Should the act of "dropping" be eliminated in favor of always placing?

[DaveP043]

14 minutes ago, jgreen85 said:

I fixed your post. Excluding these two words is why I think your post and those like it are annoying and borderline insulting. That's your opinion for how the game should be played. Those principles are some random guy's opinion for how the game should be played. You agree with his opinion. Great. I don't. Others who disagree as well are not "whining" when they suggest a rule change or suggest a rule is dumb. They're voicing their opinion which, in my opinion, has just as much validity as yours.

You edited my post, to fit your opinion, you didn't fix it.  

The principles aren't just the opinion of a  single random guy, but a distillation of over 250 years of avid golfers' experience and judgement.  I think that Mr. Tufts, former President of the USGA,  did a rather good job of explaining the principles, and how the rules flow from them.  His book builds on an article written by Joseph Dey, USGA Executive Director, in 1953.  These aren't  random guys, but rather men whose lives revolved around golf.  Do you, as yet another random guy, have a suggestion as to what principles should be used as the basis for the rules of golf?

And please note, I have never accused anyone of whining.  I do my best to try to explain why my opinion differs from theirs, and try to back my opinion with a bit of research whenever possible.  If someone finds that insulting, they're reading something into my words that was never intended.

[Golfingdad]

40 minutes ago, jgreen85 said:

And? Is there something special about that? "Golf rules purists" don't like the way an anchored putting strokes looks. "I don't like something" is a better reason than "unfair"?

I'm just saying that you're making a bit of a strawman argument.  You're lumping everybody that believes in the principles into a group and then implying that that group as a whole also makes arguments against certain rules that are either unfair (or that they don't like - whatever that particular word wasn't the point) while making arguments for rules that they do like and that somehow those arguments are inconsistent with each other.

I don't believe that they (the rules purists) do that at all.  I can't think of one instance where one of these guys like Rick or Dave has made conflicting arguments about the rules.

[Coronagolfman]

Any time you allow a player to put his hand on the ball and drop or place it, there is the risk that the player may improve his lie over the one that he deserved for hitting the ball where he did.  It is true that the case of a sand-filled divot is one exception to that - but given the amount of time that type of issue comes up and given that for professionals that problem is minimized compared to a horrible lie that might be the result of a drive into the rough, one can live with that situation.

In the case of a drive that ends up in the rough, however, there are so many different things that can happen that might result in a reduction of the penalty for that bad shot that placing the ball as opposed to dropping it might offer.

[iacas]

I just read on another post that eliminating dropping in favor of just placing would eliminate only two pages in the Rules of Golf.

Is it really worth it? I still say no.

[imsys0042]

I voted other.   I agree with those who say that dropping is appropriate and the randomness introduced is correct.   I think the cart path situation is something where you need to figure out whether standing in the path or risk the drop.   

However I would prefer to allow placement only in sand traps because of getting a half buried ball dropping from shoulder height.   I don't feel that is random, I feel like majority of the time you are going to deliberately get a bad lie. 

[Piz]

Not always; but common sense and the rule book are not always in accord.  It is likely best that golfers continue to interpret the rules, when playing casual rounds, in a manner consistent with friendly competition and a reasonable pace of play.  

[Aflighter]

I voted yes because you shouldnt get penalized when getting  drop if the ball comes to lie in bad spot.Whole point of getting a drop is to get relief.

[Fourputt]

1 hour ago, Aflighter said:

I voted yes because you shouldnt get penalized when getting  drop if the ball comes to lie in bad spot.Whole point of getting a drop is to get relief.

The point is to get relief from the condition where the ball lies.  No guarantees that the result will be a good lie.  You are taking the rule much farther than it's intent.

[newtogolf]

1 hour ago, Fourputt said:

The point is to get relief from the condition where the ball lies.  No guarantees that the result will be a good lie.  You are taking the rule much farther than it's intent.

Agreed, but after a few "bad" drops you get to place it.  Seems some pro's know where and how to drop it so that it works out to their advantage.  

[iacas]

16 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

Agreed, but after a few "bad" drops you get to place it.  Seems some pro's know where and how to drop it so that it works out to their advantage.  

That happens way less often than you seem to think.

And no, it's not after "bad" drops. You keep dropping if you don't satisfy the requirements. You only place after two balls properly dropped roll too far or whatever.

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, newtogolf said:

Agreed, but after a few "bad" drops you get to place it.  Seems some pro's know where and how to drop it so that it works out to their advantage.  

I don't really see this.  When pro's end up having to place it, it's always the same ... it rolled too far.  And if it rolled too far its probably because it's on a slope.  If I also had a flat area to choose amongst my options, I would think that the rough would have to be pretty deep before I'd choose to place it on a slope. 

I think previously in this thread I said I'd be in favor of full time placing in the case of penalty drops but think that the randomness is still necessary when you're choosing whether or not to take a free drop.  I still stand by that opinion. :)

[iacas]

6 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

I think previously in this thread I said I'd be in favor of full time placing in the case of penalty drops but think that the randomness is still necessary when you're choosing whether or not to take a free drop.  I still stand by that opinion. :)

Except for a lost ball or a ball OB*, you're almost never required to take relief. You can play your ball from a water hazard, thus, it's optional that you're dropping. Ditto an unplayable lie.

* There are times you must take relief and it's also "free," like when your ball is on a wrong putting green. Should the player place or drop? It's free, but they also have no choice in the matter, just as you might say they have no choice in the matter when their ball is ten feet under water.

And the player almost always has a relatively large choice in where to drop unless those drops are of the "as near as possible" variety.