2/18/2018 - Balboa

Is bird crap a loose impediment?

Yes.  The definition of loose impediments includes:

• stones, leaves, twigs, branches and the like,
• dung, and
• worms, insects and the like and the casts made by them, provided they are not:
• fixed or growing,
• solidly embedded, or,
• adhering to the ball

So there you have it...

1/28/2018 - Farmers Insurance Open

I attended The Farmers Insurance Open yesterday, and I almost saw a spectator step on a ball in play.  It didn't happen, but it could have.  So what's the ruling?

The best I could figure, that would be a ball at rest moved by an outside agency (Rule 18-1).  But it gets interesting from there.  According to Rule 18-1, the ball must be replaced.  I don't think you could get the ball to hover above the hole created by stepping on it, but Rule 18-1, Note 2 refers to rule 20-3b in the scenario that the original lie has been altered.  Rule 20-3b says that you must place the ball in the nearest lie most similar to the original lie that is not more than one club-length from the original lie, and not closer to the hole.

My first thought was that you should drop the ball in accordance with Rule 25-2 (Embedded Ball), but I think placing the ball is more correct in this scenario.

1/1/2018 - Happy New Year!

You may have heard mention of the new golf rules coming into effect for 2018, but there aren't any. The new rules you've heard about don't go into effect until 2019.

Some of the proposed rule changes are pretty major.  Some highlights:

• Accidentally moving your ball would no longer be a penalty.
• Relief will be in inches, not club-lengths
• You can only search for a lost ball for three minutes instead of five minutes
• Free relief for embedded ball in the rough (our club has already adopted this as a club local rule)
• You will be allowed to repair any damage on the green (not just a ball mark)
• No penalty for hitting the flagstick with a putt

And they are still that - proposed.  You can read more about them here:

USGA - Major Proposed Changes

If you happen to play on the PGA Tour (or other high-level tours), then you won't have to worry about Joe Couch Potato calling in a penalty:

Common sense prevails as fans can no longer call in golf rules violations

Are they going to call that the Lexi Thompson rule?

I'll probably be writing more on these as the year wears on.  My first question is if the new rule 11.1 (see first link above) would take away the penalty double-contact.  My reading is that it would.

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.

The Dustin Johnson Rule

There's a new local rule available that would have saved Dustin Johnson from a penalty in the US Open.  Your club may or may not adopt this local rule.

http://www.usga.org/rules-hub/2017-local-rule/new-local-rule.html

12/4/16 - Aviara

If you're going to hit a putter laying on the ground when you're hitting out of a bunker, I would recommend hitting your opponent's putter.  Per rule 19-3, if you hit an opponent's equipment, you can either play the ball as it lies (no penalty), or replay the stroke.

I hit my own putter.  That's covered under rule 19-2.  Play it as it lies, one stroke penalty.

So next time I guess I'll leave my putter further away from the trap.  Or hit a better bunker shot.

9/10/16 - Carlton Oaks

We had our monthly tournament at Carlton Oaks today.  One guy in our foursome hit a ball into the bank above a sand trap, and it came to rest against a rake on the bank.  It was clear that moving the rake would cause the ball to roll into the trap.

I consulted with our handicap chairman, who was in the group behind us, and he gave the correct interpretation.  Rule 24-1a says that a movable obstruction may be moved, and if moving the obstruction causes the ball to move, then the ball must be placed in the original position, and there is no penalty.

8/13/16 - Salt Creek

I had been told that there were some bunkers that were under repair at Salt Creek, which prompted me to send a summary to the club on Rule 25 - Abnormal Ground Conditions.

A ball in Ground Under Repair (GUR) is a free drop, but if you are in GUR in a bunker, you must drop in the bunker.  Alternatively, you can take a one stroke penalty and drop outside the bunker, on a line between the flag and the position of your ball in the bunker.

If the entire bunker is under repair, then you get the free drop outside the bunker (one club length from the nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole).

The course was nice enough to put a card in each cart summarizing your options.

For some bunkers they had a red drop area painted by the bunker.  I had never heard of that, but I guess it's a local rule for the course, under these conditions.

I never hit into a bunker that was under repair.  I did not play particularly well.

8/6/16 - Balboa

So this was an interesting one...

On the first tee, one player hit his ball way left, over some trees and onto the 18th hole.  I'm not sure if he announced that was hitting a provisional or not, but he hit another ball, landing in the fairway.  My tee shot also went left, but not as far as his.  From my ball, I saw another ball, which could have been his first one.  It was considerably further than his second ball.  I was going to tell him about it, but he was about to hit his next (fourth) shot.  It would have been rude for me to interrupt him about to hit the ball.

Per rule 27-2b, the provisional ball becomes the ball in play once he reaches the point where the original ball is likely to be.  But since his first drive was longer, he hadn't reached that point.  So I told him about the ball after his shot.  I'm pretty certain that even after playing a second shot with his provisional ball, he could have gone to his original ball and legitimately played a second shot per decision 27-2b/3.

He didn't bother.  He never identified the ball that I had found.  So I think he was fine playing his fourth stroke from the fairway and abandoning the first ball.  That ball was abandoned when he played the next shot with his (formerly) provisional.  That shot was a chip from just off the green.  He then two-putted for what I would say was a 7.  I have no idea what he wrote down.

7/31/16 - PGA Championship

I've never been a fan of "preferred lies," or as my club calls it, "lift, clean, and cheat."  But they did what they thought was best.

I'm not sure I saw any footage of a pro cleaning his ball in the fairway.  Were they not doing it very much, or was the telecast trying to downplay it?

7/27/16 - Admiral Baker North

This isn't a golf rule, but a club rule.  We give out a prize for low putts for every tournament.  What constitutes a putt?

If you use your putter from off the green, that does not count as a put.  So a recipe for getting low putts is to miss a lot of greens, but not by very much.  I'd rather have the GIR and a lower score than fewer putts.

If you use a wedge on the green (don't do that), then it's a putt.  PGA tour pros can get away with this.  You're not that good.

Once you've hit your first putt (defined as above), then every stroke after that on that hole is a putt.  So if you putt off the front of the green, and you have to chip back up, for purposes of counting putts, that chip counts as a putt.

Maybe your club does it differently.  I'd love to hear how you do it.

7/23/16 - Balboa

We're all used to moving loose impediments (small rocks and twigs).  I knew that you could not do so in a bunker, but it did not occur to me that you can't do it in any hazard until it was too late.  Rule 13-4.  So two bonus strokes for me!

I have a job now, which is seriously cutting into the frequency of my golfing.

7/9/16 - Mt. Woodson

Rule 26-1 says that if a ball is found in a hazard, or if it is known or virtually certain that the ball is in the hazard, then you can proceed under this rule (ball in hazard).  Otherwise, you must proceed under Rule 27-1 (ball lost).

On a short downhill par 4, I expected to find my ball on the right side of the fairway.  I didn't.  There was a hazard to the right, and my ball was probably in there.  But I was looking in bunkers, looking down the cart path, I really had no idea where it was.  So rather than assume that it's in the hazard, the rules say that you have to go back to the spot of the previous shot.

The lesson here (as always) is that it is never a bad idea to hit a provisional.  It beats the walk (or in this case drive) of shame.

7/8/16 - The Vineyard

It had been a long time since I had a double-contact on a chip.  Per Rule 14-4, that's a penalty stroke.  So in essence, each hit of the ball counts as a stroke.

Actually that last statement isn't accurate.  The rule says if you hit it more than once, then it's a penalty stroke.  So if you somehow managed to hit the ball three times on one stroke, it would only count as two strokes (one stroke plus the penalty).

7/7/16 - Mt. Woodson

You probably know that you have to tee off between and behind the markers on the tee box.  But how far back can you go?

Two club lengths (See the definition of Teeing Ground).

No one broke this rule during my round today, it just came up in conversation.

7/6/16 - Balboa (again)

Did you know that leaving the flagstick in when you are putting is illegal?  One of the guys I was playing with didn't.

Rule 17-3 (c)
The Player's ball must not strike the flagstick in the hole, unattended, when the stroke has been made on the putting green.

Two bonus strokes for a violation of this rule.

It's tough to beat $19 weekday twilight for Balboa.  This time of year it's really easy to finish before dark.

6/30/16 - Balboa

I played 18 holes with the same ball.  That's always nice.

Not much to report from a rules standpoint, but if you are dropping the ball, you have to do it from shoulder height, not waist height.

I'm probably getting pretty picky at this point.

Simulated Golf

I played a round on a simulator a couple of weeks ago, and I was wondering at what point it would be legitimate to post a simulated round for handicap purposes.  Your lie is always good on a simulator, and I haven't seen one that does putting very well, but at some point....

6/26/16 - Village Country Club

I was up in Lompoc for my high school reunion this weekend, and I got to play the Village Country Club.  I lived 2 miles from there in high school, but never played it.  It's suffering from the drought a little bit, but it's a nice course!

I was hit with the full Dustin Johnson on #15.  I placed my putter behind the ball before my stroke, and the ball moved.  Not just a fraction of an inch like DJ, but about a quarter turn.  So I got a bonus stroke on that hole!

6/21/16 - Torrey Pines South

I played TP South yesterday.  It was my worst round in a while, but I have to remind myself that it's a tough course (slope 133 from the white).

Not much came up with regards to the rules.  At one point, someone else marked my ball, which was in someone's line.  I was walking while everyone else was riding.  I'm fine with that in casual play, to speed up the game, but I was wondering if it was a violation.  As far as I can tell, this would be a violation of rule 20-1.  The player's partner can mark the ball, or "another person authorized by the player."  That would cover the caddie, but probably not another player.

As I said, it helped pace of play, and I'm fine with it.

While researching this, I found the decision below interesting.  This also happened during the round.
20-1/6.5
Ball-Marker pressed down by opponent
There is no penalty if the marker does not move.
There is no penalty if the opponent was authorized in this action.
If the opponent was not authorized, and the marker moves, then there is a one stroke penalty on the opponent.

Note to anyone interested in playing TP South - The work is done on the fourth tee, so it's back to being a beast of a par 4.