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.