3/27/2024 - Miramar

Have you ever wondered what complete relief means?  I was wondering when my ball was near the cart path on #18.  The lie wasn't great, and the cart path was definitely interfering with my stance, but the further right I went, the more a tree was going to be an issue.

So it means what it sounds like it means.  If I'm taking relief from the cart path, my nearest point of relief has to be at least far enough to no longer be standing on the cart path.  But then you get a club length from your nearest point of complete relief, so you can probably find a good spot.

I was able to get a stance on grass, and still not have the tree be too much in my way.

3/22/2024 - Balboa

I found a tee on the golf course (pic below), and I think it's an illegal tee.  It's hard to tell, but it's not round.  The top is oval-shaped.

The rules specify that a tee must not be "designed or manufactured in a way that could indicate line of play." (emphasis added)

You could clearly point the tee along the line of play, but once you put a ball on it, I don't think you could tell.  But I can't see how any tee design could indicate line of play once the ball is placed.  So I'm going to go with technically illegal.

So this would be a violation of Rule #4.3, which is two strokes for the first offense, and then DQ if you do it again.  If anyone tried to call me on this, I would make the argument that I can't use it for alignment with a ball on the tee.  But that fact seems to be inherent in a tee, so I think the committee would tell me that I was wrong. 

Bay Hill has tees with a log on top (Arnie's umbrella).  That could conceivably be used for alignment (before you put a ball on it).  I don't see anyone having a problem with that.