sac1

Only prob with that is now the rules(which apply at my club for all comps) give you 3 mins from the time the search is started, if you only have one person looking(the player) then chances of finding it within that time is 1/4 of having your playing partners also search, so the rules encourage people to not start looking for their ball until all players arrive at the spot and are able to search and hence slowing down play in general.

My major hate as well. They/many have this strange idea that if they aren't standing in a direct line between you and the flag then they are fine? and are doing so in the premise of playing ready golf. Many of those I play with cant even bring themselves to stand still and turn around and see what happens to the ball I hit. If one does go ahead and hit it influences how one plays the shot, making sure that perhaps for example we dont turn the ball over and have it go hard left(if the person has advance on the left side), and a typical result of a miss to the right. Net effect, I will wait until they are looking around to see why I are arent on the green yet(wait for them to get off the green) and then hit(Im not going to be the one standing in court pleading that i was justified in hitting my ball when they walked in range of my shot), possibly the message gets through that the round will take along time if they keep that up.

Mickelson, no surprise on his conduct here. But the Usga not DQing him, that is the most distasteful part. He intentionally deflected the path of the ball, that was his first and foremost intention , plain to anyone who was watching, whether he did that by using his putter or his shoe is irrelevant and no way the rule of “making a stroke at a moving balll” should “trump” it. Gutless, shameful officials,

I go with that too, especially for mugs like myself who struggle to get the clubface back square to the ball. A three wood hit from an uphill lie into a strong wind can easily balloon left or right into the adjacent scrub for me. If I hit driver off the deck here, I dont get the same amount of spin on the ball and it goes straighter and low, and further. What I have noticed is that the interaction with the larger driver head and the ground tends to straighten it out, preventing the ball from going left - drop kicks go straight and the outcome is generally a predictable low fade. I look at the possible worse outcomes, topping it or fatting still goes 170+ yards and its still on the fairway. Get it flush and it goes much further than the 3 wood into the same wind. For me, I swing at 80% here to get the best contact I can.

What seems to be forgotten or not realised by most here is that if you mark your ball anywhere but directly behind it and the line of the hole, is that if you then put it back in line with the hole then the ball is going to be closer to the hole every time! The extreme case being when one marks it directly in front of the ball and puts it back with the marker behind the ball which gains a whole ball length + length of the marker(actually the bigger the marker the bigger the discrepancy in all situations) For Lexi it was just not moving the ball laterally that is the issue(was there a spike mike, imperfection?) , it was also gaining a real advantage every time she marked her ball she gets it closer to the hole. To be fair I've only seen the two videos here of her marking her ball, but from the swift/methodical way in which she marked her ball on those two occasions, I'd say there is a fair chance she does it like that every time and that is what has got up the nose of some of her competitors( see my previous post for my theory there). If anyone has the time to trawl for some more video of her marking putts Im sure it will make interesting viewing for all.

How could you not know you were putting the ball closer to the hole every time? I'd say she got used to taking what she thought was an unnoticeable advantage, yeh like those that push their marker right up under the ball when they mark it and when they put it down again the marker is a gap of grass between the marker and the ball.

Telling vision above. It looks like this mark it from the side and then place the ball back in front of the marker directly in line with the hole happens regardless of whether she replaces it from the side or stands behind it. There was no excuse to mark it from the side either here or in the controversy incident(Pettersen's putt was about the same length as Lexi's ......think about it), and in the vid above, we see her go and crouch down directly behind the putt.....obviously not on someone's line ^ either! It would be interesting to see more vision of her marking the ball on different occasions, for those that argue a 1/4 -1/2in movement to the side is not going to be getting an advantage......think further about the geometry of marking it to the side and then putting the ball back directly in line with the marker and hole. Its going to get the ball closer to the hole every time. For example if the ball is marked completely to the side and then put in line with the hole and the marker its going to be 0.8in(half a ball closer to the hole). At 45 deg its going to be ~0.3 in closer. difference between a lip out and a ball that hits the bottom of the cup is a lot less than 0.3in!! If on average she is marking 0.3in closer to the hole at ~29? puts per round x 4 x tournaments per year.....how much advantage is she getting on the rest of the field here. Who was the caller(totally irrelevant - its not like they were able to change/fabricate what was on the video), was perhaps a fellow competitor that had noticed this "habit" of gaining an advantage on the field and who knows maybe even had told Lexi to stop doing it and Lexi took no notice. Now there's something to add to the mix......Lexi might know who it is, but can't go to the press with it, can she.

Gravity, Climate change.....just theories too? Wonder how the scientists from over 400 year ago worked out how far away the sun was without a measuring tape? No given we have several stationary points of reference, the two markers, the toe of Lexi's putter and a STATIONARY camera, the golf ball and the hole which we know exactly the size of we, can be very precise about how far it moves. Yes would take a little bit of math do it properly, but not too hard for anyone that has gone further than middle school geometry.

I dare say there was some "slight of hand" going on there in the way she tried to obscure "everything" with her hand, making it difficult for anyone standing up close to events to see any movement of the ball relative to the marker . Its only the camera pic from the side that allows us to see the before and after shots(before cant see the marker and after replacing the ball when we can see the marker)

Clutching at straws: Look the video! Petterson's marker is no where near on the same line, and nearly as close to the hole, she could have lined up every quarterback with playing boots in the NFL behind her ball and not affected Petterson's ball one bit............. she would have to have stepped in front of Petterson's marker to effect her line. But at the end of the day whether she could or couldn't get behind her ball matters diddly sqwatt. Look at the video here: There can be no plausible justification for misplacing the ball by this much when one's frame of reference has not altered. She's done it like that billions of times? two wrongs don't make a right, neither do one billion!

surely you can find another 10 reasons to defend her? But in all of those you have failed to explain how someone standing over the ball and not moving their head(equivalent to the camera not moving in the video below) can make an error of this magnitude:

suzann@nogimmes.com?

If you are going to refer to what "I" said, at least pay the courtesy of reading the posts I've written in this thread about it, and as a courtesy to everyone if you aren't going to read the prior posts before posting in a "discussion forum" perhaps just keep to things like twitter. see my first post where I "entertain" other rationale for picking up the ball

Suggest you read my comments again, and this bit "not even giving a glance at the hole". I don't know if you are defending her actions or what, but if you have any plausible explanation on how anyone could pick up a ball with a marker right next to it and put it down 3/4 inch away in a matter of seconds without changing their frame of reference to anything(head doesn't move) then bring it on.

Not a whole lot has been made about it because there was no incorrect placement of the marker to start with, the only requirement is that a marker is used to indicate the position of the ball and the ball is placed back there, it can be to the side etc. Watch the video again, her head/eyes never move from when she marks the ball, lifts it an inch of the ground and puts it down again in a location at least 3/4 of an inch away - not even giving a glance at the hole. There was no tangible excuse for not putting the ball back in its exact spot in relation to the location of the marker as nothing had changed in her frame of reference. This was easily seen from a camera that would have had a viewing angle of at least 70 degrees from the vertical, imagine what that would look like if you were looking straight down on top of it...........blatant.