To set the scene it is the 2023 AMCC conference championship at Indiana CC (Indiana, PA). I walk off 8 flustered after making a triple bogey with a GIR (putted off a false front; and took a couple to get back on). I get to 9 a drivable par 4, and in front of @iacas top the ball so bad it jumps back staying in the teeing area. Since, like many of you I'm sure, I watch the USGA rules videos they put out on Instagram and YouTube, I knew rule 6.2b(6) which states if the ball does not leave the teeing area, you may retee anywhere in the teeing area with no penalty (hitting 2 of course). After embarrassing myself completely and showing & explaining the rule to my playing partners I walked off the hole with a bogey.

I don't think it is concept that is hard to grasp. Most people who complain find an S&D penalty too harsh for a lost ball that is presumably inbound/in a non-penalty area.  I suspect because in other sports, when you loose a point, you loose only THAT point. While that is an apples to oranges comparison, to the casual golfer it's a bit of system shock. 

I don’t understand why this concept is hard for people. If the ball is lost, it is lost. It doesn’t matter where they think it should be, or whether they feel like it should be lost. The bottom line is they don’t have a ball in play. I play with some people that will just drop with one stroke (if they even take a stroke at all). Frankly, I don’t care since it’s not a competition, but if they go bragging at the bar later that they shot “85” because I will call them out on it every time.

I played in Open Qualifying about 25 years ago. I got to the last hole - I shan't share my score, but it wasn't good. It's a long uphill par 4 with the clubhouse just long left of the green. The clubhouse is out of bounds. I hit my second shot left and it got a firm bounce. Get up there and the clubhouse has a patio. Between the patio and a grass is a little channel filled with pebbles. In that channel is my ball. Channel is in play, but hardly ideal. About 8 inches behind my ball also in the channel is a sprinkler head. So I asked an official who happened to be on the patio whether I got relief or not. He had me set up to it and take a backswing. My club hit the sprinkler head (harder than I would have liked). He asked me to do it again (side note - WTF?) and I hit the sprinkler again. He begrudgingly gave me relief and I dropped it on the grass, pitched on the green and missed from about 8 feet. Holing it would have allowed me to break a certain score threshold I'd rather not flirt with. Following year, I played same course, same event and I played a LOT better. I birdied 17 to go back to even par for the day. Friend of mine told me it looked like even was playing off for last spot, but birdie on 18 would get me through (this was local qualifying, so through to final qualifying). I hit my drive in the heather right, went for it from there and pulled it heather left and wound up making double to not be in the play off (which wound up being about 8 people for 2 spots). But I digress - anyway, as I walked off 18 green I walked over to the patio where the scorers were and noticed that they had painted a white line on the grass next to that Channel, so they fixed my issue from the previous year, albeit in a way that would have been much more detrimental to my score.

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