Washed-out Bunker - What is the Ruling?

[sjduffers]

Take it up with them. If they insist on the 'local rule', play by it.

The committee are the ultimate authority even if they are wrong. If the issue is taken up with the USGA or R&A;, they will only say what the correct ruling is but they have no power to enforce it or overrule the committee.

Fair enough. Thanks!  Perhaps when presented with the USGA or R&A; ruling the committee can reconsider their wrongness... Ah!

The thing with a local rule, right or wrong, everyone is playing under the same local rule.  If you feel the committee is making a wrong local ruling, you should address it with them before play starts.  Another thing you can do, and I tell this to anyone who questions a ruling in our league, volunteer to become a member of the committee.

Agreed.  Btw, I didn't imply that someone would have to repair the course before play starts or to delay any play scheduled after the tournament. However, let's not forget that bunkers are hazards after all and they typically cost a player 0.5 stroke or more (and more than 1 in many cases), depending on the difficulty of the bunker and the skill of the player.  So, I do have an issue with entirely removing that aspect of the game and letting anyone aim freely for the bunkers when they are a major feature of a course, with say more than 100 bunkers between the 18 holes, when there are actual rules that allow play in bad conditions, at the expense of an actual penalty stroke (instead of the 0.5 or more incurred by normally playing out of a good shape one).  Just saying...

FYI, I did volunteer to be a member of the committee, but my insistence that we do something about slow play (by educating our membership on how to be more efficient) got me booted out before I even started ("we are playing to have fun, not to be pressed by time, etc..." was the excuse). Yes, I probably should be looking for another club, but other than signing up at an actual golf course, which I don't really want to do because nearly all the tournaments are then at that course, it's slim pickings...

[RickK]

FYI, I did volunteer to be a member of the committee, but my insistence that we do something about slow play (by educating our membership on how to be more efficient) got me booted out before I even started ("we are playing to have fun, not to be pressed by time, etc..." was the excuse). Yes, I probably should be looking for another club, but other than signing up at an actual golf course, which I don't really want to do because nearly all the tournaments are then at that course, it's slim pickings...

Slow play...a whole other subject.  We fight slow play all the time.  For some reason, it seems when everyone has to play "by the rules" and putt everything out, it starts taking longer.  It shouldn't but it does.  Higher handicap golfers are going to take more strokes and have more penalty strokes.  Not saying that lower handicappers don't but by nature of their handicaps, the higher handicaps are going to be looking for their ball more often than the lower handicappers.  Hitting provisional balls, searching in water hazards, etc...starts taking more time and for some reason it seems all players have a hard time regaining the ground they lost.  I hate slow play but we fight it constantly.

We had a guy quit our league because he recommended that we have a stroke maximum of double par.  It got rejected because giving a guy an automatic double par can lead to him finishing in place money in the tournament vs someone else who played it out the entire way.

Hope you find a group.