019 rules grant relief from an embedded ball even in the rough (but not in a bunker or penalty area).  This is all covered in Rule 16.3.

But once it happened, I couldn't remember whether or not I am allowed to clean the ball.  I know you clean a ball embedded on the green (this is specifically stated in the rule).  But it doesn't say whether or not you can clean the ball when it is embedded in the general area.  General area means anywhere except in a penalty area, bunker, out of bounds, or on the teeing ground.  So pretty much the rest of the golf course.

Cleaning is covered by Rule 14.1, which says you can clean the ball any time your are taking legitimate relief.  The only times you can lift the ball and not clean it are when checking to see if it is damaged, when identifying your ball, when it interferes with someone else's stroke, or when checking to see if the ball is in an area where relief is allowed.  I'm not sure when that last one would come up, but there you have it...

Good to know!

11/23/2019 - Torrey Pines North

We got some pretty good rain last week.  I didn't think about what it would do to the rough at TP.  It was pretty thick.

There was a sign on the cash register:

Local Rule
If you do not find your ball within one minute, you may drop where you think your ball is lost with no penalty.

That's not golf?!?!

I understand that it's for pace of play, but I don't like it when a course tries to change the rules of golf.  The rules of golf say three minutes, and then stroke and distance.  There is a legitimate local rule that our club uses where you can take two strokes and drop where you lost the ball.  That rule is not recommended for high level tournament play.  I suspect it will not be in play when I play the Tournament of Club Champions in Indio next month.

I only lost one ball, and it was in a canyon that would have been lost even under "normal" playing conditions.

11/10/2019 - Torrey Pines South

It happened on the practice green, so I was wondering all morning if the 2019 accidental double-contact rule applies to putts.

As far as I can tell, there's no penalty.  For "normal" strokes, it's covered by rule 10.1.  I couldn't find any exception for putts, so I'm sticking to it.

How do you double-contact a putt?  I'll tell you...  It takes talent.

10/20/2019 - Rancho Maria

An unlucky member of my foursome at Rancho Maria hit her ball into a tree on her approach shot, and it did not come out.  She was not sure how to proceed.

If you can find the ball and identify it as yours, then you can play it as it "lies" in the tree.  Bernhard Langer did this in 1981:

Bernhard Langer in a tree

If you can find it and identify it, you can also take an unplayable (one stroke penalty).  This seems a far more reasonable option, but it seems highly unlikely that you would be able to find the ball and identify it.

So the most likely outcome of hitting your ball into a tree is to play it as a lost ball.  That's a stroke and distance penalty.  It was her second shot that got stuck in the tree, so she had to re-play from that spot, hitting her fourth shot.

10/6/2019 - Balboa 9

The 9-hole course at Balboa Park has a foot golf course that shares the tees and fairways with the regular golf course.  I have played foot golf a few times at Welk Resort, but not at Balboa.

I assume that the foot golf hole should play as an immovable hazard (free relief at the nearest point of relief no closer to the hole).  That's how I played it anyway...

8/4/2019 - The Crossings at Carlsbad

I thought I had blogged about this before, but I can't find it, so I guess I only considered writing about it, but didn't...

There are areas at The Crossings where a penalty area is adjacent to a bunker (see below).  It seems unfortunate to have to take relief from a penalty area into a bunker.  But that's the rule.

Relief from a penalty area is covered by Rule #17 in the 2019 rules.  The rule explicitly says that relief may be in any area of the course except the same penalty area.

So you have to drop in the bunker.

If two driver-lengths will get you across the bunker, then you can drop outside the bunker.  That was not the case with this particular bunker.

Other options would include going back to where you played the previous shot from, or trying to drop in the little skinny are of grass between the penalty area and the bunker.  But then you wouldn't really have a stance.

7/20/2019 - The Crossings at Carlsbad

I took an on-course lesson, which means that I can't post the score.  For the record, I shot 42 on the front, while the lesson was still in my mind (or shoulders), and 53 on the back after it had escaped.

I hear a lot of bad opinions on how / when to post.  There are sandbaggers, to be sure, but I've never met anyone who admitted to it.  I have played with numerous people who admitted that they only post their good rounds.  Consequently their handicap (or handicap index if you're being pedantic) is artificially low.  They are anti-sandbagging as it were.

The other time you can't post is if you're playing solo.  This seems silly to me, since the random strangers I play with never see the score that I post, but that's the rule.  I think there's another rule about you can't post "off-season," which is meaningless here in San Diego.  But it probably matters elsewhere.

If you play between 7 and 12 holes, you must post a 9-hole score.  If you play 13 or more holes, you must post the 18 hole score.  For any holes that you didn't actually play, post the score your handicap would have given you.  We skipped #12, because we were racing sunset.  My course handicap (calculation below) is 19 on that course, it's the #4 handicap hole, so if I were to post, then I would put a bogey for that hole.  At 19, I would post a bogey for any given hole, except #6, which is the #1 handicap hole.  I would post a double-bogey for that hole.

I think another thing that people mess up a lot is ESC (Equitable Stroke Control) scoring.  ESC scoring is used so that one bad whole doesn't have too big of an impact on your handicap.  If your course handicap is under 10, then the most you can post for any hole is double-bogey.  If your handicap is 10-19, then the highest score you can post for any hole is a 7.  If your course handicap is 20-29, then the max is 8, 30-39, max is 9, and at 40 and up, the highest score you can post for any hole is a 10.  I had an 8 on one hole, so if I were to post, then my 95 would have posted as a 94.

On more than one occasion, I've played one set of tees on the front, and a different set of tees on the back.  You can do that.  Just post them as two different 9-hole scores.

You shouldn't change tees in the middle of a side.  I do recall an occasion where there was a temporary tee box on #4 at TP South, and there is a formula for recalculating the slope for that scenario, based on the yardage differential.  But I won't get into that.


Your course handicap is calculated by taking the slope of the course (on the scorecard) divided by 113, multiplied by your handicap index (the number you receive in your email twice per month).

Worth noting is that your handicap index is based on the best 10 of your last 20 rounds.  So you should only expect to "beat" your handicap about 25% of the time.

6/8/2019 - Mount Woodson GC

Our club played Mount Woodson this weekend, and I had several interesting encounters with the rules.

The first encounter involved hitting my ball into a hazard penalty area.  I found the ball, but it was not in a position that I wanted to play it.  It was in between several large rocks.  I was pretty sure that it was a penalty area, but there were no stakes or markings.  In retrospect, I looked at the scorecard, and there is a Local Rule at Mt. Woodson that all native areas are hazards.  But I wasn't certain at the time.  I thought about taking an unplayable, but I'm not sure two club lengths would have gotten me to a better position.  So I decided to play it.

I'm not sure exactly what the ball hit, but it flew up and skimmed my face before dropping down the ground and bouncing across the cart path, out of the penalty area.  Previously this would have been a penalty.  But not any more.  2019 Rule 11 says that if this is unintentional, then there is no penalty, and you must play the ball as it lies.  It didn't really bounce off of my face, it just sort of whizzed by, spinning, and barely grazed me.

The lesson here is that you should be aware of the Local Rules.  I could have taken relief outside the penalty area without the risk of the ball taking a horrible bounce.

The second encounter also brought up a few rules.  I should start out by mentioning that our club has adopted the optional local rule E-5 Alternative to Stroke and Distance for Lost Ball or Ball Out of Bounds, which can be found at the link below.  This is a great local rule for improving pace of play.  It came up again later in the round when another member of our foursome couldn't find his ball (which may have been hit by the group in the opposite fairway).

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rules-modernization/major-changes/golfs-new-rules-stroke-and-distance.html

I missed the fairway badly in the vicinity of a penalty area.  In searching, I found several other balls, but not my ball.  Another member of our foursome found a ball that was the brand I was playing (Kirkland), but it was not my ball.  Finally, I found my ball massively embedded in the mud.  A quick look determined that the ball was within the hazard.  The new rules allow for relief for an embedded ball on the green, in the fairway, and even in the rough, but not in a penalty area.  My ball had crossed the hazard 150 yards back, so if I was going to take relief from the penalty area, I would have needed to go almost all the way back to the tee.

So I took advantage of the new local rule.  Basically you're allowed to take a two stroke penalty, and drop up to two club-lengths in the fairway.  So I was laying three in the fairway.  Under the old rule, I would have had to go back to the tee (or near the tee) and hit my third shot from there.  It's 50/50 as to whether I would hit the fairway.  Actually, I average 5.4 fairways per round, so it's much less than 50/50.

With this rule in place, I may never hit another provisional ball.

Another lesson - make sure you can positively identify your ball, not just by brand and number.

The third encounter was uncertainty about a potential rules violation.  After lipping out a putt, I pulled the flagstick with my left hand, and putted the ball in with my right hand.  As I was doing it, I was thinking that maybe that used to be a rule, but I wasn't sure.  Our esteemed Tournament Director pointed out that it could be a violation, but no one was sure.  Later in the round, we had a chance to look it up, and it was formerly covered by Decision 17-1/5, which explicitly says that this is not a penalty.  2019 rule 13.2 covers the flagstick, and only indicates a penalty in the above scenario if the ball had hit the flagstick.  It did not.

5/24/19 - Torrey Pines North

I've heard confusion about this one a couple of times lately, and it came up again during a round at TP North.  What is the penalty if your ball hits another ball on the putting green while you're putting?  And who gets the penalty?

If you're chipping (or putting) from off the green, and your ball hits a ball on the green, then you play your ball as it lies, and the other ball is replaced to the original position.  And there is no penalty.  That one is easy.

But if you're putting, then this is covered by the Exception in Rule 11.1a (2019 version) which states:

Exception – Ball Played on Putting Green in Stroke Play: If the player’s ball in motion hits another ball at rest on the putting green and both balls were on the putting green before the stroke, the player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes).

The penalty is on the player who hit the putt.  Presumably the other ball is replaced to its original position.

So I advise you to ask the other player to mark his ball if it's anywhere near the line of your putt.

Another interesting part of Rule 11 (2019 version) is 11.3, which says that you can't move any object that may affect a ball in motion.  The exceptions to this rule include the flagstick, equipment, or another ball.  So if someone's putt (including your own) looks like it may hit one of those three objects, then you can move the object.

This gets into the realm of the recent "backstopping" controversy on the LPGA.  As far as I read the rule, if your opponents putt is coming in way too hot, and your wedge is laying off the green between the ball and a bunker, you can move your wedge, allowing your opponents ball to go into the bunker.  Or if you like your opponent, you can leave it there and stop the ball.

Interesting....

4/28/2019 - Balboa 18

I was introduced to a new term on the course today - "complete relief."  My ball went into a lateral hazard, and I dropped very close to the hazard, such that my ball was in play, but my stance was still in the hazard.  A member of our foursome indicated that I needed to take "complete relief."

As I read the rules, it looks like this applies to an immovable obstruction (2019 rule #16) or a "No Play Zone."  (2019 Rule #17.1e)  That was also a new term to me, but I think it's an area where you are not allowed to play.  You must take relief.  I know The Crossings has environmentally sensitive areas that you are not allowed to play out of.  And I have played other courses where flowers were considered a No Play Zone or Ground Under Repair.

I could have taken more relief (two club-lengths), but I didn't.  So I believe that since I could have played from the hazard, I was allowed to take relief with my stance in the hazard.  In fact, I believe that once my ball came to rest in the relief area (area #3 below), the ball was live, and I had to play it from that spot.

4/13/19 - Balboa

There was some good-natured discussion this morning about whether or not one of the players had teed up illegally on the 13th hole.  Is it he middle of the tee markers or the front?  Does the whole ball have to be within the teeing area?  So of course I had to look it up.

Rule #2 defines the front edge of the teeing area by the forward-most points of the tee markers.  It doesn't specify whether the whole ball has to be in the teeing area.  So I would play it back an inch or two, just to be safe.

A coyote was watching us tee off.  I handle the pressure and hit the green, and then two-putted for a par.

4/6/19 - Bonita Golf Course

I hit my ball into a fairway bunker, and it came to rest against the rake, which was in the bunker.  I didn't think this was a rule that changed for 2019, and it did not, though the number probably did.  The current applicable rule is Rule 15-2 - Movable Obstructions.  You can remove a movable obstruction with no penalty.  If the ball moves, you simply place it in the original position, still with no penalty.

It gets a little messy when the ball won't stay where placed.  Per rule 14.2e, you have to place it within the bunker, and you must place it no nearer the hole.  So if your ball came to rest against a rake on the back side down-slope of a bunker, and you can't place it anywhere in the bunker that isn't closer to the hole, then you have to play under the new bunker rule (19.3b) and take two penalty strokes.  That sucks.

In researching this, I read that the USGA recommends putting rakes outside the bunker to avoid this scenario.

I looked at rule 12 (Bunkers), and there was nothing about this scenario.  Rule 14.2 indicates that you must re-create the same lie that you had previously.

The ball didn't move when I removed the rake, but I did hit a really crappy shot out of the bunker.  I did manage to make a ~20 ft putt to save par, though.

3/30/2019 - Terminology

I can get used to "Penalty Area" rather than hazard, but I don't know why they needed to change it.

But watching the #DellMatchPlay, I can't get used to hearing "tie" the hole.  The announcers have slipped up several times and said "halved."  Why change the terminology? 

Most of the rule changes were to speed up the game, or make it more accessible.  Is "Halved" too pretentious?  Is the new terminology more mainstream?  If it is, then I guess that's why they changed it.  But like putting with the flagstick in, it's going to take some getting used to.

3/9/2019 - The Golf Club of California

Our club has adopted a couple of the optional local rules for 2019, and this was the first tournament that they were in effect.

One is the two-stroke penalty for a lost ball or OB, rather than stroke and distance.  I think this is a great rule for pace of play.  It was not utilized in our foursome.

The other one is a max score of 9 on any hole.  This is another one that I think is great for pace of play.  There were a couple of new players in our foursome, so this was utilized a number of times.  I had a legit 9.  I would like to not utilize this new local rule, but I'm glad it's there.

We have also had a local rule for quite some time that treats unpaved cart paths the same as paved cart paths (free relief)  That is a good local rule for this course, as a lot of the cart paths are dirt.  That one didn't come into play for us this round.

3/3/2019 - The Golf Course of California

Our club is playing GCC next week, and I had never played there, so I thought I would get in a practice round on Sunday afternoon.

When I checked in, the guy at the counter gave me a yardage book, and pointed out that there is a sand trap in the middle of the green on #7 (par 3).  He was very clear that you are not allowed to chip on the green.  If you're on the wrong side of the bunker, then you have to putt around it, he said.  He did offer the alternative of trying to putt really hard through the bunker, which would probably leave your ball in the bunker*.  And then you could use your wedge.

It is clearly stated on the scorecard (in all caps, even) - "CHIPPING ON ANY PUTTING SURFACE IS PROHIBITED."

Can they do that?  Rule 13.1f (2019 rules) covers the wrong putting green, but that's different.  PGA tour pros will often use a wedge on the green, if they would otherwise have to putt through the fringe or whatnot.

To me, this is fundamentally changing the rules of golf.  Unless otherwise specified in the rules, you can use any club for any shot.  I did a fair amount of searching and googling, and I can't find anything that convinces me that this is not a fundamental change to the rules of golf.

Should you do it?  No.  I think the course is within their rights to prohibit this.  But it's allowed in the rules of golf.  So if I was playing for $100 per hole, then I would absolutely violate their rule and post my score with a clear conscience.  I would repair any damage done to the best of my ability, and hope that they didn't kick me off the property.

Fortunately, I did not have to deal with this scenario.  I missed to the right of the green, but above the bunker.  And I would certainly have putted around the bunker in a practice round.  And if it happens in our tourney next week, I won't use a wedge on the green.  I'm not that good.  And I probably want to go back.  I really enjoyed my round there, despite the light rain and cool temperatures.

They also returned my sweatshirt, which I left in my cart, so I like the place.

*There is a noticeable elevation difference between the front and back of the green, so I suppose if you were above the trap, putting downhill, you might have a chance of putting over the bunker.  But there's no way to stop the ball, unless you can put backspin on a putt.

2/23/19 - Encinitas Ranch

Very unusual local rule at Encinitas Ranch:

150 yard flax bushes are defined as immovable obstructions.

I guess it makes sense.  A normal barber pole would be an immovable obstruction (unless you can move it).  Stakes are movable obstructions.  But these are bushes.  Big honkin' bushes.  It came into play a couple of times.

I guess it's along the same lines as a staked tree.

2/9/2019 - The Crossings at Carlsbad

I did an on-course lesson at the Crossings today, and on the first par 3, my tee shot hit the cart path and bounced up the hill, way left.  It was in a thin strip of gravel between the cart path and the OOB fence.  I get free relief from the cart path (but not the OOB fence).  We determined that my nearest point of relief would be way back in the fairway (see image, near the shadows of the trees).

You can't tell from the overhead shot, but it's a steep hill up to the next tee.  It looks like taking relief on the next tee would have been an option, but it didn't even occur to us because it wasn't really in sight.

Can't post a score from a lesson round anyway....

1/16/2019 - Golf Channel

Note that the new rule for double contact applies for accidentally hitting the ball a second time.

This would still be a penalty:

https://www.golf.com/news/2019/01/15/dj-koepka-double-hit-challenge-new-rules/

1/12/19 - Eastlake Country Club

Our first tournament under the new rules was at Eastlake (Chula Vista, not Atlanta) under soggy conditions.  I got to drop from knee height, putt with the flagstick in, and I might have had a double-contact, but that doesn't matter any more.  My club hit something in the air, but I think it was part of my divot.  It didn't sound or feel like I hit the ball.

We had a discussion centered around if you ask someone to tend the flagstick, then they must remove it.  I wasn't sure, so I looked it up.

New rule #13.2 covers the flagstick.and indicates that you must decide before the putt whether you are going to putt with the flagstick in or out.  Having someone attend the flagstick indicates that you intend to putt with the flagstick out.

New rule #11 covers ball deflected while in motion.  If it is unintentional, then there is no penalty.  If it is intentional, then it is the "general penalty."  (two strokes).

Note that if your opponent is attending the flagstick, and intentionally deflects your ball out of the hole, then they get the penalty.  If it's your caddie leaving the flagstick in because you hit the putt way too hard, then you get the penalty.

1/6/19 - Balboa 9

I wanted to play at least one round with the new rules prior to our next tournament, which is next weekend.  The 18-hole course at Balboa was flooded, so I played the 9-hole course.

Other than putting with the flagstick in out of laziness, none of the new rules came into play.  I thought I was going to have to drop out of casual water in a bunker at one point, but I found the only dry bunker on the course.

This is the best summary of the new rules I have seen:

The 20 Most Important Changes to the Rules of Golf 2019

1.       Search Time – Reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes
2.       Ball moved during search – Replace no penalty
3.       Embedded ball – Free relief anywhere through the course
4.       Measuring a drop – Use longest club (except putter)
5.       Dropping – Drop from knee height rather than shoulder
6.       Taking stance on wrong green is not permitted
7.       Ball unintentionally hits player or equipment – no penalty
8.       Double hit – no penalty, now only counts as the 1 stroke
9.       Touching sand in bunker incidentally is permitted
10.   Loose impediments can be removed anywhere including hazards
11.   Dropping a ball out of bunker – 2 penalty strokes
12.   Water hazards – now called “Penalty Areas:
13.   Touching ground in penalty area –no penalty
14.   Ball moves on green after being marked – replace without penalty
15.   Ball accidentally moved on putting green –replace without penalty
16.   All damage to green can now be repaired
17.   Positioning a club for alignment is not permitted
18.   Caddie assisting with alignment is now not permitted
19.   Putting with flag stick in hole is now permitted
20.   Ball wedged against flag stick and side of hole is deemed as holed

12/30/18 - The Crossings at Carlsbad

I played in the club championship at The Crossings at Carlsbad, and we had a bit of a rules snafu on our first hole (#11).  Three of us hit balls that could have been in the hazard.  I checked the scorecard, and it said that there was a drop zone on #11.  I've played that course a bunch of times, and I've never noticed a drop zone on #11.  But since the scorecard listed it, none of us played a provisional.

When we got to the fairway, we couldn't find the drop zone.  Two of us had gone through the fairway, and then into the hazard, so dropping within two club lengths of the hazard is an option.  The scorecard says "Drop areas are available."  That tells me that they are not mandatory.

The third ball in the hazard didn't reach the fairway.  About that time, a marshal came by, and took on the role of rules official.  He said that the third player had to go back to the tee.  His third shot also didn't clear the hazard, so by the time he hit the fairway, he was laying five.

I think he got screwed by the official.  Since the scorecard clearly indicated that there was a drop zone available, I would have been fine with him playing his third shot from the beginning of the fairway, since we couldn't find any marked drop zone.  But that's not how it unfolded.

On a different hole (#16), the drop zone was the forward tee, but in that case, it was clearly indicated by the signs.

Also, they allowed us to use the GPS on the carts.  I don't think those are legal for tournament play.  In addition to distance, you can use it to calculate your next shot, ie if I hit a 3 wood 200 yards off the tee, then the GPS tells me that I'll have 135 to the green.  I don't believe that is legal for tournament play.