Have you ever lost a ball in the fairway?

[Aguirre]

4 minutes ago, Vintage said:

What's the USGA rules say when you hit your shot, you clearly see it land in your fairway... And watch someone in a cart cross over to your fairway and pick up your ball and take off because they didn't see you and they thought they just found a ball?

I can tell you what I did. 

I walked back and hit another tee shot. And no, I didn't penalize myself because I wasn't awarding a penalty to myself over my ball being stolen.

Are you mute? I would have screamed at those idiots.

[Missouri Swede]

19 minutes ago, Vintage said:

What's the USGA rules say when you hit your shot, you clearly see it land in your fairway... And watch someone in a cart cross over to your fairway and pick up your ball and take off because they didn't see you and they thought they just found a ball?

Quote

18-1. By Outside Agency 

If a ball at rest is moved by an outside agency, there is no penalty and the ball must be replaced.

 

19 minutes ago, Vintage said:

I can tell you what I did. 

I walked back and hit another tee shot. And no, I didn't penalize myself because I wasn't awarding a penalty to myself over my ball being stolen.

Too bad.  You were supposed to (and were entitled to) replace your ball at the place it had come to rest and continue play from there, with no penalty.

[djake]

When the muni's are full this tends to happen to often and especially on blind shots or fairways that get to close to each other.  With this in mind we have a rule and we must have learned it on a different forum.  Until today it was called The Tiger Rule - now today it was renamed The Spieth Rule, why, because they don't lose a ball on the course.  If you hit a ball and you know for sure that it is not OB or in the water or any type of such hazard we drop and go with no penalty.  No one is going back and re hitting their shot on a packed muni because the USGA states this.  A Ranger would laugh at you and tell you to keep moving forward or the group behind would just skin you alive and leave you as an example for the rest.  Great example was today I went out to play and on the first hole I hit a nice drive down the left side of the fairway.  I new as soon as I hit it I had better getting moving (fast walk) or that ball was going to be "gone".  Sure enough coming up hole 4 there is a foursome of seniors and I quickly yelled, Did you see a Srixon?  That usually stops them but not today, the old fart jumps out of the cart like he is some paratrooper gets up to my ball and nails it right past me, almost allowed me to post in the forum "have you ever been hit before".  Now I looked at him as the women look at their balls and nope no Srixon, but that older gentlemen would not look at me and told his buddy to get moving and off the cart goes.  I am not going to walk back to the tee box and re hit.  So I go to the spot of my Srixon's last moment with me and drop a Bridgestone and keep moving and no I did not take a penalty, losing the ball and almost getting nailed by it was penalty enough.  Due to this issue we outline that rule before starting play and all have to agree to it being "The Spieth Rule".  Plus we have to call it out and all agree to the application of the rule.  The way we see it we are only hurting our handicap by making it lower then it would be but really?  And just to be clear, if anyone in a group ahead of me - and it has not happened yet in non tourney play - ever came back to the tee I was on to re hit a ball I would say "Great go for it AFTER we play thru"!  There is a time and place for USGA rules and a time and place for common sense.  Seams to me that people use common sense first thankfully.  I sure hope that old duffer enjoyed my Srixon, brand new Srixon I might add

[scotth]

The ground has been so wet and saturated here this year it has happened a few times.  Even on straight fairways with a perfect view balls are disappearing into the ground on impact.  

[SLAMGolf]

I lose balls all the time at munis.  Not so much at decent courses.  Usually it's because someone stole it.  I did, however, lose a ball once on a par-3.  The ball came up short, and disappeared into the fringe as soon as it landed.  When I got up there, I saw a hole, but no ball.  When I reached my hand in, I found there was a small pipe with a ball inside.  Ace!

[WUTiger]

I lost a ball in the fairway on the old No. 16 at the Orchards. It had been raining for two days, and I came up to this short par 4 with a creek that runs through the low area of the course.

The tees were up, so I took a 5i and dropped the shot on the left side of the fairway - it landed with a big splash.

I drove my cart down the path even with where the ball landed. I took one step into the rough. and almost lost my right shoe in the soggy mud. The ball evidently was embedded, as I couldn't see it anymore.

Since then, the course has scooped out the creek to enlarge it, used that soil to raise the fairway, and put in drainage tiles. Fairway drains off quickly now.

[Groucho Valentine]

Ive lost many balls in the fairways at Bethpage before those courses where revamped. Recently i can remember losing balls in the fairway at Galloping Hill in NJ before they redid that one. In my experience, losing balls in fairways has been chalked up to poor coourse conditions.

[rehmwa]

 back to the original question - if the ball was lost, how do you REALLY know it's on (in) the fairway

(one scenario - you duffed it 5 feet and literally saw it roll down a snake/gopher hole....)

[Williamevanl]

well you could lose it and then have someone else find it after you've given up on it. 

[Double Mocha Man]

On 7/23/2017 at 9:08 PM, djake said:

When the muni's are full this tends to happen too often and especially on blind shots or fairways that get to close to each other.  With this in mind we have a rule and we must have learned it on a different forum.  Until today it was called The Tiger Rule - now today it was renamed The Spieth Rule, why, because they don't lose a ball on the course.  If you hit a ball and you know for sure that it is not OB or in the water or any type of such hazard we drop and go with no penalty.  

I've played by "Gallery Rules" for years.  You never lose a ball where a touring pro would never lose a ball... fairway, rough, behind a tree, in a plant.  With galleries, marshals, caddies and TV cameras spotting everything the pros never suffer the indignity of never seeing their Titleist ProV! again.  We mortals do, and it's not fair.  Thus Gallery Rules.

[iacas]

OT for the discussion, but… paragraphs, please, @djake.

On 7/24/2017 at 0:08 AM, djake said:

When the muni's are full this tends to happen to often and especially on blind shots or fairways that get to close to each other.  With this in mind we have a rule and we must have learned it on a different forum.  Until today it was called The Tiger Rule - now today it was renamed The Spieth Rule, why, because they don't lose a ball on the course.  If you hit a ball and you know for sure that it is not OB or in the water or any type of such hazard we drop and go with no penalty.  No one is going back and re hitting their shot on a packed muni because the USGA states this.  A Ranger would laugh at you and tell you to keep moving forward or the group behind would just skin you alive and leave you as an example for the rest.  Great example was today I went out to play and on the first hole I hit a nice drive down the left side of the fairway.  I new as soon as I hit it I had better getting moving (fast walk) or that ball was going to be "gone".  Sure enough coming up hole 4 there is a foursome of seniors and I quickly yelled, Did you see a Srixon?  That usually stops them but not today, the old fart jumps out of the cart like he is some paratrooper gets up to my ball and nails it right past me, almost allowed me to post in the forum "have you ever been hit before".  Now I looked at him as the women look at their balls and nope no Srixon, but that older gentlemen would not look at me and told his buddy to get moving and off the cart goes.  I am not going to walk back to the tee box and re hit.  So I go to the spot of my Srixon's last moment with me and drop a Bridgestone and keep moving and no I did not take a penalty, losing the ball and almost getting nailed by it was penalty enough.  Due to this issue we outline that rule before starting play and all have to agree to it being "The Spieth Rule".  Plus we have to call it out and all agree to the application of the rule.  The way we see it we are only hurting our handicap by making it lower then it would be but really?  And just to be clear, if anyone in a group ahead of me - and it has not happened yet in non tourney play - ever came back to the tee I was on to re hit a ball I would say "Great go for it AFTER we play thru"!  There is a time and place for USGA rules and a time and place for common sense.  Seams to me that people use common sense first thankfully.  I sure hope that old duffer enjoyed my Srixon, brand new Srixon I might add

 

[The Hook Meister]

It's happened to me a couple of times. It's the most frustrating thing to have happen, to hit a great drive and not get rewarded for it.

[Yukari]

I hate that when that happens.  It occurs frequently during fall/winter months when leaves are all over the fairway.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I hit one straight down the middle of the fairway, but when I got there leaves were everywhere and my golf ball was nowhere to be found.

[HJJ003]

Yeah I have at some less decent courses, but the worst was a bunker for me. I pulled an 8 iron into a greenside bunker in front of my entire group. No doubt whatsoever it went in the bunker. We get up there and the ball is nowhere to be found. The bunker had one spot on the top side of the bunker with a small hole in between the ground and where the framing of the bunker was. We are guessing it went in there but the hole was maybe the size of the ball itself!

[dave s]

Tee ball on #1 at Firestone South course in Akron, OH.  Hit 3-wood with the usual R to L draw right into the middle of the fairway.  Pick up tee, ride with group to tee shots.  No ball.  Anywhere.  I'm thinking that ball was right down the middle of the fairway, how is it not sitting RIGHT HERE?

Well, it did land just right of center fairway and rolled right, through the first cut and came to rest in 4" deep KY Bluegrass rough.  Apparently, local knowledge says play the LEFT half of the fairway on #1 if you can't drive it 250 plus off #1 tee box.

Balls go somewhere each and every time we hit them.  It's out there somewhere, but we just can't find it on occasion.  And when you can't find it, lost ball rules takes over.

dave

[hamishmacduff]

There's enough injustice in the world without letting the USGA ruin a casual round of golf with rules designed for meticulously groomed courses with hundreds of witnesses tracking every shot. If I hit a drive right down the middle and can't find my ball, I am not trudging back to the tee box to hit again, holding up every group behind me all the way back to the parking lot. I'm dropping and hitting from where the damn ball should be. Last year, it rained so much at our course that they couldn't put machinery on the fairways to mow, so the fairways were soggy and as shaggy as the rough, and the rough was like the Amazon jungle. Add to that a groundhog-hole infestation and then autumn leaves from the surrounding forest, and it would be rare to play an entire round without losing a ball in the fairway. Of course, none of this scofflaw attitude applies in any kind of tournament or league play.

[Moxley]

Lost some that I thought were on the fairway but couldn't be sure, and in the end concluded that I was wrong. But I played with a guy who lost on that was definitely in the fairway as we all saw it land about 100 yds ahead, had pitched it short, and it plugged somewhat as course was thawing out.

[Double Mocha Man]

It has been pretty wet here for the last 3 months.  I was on the driving range the other day and noticed a couple of range balls 30 feet forward of the mats that were about 98% underground... could only see a dime-sized area of yellow on top.  Guessing someone was popping up drivers with a high tee.