Nutsmacker

I was thinking of just dropping in the bunker again, but far enough away that I could clear that lip. Reteeing would be pretty crazy to do I think because I would need to stuff it and put the putt down in order to make it worth it. I will say Reed's third shot was impressive. My point is that if he had taken the penalty, he could have had that shot to begin with and made a 4 instead of a 5

I am going to take a video of the sand traps the next time I am there. Its crazy how many bees are in there. I have no idea why or how that happens.

If it was me, I would have known that I had no shot of getting it out so I would have probably taken the penalty. One other question I have on bunkers is that there is a course that my friends and I play that for some reason has bees swarming all over the sand in every one of the bunkers. It is actually pretty scary to go in there and take a swipe at the ball when there are hundreds of bees hovering an inch off the sand. We usually just rake the ball out and play from behind the bunker because none of us want to have a sting. What would be the official ruling on that?

I was watching a clip of Patrick Reed taking three shots to get out of a pot bunker in the Scottish open. I was thinking when he was trying to figure out his first shot, why not take an uplayable lie and give himself a better chance to get it out and on the green. What is the ruling there? Wouldn't it have been smarter to take the penalty stroke and give yourself a chance to get it out and on the green instead of hacking away inside a pot bunker? There was no shot of him getting it out on the first stroke, and he almost hit himself with the ball when he hit it. Then he had an even worse shot on the 2nd attempt.

No, you are right. I should have said something as soon as I thought I saw what I saw. I was just dumbfounded by what I thought I saw initially. Again, I was sneezing and my eyes were watering most of the day so I wasn't quite sure if I was just having a brain meltdown or what. Maybe when I email the organizer about the incident(s); I will request to call the ruling of D33-7/9 on myself to bring attention to the matter. That could be a way to shine a light. I don't plan on playing with that group again anyhow.

Fair enough. I did want to make sure that it was in fact the case. It was blazing hot and my allergies were driving me nuts so I wasn't sure if I was in fact witnessing the cheating move or losing my mind. The last thing I wanted to do was be wrong about it. When I did say something to him it was right in front of my eyes as we were both lining up short putts. So, I saw him go through the entire motion within a few feet of my eyes so I was 100% sure of it at that point. However, I was about 95% sure of it after 9 holes. I wasn't always in a place where I could see whether he was doing it or not.

I don't think I ignored the breach of rules. I told the person running the tournament. I am more than happy to disqualify myself if necessary, but I did not ignore it. I am tempted to write an email to the organizer outlining what happened again; and I will offer to disqualify myself. Frankly, I don't want to have to deal with this ever again....there is nothing fun about it whatsoever.

I didn't.

It is not super serious I guess. I don't know. I am fairly inexperienced with all of this. This is my 5th time playing in a stroke tournament. There wasn't a committee....just a volunteer helping out.

Taking a video was the thing that I wish I did. I play in two different organized "tours" and I am definitely considering pulling out of the one that this incident occurred in. I am just suspicious about how much this type of thing happens because its not the first tourney that the individual played in....so others have either seen this cheating tactic before and did nothing or were OK with it and probably took their own liberties with the rules.

Yea, I guess its not an allegation because it was a fact. However, because I had no supporting proof...it was an allegation. Which is why I wish had another player to back me up. The other thing I thought about as I was driving home was how he had one of those giant poker chip markers....so he was essentially moving the ball forward about 3 1/2 ball lengths closer to the hole. That certainly makes your 5 footers a tad bit easier. Which actually brings in another question...why do people use the giant poker chip markers? I always thought it would be best to use something as a mark that would try to be as flat and small as possible(like a dime) in case someone hit a putt that was going to make contact with the marker(by accident)

Like I mentioned, it was a very perplexing situation. I mentioned it to the player, the director, and didn't sign the card. However, they still entered his score into the system. I think the prize for 2nd place was a 50 dollar gift card to a golf shop or something. It was not thousands of dollars...not that it should make much of a difference in how you conduct yourself on the course. I was not happy at all with what transpired but I wasn't sure what else to do besides telling the other players as they walked into turn in their cards. There weren't a bunch of rules officials riding around on the course. The staff was essentially the director and a person registering the players. I really wish there was a 3rd player in my group. It would have made the situation easier I think if I had another player backing up my allegations. My question was more about what else could/should have I done considering the circumstances. Essentially, what would you have done? I feel really bad about the whole thing. It made me question playing in those type of events ever again. I used to be just a weekend player with my friends and never play serious events. I made an effort to try and start doing this in the last 2 years and now I am seeing the ugly side of tournament golf. I played in a summer league last year and witnessed a lot of the same kind of shenanigans. In the league, the organizers would try to address it...but it would never stick. There were lots of "gimmes" being taken, drops instead of re-teeing up when OB off the tee box, etc. A couple of us would bring this up and nothing would be done about it.

Ugh, that was the thing. He put up a score that was going to contend for the win. I didn't even sign his card. I think he ended up getting 2nd. The director either was not equipped or wanted to deal with it. It would have been a really bad situation I think. However, I just hope that the director bans him from playing in events again.

I was recently playing in a local semi-public stroke play tournament. The third person that was to play in my group didn't show up so it was just myself and another younger college graduate playing together. He was a 2 handicap and I presumed an accomplished player because of his handicap. Seemed like a nice guy and his parents were there walking the course with him. Anyhow, on about the 6th or 7th hole I noticed something on the green. He marked his ball with his poker chip marker in front of the ball. I went ahead and finished out my putt and noticed he put the ball in front of the marker. I didn't say anything right away because I was not sure if I was hallucinating because it was hot. We played on and it was clear that was his thing. I noticed it 3 more times and I finally just mentioned that it was not the correct way to mark the ball. He got pretty pissed off at me saying that I was going all "lexi thompson" on him. Frankly, I was kind of embarrassed because his parents were there. I did not want to make a scene. I just mentioned it to him. I didn't start screaming that he was cheating. I honestly was willing to accept that he never learned the proper way to mark a ball. I mentioned it to the tournament organizer and the guy frankly wanted nothing to do with the whole situation. I must say, that I am rather turned off in even playing in an event again after witnessing such an affair. I assume that when playing with others that have low handicaps that they are all playing by the book when playing in an individual tournament. What is the course of action one should take in this scenario? I felt really perplexed on how to handle the whole situation with the parents there, etc. It left a very sour taste in my mouth.