To Search or not to Search?

[Big C]

Helping an opponent search for a wayward tee shot is often considered common courtesy in golf, but alas.. it is not always so. What would you do in the following scenario?:

You are on the back nine of a very tight match against a good opponent. You are teeing off into a long par 3 lined with dense trees along the right of the hole. You hit a decent shot to the back of the green that puts you about 40 feet above the hole - on the surface, but leaving a very tricky downhill putt. 

Your opponent tees off and slices his ball into the forest on the right. Based on the density of the trees, there is a chance that he may not be able to find the ball. Even if he does, the second shot will likely be obstructed. So he plays a provisional and hits a beautiful second shot that lands and sticks 1 foot from the cup - a sure-fire tap in bogey. Your opponent declares that he is abandoning his first shot and walks quickly up towards the green. 

With two putts to win the hole, would you keep quiet and focus on your game? Or would you be "that guy" who searches against his opponents wishes, knowing that if you do find the ball, your opponent is far more likely to make double or worse, than he is to make bogey or better? Would your response change if the competition were stroke play against a large field?

The discussion came up during a round this weekend and the generally accepted consensus among my group was that it was bad form to search. But after thinking about it - at least as it pertains to match play - I'm not so sure that I agree. I'm no big fan of match play gamesmanship, but I'm not sure that there is anything that is wrong with trying to enforce the consequences of your opponents' bad shot. Even so, it seemed like people felt like searching for a ball in that scenario would be a pretty significant violation of an unwritten rule. 

I'm still on the fence about it. And although I'm sure my answer should be the same regardless of the type of event, I have to say that I would feel much worse about searching for a Fellow Competitor's ball in a stroke play event than I would an opponent in a match. What do others think?

 

 

[iacas]

I voted "yes" to both poll questions, but may eventually change my mind (you can do that now in our polls). It wasn't "yes" by a wide margin.

I'd probably look around briefly, but I'm not gonna spend five minutes and all that. In Match Play the guy can't play out of turn anyway, so you don't have to fear that. In stroke play he could just walk up and tap the ball in, and thus have made a stroke from closer to the hole than the ball is likely to be.

But… yeah. It's one of those things. I mean, maybe without any pressure, he hit that second shot better than he would if he had to re-create it after taking an unplayable? I dunno. Ultimately, you're well within the Rules of Golf, but are you… just a jerk? So, does how large the stage is matter? Are you willing to do it for a $5 Nassau? What about the club championship?

[Golfingdad]

6 minutes ago, Big C said:

With two putts to win the hole, would you keep quiet and focus on your game?

Yup.

7 minutes ago, Big C said:

Or would you be "that guy" who searches against his opponents wishes, knowing that if you do find the ball, your opponent is far more likely to make double or worse, than he is to make bogey or better?

Nope.  I dislike gamesmanship in any form.  When all is said and done and I win, I want to have really won.

7 minutes ago, Big C said:

Would your response change if the competition were stroke play against a large field?

No.  This would kind of fall into the same category of not marking your ball that's next to the hole before your partner hits his pitch shot.  In neither case are you "protecting the field."

This is the beauty of "worshipping" the religion of the Golden Rule.  These answers come easy. 

 

[mvmac]

I voted "yes" for both, kinda depends on the situation/who the opponent is but I would most likely give it a quick search. 

[iacas]

4 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Nope.  I dislike gamesmanship in any form.

I don't think it's gamesmanship.

They hit the shot. They should have to play the ball as it lies. If they truly wanted to declare that ball out of play, they could have just hit another ball without calling it a provisional.

[saevel25]

6 minutes ago, mvmac said:

I voted "yes" for both, kinda depends on the situation/who the opponent is but I would most likely give it a quick search. 

Pretty much this.

Most of the time I will help a guy look for his ball. I've never held anyone to the 5 minute rule. If the guy calls he's going to go play his provisional I'll most likely give up the search. 

Honestly, I rather not waste time forcing the guy to go back to the tee to rehit. If I am in play and he's OB the odds of winning the hole are very slim in match play. 

I think stroke play is where it matters the most. When you are down 3 strokes and if he stripped one down the middle on his provisional. If finding his ball causes him to have to take an unplayable, and rehit from the tee. It might be the best option to gain some ground. For me that is such a rare case. 

I am still not sure if that is considered a "jerk" move. It's a competition played by the rules of golf. 

 

[bkuehn1952]

In match play I voted I would look but not for a prolonged time.  In stroke play, I typically ask the player if he wants me to look.  If he says "no" I don't look.

Which leads me to the thought, what if the other player states he doesn't want to look and walks to the green. Then you see a ball sitting perfectly, in play, in a spot that could be the result of a lucky ricochet.  You don't know if it is his ball.

Call him back?  Ignore it because he told you not to look? What if he had been a jerk all day, never helping you look for your ball, trying gamesmanship on you, etc...

I must admit that his approach to the game would help me decide.  I call him back if he is a good guy and keep walking if he has been a jerk.

[Golfingdad]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't think it's gamesmanship.

They hit the shot. They should have to play the ball as it lies. If they truly wanted to declare that ball out of play, they could have just hit another ball without calling it a provisional.

All true.  But I'd much rather beat the guy without him thinking that the reason I beat him was that I'm a dick.  (Note I'm not saying that's the reason, but that it's possible he'll think that's part of it)

And this is actually more true if I know the guy already doesn't like me, or if I don't like him for some reason.  He'll have to know that not only did I beat him, but I beat him while "spotting" him a potential stroke.

---

One more additional reason:  The worst case scenario option.  Remember, you don't have the option of finding the ball and not telling him.  Imagine you go trying to help him make his double bogey or worse and you find his ball and its playable and he manages a par.

[sjduffers]

I voted no on both counts.

In match play, I'd focus on my game and try to get down in 2 putts to take the hole.  At worst, I would 3-putt and halve the hole. Why make an ass out of myself?

In stroke play, I if I was attempting to do a search, I would expect to see the competitor not walk but run to the green, take the flag out with one hand and tap-in with the other, and afterwards still view me as an ass after telling me not to search...

[iacas]

1 minute ago, Golfingdad said:

One more additional reason:  The worst case scenario option.  Remember, you don't have the option of finding the ball and not telling him.  Imagine you go trying to help him make his double bogey or worse and you find his ball and its playable and he manages a par.

Yeah, I don't see it that way. I don't see that as "the worst case scenario." I see it as "playing golf by the Rules and maintaining your integrity."

If he got a lucky break, he beat YOU within the Rules, without anyone being a jerk.

[Fourputt]

If he says forget it, then I'm done.  He's already taking stroke and distance, so if I can't get anything from that, I don't really deserve any advantage.  Golf isn't a blood sport, not the way I play it.

[Golfingdad]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yeah, I don't see it that way. I don't see that as "the worst case scenario." I see it as "playing golf by the Rules and maintaining your integrity."

You lost me here.  I fail to see how choosing to not look for his ball is anywhere on the spectrum of not playing by the rules or not maintaining your integrity?

[billchao]

I voted yes to both but that's easy to say sitting on my couch at home. Would I really look if I were in that situation? I don't know.

I can tell you for certain that I wouldn't look for very long and I'm more likely to do it in match play than stroke play simply because he can't negate my search efforts by playing out of turn.

[MrFlipper]

This reminds me of the Solheim Cup discussion here...

I voted yes on both. Especially for stroke play, you must protect the field and I wouldn't want to be explaining to some guy who lost by one shot to this guy why I didn't make at least an effort to look for the original ball in the trees. If the guy ran up and hit it in before it was found, I have no control over that. But the obligation to protect the field is very real.

Match play, just me and this person, I'd go look but not necessarily the exact whole 5 minutes. The rules are there, they should be followed. Can't just give the guy a free pass. You can still follow the rules and not be a jerk, it's not gamesmanship in any way. Either you follow the rules or you don't. 

[Golfingdad]

11 minutes ago, MrFlipper said:

Especially for stroke play, you must protect the field and I wouldn't want to be explaining to some guy who lost by one shot to this guy why I didn't make at least an effort to look for the original ball in the trees. If the guy ran up and hit it in before it was found, I have no control over that. But the obligation to protect the field is very real.

I don't believe that the obligation applies in this case.  As I understand it, "protecting the field" applies when the player you are protecting the field from does something (knowingly or otherwise) that is afoul of the rules.  You notice that he has 15 clubs in his bag, he played a wrong ball, he grounded his club in a bunker, what have you.  But choosing to not look for a wild tee shot is not against the rules.  It's well within them, in fact.

And the only necessary explanation for the guy who lost by one is that your FC recovered from his horrible tee shot and pured one to the flag for an amazing tournament saving bogey.  Cheers to him. 

---

But I agree that it's similar to the Solheim Cup situation. Everything the Euros did there was perfectly within their rights under the rules, but many of us would have handled that differently. :)

[Gator Hazard]

It's a gentleman a game and a true gentleman will play by the rules and not inhibit others from doing so as well. Even if to his or her detriment. That's just called having integrity. As @iacas said, I would look but I am not going to break my back looking. I can't say how many times I hit a crap tee shot this weekend, hit a provisional for pace of play sake and found my first ball when I thought for sure it would be gone and was able to play it.

That is the game and in an competitive environment no one should expect others to turn a blind eye to the rules and integrity of the game and scoring. 

[Big C]

Good replies all, thanks. I'm still not sure what the "right" thing to do is, but after some further thought, I'm pretty sure I know what I would do. In a competitive match against someone that I liked, respected or even felt neutrally about, I wouldn't look. Regardless of what my actual rights are, I would hate the perception that I used a technicality in the rules to give myself a better chance to win. Golden Rule, as Drew says, and if someone did the same to me, I'd be pretty pissed, even as I recognized their right to do it.

I suppose there is the possibility that I might look if I were playing with or against somebody that I actively disliked. But since I have yet to play with anyone that meets that definition, I guess my answer for all practical purposes is "no."

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

You lost me here.  I fail to see how choosing to not look for his ball is anywhere on the spectrum of not playing by the rules or not maintaining your integrity?

It goes back to the first sentence. Finding his ball is not a "worst case scenario." Finding his ball and telling him "hey, look, here's your ball sitting up in a nice spot" is both within the rules and maintains your integrity.

If you casually glance, you're probably not going to find his ball in a horrible spot. If you don't look at all, though, you remove the chance of finding his ball after a lucky break.

The "worst case scenario" is that someone does something both against the rules AND that makes them a jerk.