Play it as it lies?????

[Msokol13]

I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to see what other people had to say.

A friend from work and I just started to play golf the last few weekends. I've noticed a trend that he does which I have incorporated as well.

Here is AZ, you can hit it just off the fairway and your stuck in nast,narly gravel or big rocks. When this happens we have given it the old foot-wedge in order to not f-up our clubs, I work too damn hard for my money and dont want to mess my clubs up in the process.

When we give ourselves relief it is never advancing the ball, usually and if need be 20 yards further back or maybe just one foot over, just somewhere to get out of the rocks. If the nearest point happens to be thick, 3 foot high native grass....that is where it goes...but it is better then rocks.

opinions?

[Grndslmhttr3]

I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to see what other people had to say.

If I'm out for a casual round then yeah, I'm not going to damage my clubs. Even in high-school matches, if there is a known issue, the coaches generally agree that you may find the nearest point of relief no closer to the hole. If not, well I get my 3i and try to punch/skull it. As for fairways, we normally play Winter rules in matches.

[Big_M]

I believe the rule you are looking for is called an unplayable lie and it comes with a penalty stroke... but do whatever you want. Honestly, if a lie is going to mess up your clubs (you said it was some nasty stuff), then you won't likely hit as good of a shot out of it as if you were to try and play it. So, in my eyes you are taking liberties as to what your score is... but that's just me and like I said... do whatever YOU feel is right, unless we are playing for money or in a competition.

PS - I'm glad I don't live in the dessert. I would get so tired of dessert golf.

[Grndslmhttr3]

Honestly I don't see why courses have rocks everywhere people will hit it. Maybe far out of the way, but in the rough next to the green? Come on.

[Shindig]

I have no real problem with this variant, as long as you know not to do it in a competition - unless told it's OK, such as the high school example, above.

My suggestion is to not use this to improve your situation, game-wise. So, if you had to play it from where it was, what would you do? If there's no way you'd be able to do anything other than wedge back to the fairway, but post-drop, you can get a longer club on it and advance it, then you may want to wedge it to the fairway - just to get a more accurate score.

[Fourputt]

I believe the rule you are looking for is called an unplayable lie and it comes with a penalty stroke... but do whatever you want.

I'm with Big M on this one. If I can't or won't play the ball as it lies, then it's a penalty. Simple.

I have hit plenty of shots from potentially club damaging lies.. I just play to pick the ball cleanly, and usually I'm only trying to get it back into play, not hit a 200 yard shot to the green.

PS - I'm glad I don't live in the dessert. I would get so tired of dessert golf.

I don't do

dessert very often myself... too fattening. And I've only ever played desert golf once in Palm Springs.... was never in the sort of situation that the OP describes.

[Big_M]

I don't do

yeah... that's why I would get tired of it... from all the calories. I must have had some butter pecan ice cream (that my pregnant wife ate the last of... to my dismay) on my mind.

[Msokol13]

yeah... that's why I would get tired of it... from all the calories. I must have had some butter pecan ice cream (that my pregnant wife ate the last of... to my dismay) on my mind.

Haha. I was going to say something about playing in a dessert vs desert but didnt want to be a d*ck.

Good times. And thanks for all the input, I will incorporate putting the same swing that I would have used from the lie or take the panalty like the rules say. Last thing I want to do is make it look like I'm a better player then what I really am. I think its easier to play better when people think less of you.

[Grndslmhttr3]

Haha. I was going to say something about playing in a dessert vs desert but didnt want to be a d*ck.

You mean think more of you? I personally feel somewhat uncomfortable playing with someone who I knows doesn't think much of me.

[Msokol13]

No. I meant what I said. If someone thinks I am better than what my handicap indicates.

Id rather have someone make a comment like" Wow, your only a 13 handicap. You have a better swing and can hit shots better then what I've seen other people with this same handicap have".

As opposed to:

"wow, you supposed to be a 13 handicap? I've seen a lot better ball striking out of a 20 handicap".

[Grndslmhttr3]

Oh I get what you're saying.

[kafka01]

2 years ago i played with an older couple during vacation. On his 3rd shot (on a Par 4) he hit his ball into rocks (still about 180y away from the pin). I knew he wouldnt take a drop and try to hit it. Sure enough, he grabs one of his brand new irons, hits the ball - but his clubhead flies further than the ball...

There wasnt anything on the line, that would make this guy do this - beside his ego probably. Its just plain stupid running the risk of ruining your club, especially if you cant control your swing path anyways, in such a situation.

To the poster who asked about the rocks on desert courses. Desert courses in general dont have much nature to defend, and oftentimes, when you would hit a wayward shot on a heavily treelined hole, you either lose your ball or have to work really hard to make par. So i guess, planting rocks/palms/cacti is the course designers way to make it more difficult for the players.

[Zeph]

If I can't play it as it lies due to rocks or something like that, and the course does not allow ball placement in the area my ball is, and the local rules does not give relief, I'm taking a drop with penalty, be that a casual round or tournament. If I hit the ball into an area with rocks, it usually is not the fairway, so it's my fault I'm there, why should I get relief for a bad shot?

[walk18]

I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to see what other people had to say.

I don't understand (probably because I don't live in the desert), but are you saying your course doesn't have rough? Like as soon as the fairway ends, it becomes all rocks??

[TheLauncher]

The desert I've seen in southern California was literally all rocks, almost none larger than golf balls and most the size of marbles or smaller. Any grass on a desert course must be planted and watered, of course at great effort and expense to the groundskeeping crew and the club. I am guessing it is more an issue of impracticability than of designers trying to make play harder that there the natural environs are left as is just off of the fairway. I can't answer as to how much or little rough there is at the OP's course, but having seen desert I can certainly imagine why it is the way it is.

Even at my home course here in the northeast there are occasions where the ball is on top of embedded rocks or roots that threaten to wither damage clubs or produce a dangerous shot. Unless you are on a cart path or ground under repair, the procedure is to take an unplayable if you don't want to play it as it lies. Naturally, there are far fewer of these occurrences than if I were playing at your course. If you want your 'cap to be accurate, then I'd say adhere to the rules. But we all have different reasons for playing and I think the best advice in this thread is to do what makes YOU most comfortable.

[Jell0b0y]

I was doing the old foot wedge because I wasn't worried about my HC but now that I am wanting to see what I really shoot I try very hard to play by the rules as best as i can. I would now play a unplayable and take a stroke. About the only thing I do that is not 100% in the rules is if I hit a shot and think its not lost or didn't go OB but was then I would drop close to were it went out and play it like stroke and distance (so if hit driver and lost I would be hitting 4). I don;t want to slow play if course is crowded and if it wasn't then I would go back and hit off the tee again.

[SKMoss]

I believe the rule you are looking for is called an unplayable lie and it comes with a penalty stroke...

I tend to go back and forth on this. Depends usually if it's me in the rough or my playing partner.

It's not a bad idea to play it by the rules in this case. Accept the penalty stroke for what it's there for. An incentive to keep it in the short grass.

[golfbarefoot]

Well.

What you are saying is because you missed your shot to the fairway which you were aiming, you were penalized with a bad lie...okay...
...so you improve your lie by kicking it back to a place where you should have really hit it.

hmm..

Opinion#1 - If you are playing it down, which you should and do not like your lie, declare it unplayable and take a penalty stroke and a proper drop. It will make you a better player in the long run. Perhaps you continue to hit in bad places because its really not a penalty...you keep improving your lie, so there is no penalty...having to truly play it down may cause you focus harder to avoid a true penalty..

Opinion#2- Or you could be clever and remove one of your 14 clubs and replace it with an old iron you could care less if you damaged to play from those lies and get the ball back in play the correct way until your game improves.

Not playing the golf ball as it lies, is like shooting free throws in front of the the foul line...