Tee Shot Comes to Rest in a Divot Hole in the Fairway

[KoHo]

I just read this article and was wondering how often this happens to people who play a lot of golf. I haven't been playing for that long and this has never happened to me. I've watched a lot of golf on TV in the last 3 years and I think I have only seen a couple tour pros hit their approach shots out of a divot. I'm pretty sure I heard this topic come up in casual conversation when the rules where changing and people thought they should get free relief. I'm thinking it's got to be pretty rare. So my ball ends up in a divot once a year...big whoop. What do you guys think?

SURVEY: Is golf really fair? Non-golfers don't think so...

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Non-golfers not put off by complexity of golf rules - it's the unfairness they do not like...

 

[Piz]

It may seem unfair but it hardly ever happens and I do not think a rule change is in order.  I've had plenty of poor lies, in the fairway, that I would happily trade for one in a shallow divot.

[Bonvivant]

I voted for 1 to 2 times per year...but I can't think of an exact instance. I think if you just accept the RoG, and it didn't throw a wrench in your round, you forget about it pretty quickly. A couple of oddities come with this question though. The courses that pros play are spruced up beforehand, so you would think that it would happen less, but it might happen more because they have more consistent landing zones. I play on munis that aren't well maintained, but it doesn't happen often because there are divots everywhere but where I am usually lol.

[billchao]

I can only think of one time this has happened to me in the past three years. Not hitting fairways often helps.

Although three weeks ago I hit my ball into a divot hole in greenside rough. That's an odd one.

Played them both as they lay.

[Vinsk]

This has been addressed and the players are simply wrong. It’s not unfair. Erik has made the clear and simple analogy of hitting a tree and getting a kick back into the fairway while another goes OB. It’s golf. Shut up and play.

[David in FL]

Certainly more than three times per year, but then, I play well in excess of 100 rounds per year.

Regardless, it is what it is, and an integral part of the game.

[Patch]

Maybe one or two times a year. It's not a big deal. I just.play it as it is. 

When on the d-range i might practice hitting out of a divot a few times. 

[Darkfrog]

I play 50-60 rounds a year, and maybe it happens once or twice. But honestly I can’t remember the last time it happened.

At my local muni, there are worse lies than divots on the fairway sometimes, like spots with poor drainage where your feet sink 2 inches into the mud at address, or areas next to redwood trees with shallow roots that you can barely see. 

[boogielicious]

7 hours ago, billchao said:

Not hitting fairways often helps.

This is my strategy to avoid the extreme unfairness of having to play from a divot hole 1 or 2 times a year. If they changed the rule then I would hit more fairways. 😜

[mcanadiens]

Can't say I count such things, but its got to be more than three per year for me.

I'm usually 75-85 rounds per year and, yes, I play munis. Some divots are worse than others, but I'd think I land in one at least once every 5 or 6 rounds.

Like @Darkfrog said, some lies can be worse than a divot. A ball in the front of a big one at least has the back of the ball pretty well exposed. It's something you can at least advance.

 

[CarlSpackler]

25 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

I'm usually 75-85 rounds per year and, yes, I play munis. Some divots are worse than others, but I'd think I land in one at least once every 5 or 6 rounds.

The divots on the courses around here are often not replaced or repaired, so they take forever to heal. Most of them could be classified as a "big dig" project since they go halfway to China.

[mcanadiens]

24 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

The divots on the courses around here are often not replaced or repaired, so they take forever to heal. Most of them could be classified as a "big dig" project since they go halfway to China.

Oh yes, @CarlSpackler, man of champagne wishes, caviar dreams and a public course budget. 

Well, get yourself into Miami Valley where they've never heard of a divot and bring us along. We can see how the other half live.

Can't say I'm that well traveled, but I don't think our public courses are all that worse on average than public courses anywhere.

Edited May 21, 2020 by mcanadiens

[DaveP043]

An interesting quote from the end of the article:

Quote

SPL’s chief psychologist said: "The recent revision of the rules of golf has gone a long way to remove the perception of complexity amongst the general public.

"However, to attract greater numbers to the game the ruling bodies need to address the perception of unfairness that some of the rules create.

"In a post COVID-19 world, equity and fairness are likely to be driving factors in the decisions that people make about the organisations and activities that they will engage with."

I'm not sure that a psychologist is the best individual to tell the gold world what it needs to do to attract new golfers.  He seems to say that "equity" and "fairness" are essentially the same thing, and they're not, at least in golf.  Equity is treating similar things in a similar fashion.  The Rules of Golf do their best to do that.  Fairness is a more nebulous goal, and isn't necessarily part of golf.  

Fairness isn't a one-way street, or it shouldn't be.  If we were to choose to eliminate the situations where a result was "worse than deserved", we should also eliminate the occasions where the result was "better than deserved".  Every time you take relief from a divot hole, you should do so expecting to have to toss a ball back into the woods where it was headed before it bounced off the tree.  That's fair!  But life isn't fair, bounces aren't always fair, golf isn't always fair in that way.  

[iacas]

54 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

The divots on the courses around here are often not replaced or repaired, so they take forever to heal. Most of them could be classified as a "big dig" project since they go halfway to China.

I don't know that it's about that. The mowers just take the divots out of their holes at the nice courses around here, and most divots don't include the roots, etc. I think it's just that the nicer courses have healthier grass, so it fills in much more quickly.

But that's just having talked to a few maintenance guys who told me how replacing divots almost never matters in a late-night round because "the mower will just come along the next morning and pick them off anyway" (paraphrasing what they've told me).

[CarlSpackler]

22 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

Oh yes, @CarlSpackler, man of champagne wishes, caviar dreams and a public course budget. 

Well, get yourself into Miami Valley where they've never heard of a divot and bring us along. We can see how the other half live.

Can't say I'm that well traveled, but I don't think our public courses are all that worse on average than public courses anywhere.

My budget could easily accommodate a private club once I pay off a few vehicles currently consuming $1150 a month. As far as other parts of the country, it's not like muni fairways are plush, but Kitttyhawk (RIP) was exceptionally bad. I've seen divots in tee boxes and fairways that you could plant a tree in. They should put orange cones by some of those things to keep a kid from falling in. It may be a coincidence that there is often a mark that resembles a club head smashed into the ground right next to it.

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't know that it's about that. The mowers just take the divots out of their holes at the nice courses around here, and most divots don't include the roots, etc. I think it's just that the nicer courses have healthier grass, so it fills in much more quickly.

But that's just having talked to a few maintenance guys who told me how replacing divots almost never matters in a late-night round because "the mower will just come along the next morning and pick them off anyway" (paraphrasing what they've told me).

I was referring more to repairing with sand. Replacing divots seems to work in the spring when the ground is soft, but they just burn up in the hotter summer months. Nicer public courses often have a sand container on the cart and/or a container of sand on tee boxes. That practice seems to help divots heal faster.

36 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Fairness isn't a one-way street, or it shouldn't be.  If we were to choose to eliminate the situations where a result was "worse than deserved", we should also eliminate the occasions where the result was "better than deserved".  Every time you take relief from a divot hole, you should do so expecting to have to toss a ball back into the woods where it was headed before it bounced off the tree.  That's fair!  But life isn't fair, bounces aren't always fair, golf isn't always fair in that way.  

Amen! We tend to have a self-centered view of "fairness" and don't take into account that sometimes things go against us. I readily admit that I am guilty of this. In terms of playing out of divots, all you need to do is hit your driver farther than the average golfer. This will significantly decrease the odds of a ball ending up in a divot.

[HJJ003]

I can't remember the last time it happened. Less than once a year for sure, and I play year round in Houston. 

[mcanadiens]

22 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

My budget could easily accommodate a private club once I pay off a few vehicles currently consuming $1150 a month. As far as other parts of the country, it's not like muni fairways are plush, but Kitttyhawk (RIP) was exceptionally bad. I've seen divots in tee boxes and fairways that you could plant a tree in. They should put orange cones by some of those things to keep a kid from falling in. It may be a coincidence that there is often a mark that resembles a club head smashed into the ground right next to it.

Those car loans can kick your butt.  

There is no denying that Kittyhawk had more than its share of divots. That said, at the moment, Kittyhawk is surely one of the nicest pieces of abandoned property in the entire City of Dayton.  

 

[chilepepper]

While playing out of a divot annoys me.....it happens so seldom that it really doesn’t move the needle. I generally play <$50 courses that usually don’t have the highest maint budgets or the most conscientious players