anaveragehacker

What is this committee I keep hearing about? We’re a small league playing at a county course. And these are temporary issues that may be gone in a day or two. In any case, I wish more people agreed with me. It seems that trying to convince golfers to modernize rules is like trying to change the Bible. You guys are so serious it kind of proves my point. Other sports make adjustments for field conditions etc during lower level play. This isn’t life and death here, it’s sport. No need to keep arguing. I have my opinion and you have yours.

What is this committee I keep hearing about? We’re a small league playing at a county course. And these are temporary issues that may be gone in a day or two. In any case, I wish more people agreed with me. It seems that trying to convince golfers to modernize rules is like trying to change the Bible. The safeguard is that you have to check with your opponent to make sure he agrees with the drop, why should you need a committee for that?

I guess we’re kind of getting into semantics here, but you state “trading a bunker lie for a grass lie”. I would argue that a bunker under water is no longer a bunker. It is basically a small pond where there isn’t supposed to be one. The course has an unplayable condition due to weather and poor maintenance. Hitting a ball out of three inches of water is not a realistic option any more than hitting through a temporary grandstand is. Just my opinion.

Someone asked would pros accept someone else keeping score. It’s done in every other sport. That’s what scorekeepers are for. It’s an antiquated rule. It’s fine for non-professionals. I feel like there is a lot of resistance to rule in golf, as if these rules were brought down on stone tablets by Moses.

Someone asked what I propose. I think if the bunker is full of rainwater, you get to drop it with no penalty directly in back of the bunker, so you still have a tricky shot of chipping over the bunker. People are talking about local committees and such which we just don’t have at our level. My league and playing partners gave the free drop with no issue. My original purpose of this post was just to understand what the “real” rule is, and I now know. But now I also want to encourage people to see that many long time golf rules are outdated and illogical, and hopefully encourage people to push for change. They made some changes in the last few years, so I’m hopeful the game I love will improve if enough people speak out. A lot to hope for posting in a little forum I know, but you have to start somewhere.

When you are penalized for hitting into the sand trap the penalty is having to hit it out of the sand, not out of three inches of water. A sand trap is not the same as a water hazard. A sand trap is not supposed to be under water. It is a unique condition caused by weather and poor drainage. Most local leagues like ours allow the free drop in this type of situation, as long as there is no area in the bunker to legally drop. This is what I’m talking about, sometimes the official rules of golf don’t align with common sense. That’s why they are finally starting to change them. For example, when wind blows your ball off the green. That was a stupid rule. People being able to call the tv network to say they saw a players ball move. That was a stupid rule. I’m just saying, these are rules made up a long time ago, and it’s time to modernize them.

A sand trap is not supposed to have 3 inches of water in it. To me that’s temporary, casual water. Just like if your ball lands in a deep rain puddle in the middle of the fairway. I would have gladly hit out of any spot in that bunker. I understand that it’s a different rule. I just think it’s a dumb rule. You are penalized because it rained. Here’s what I think is the dumbest rule in golf, and all sports for that matter - professionals playing for millions of dollars in a tournament have to carry around a little pencil and scorecard to keep their score and sign it, when there are big scoreboards all over the course and on tv. Can you imagine the Knicks losing because they didn’t count their score correctly? Like I said, I love the game, but it’s time to move into the 21st century already.

I love golf, but we have some really dumb rules. Like this one, you get a penalty stroke because it rained.

Ok, so I’m still confused here. Are you saying I could have used the only available Spot in the bunker even though it was 6-7 feet closer to the hole?

Maybe I didn’t explain this properly. Back and front can be confusing. There was no place in the bunker that didn’t have 2-3 inches of rain water in it, except for a small spot on the slope nearest the pin. If I had dropped there I would be moving 6-7 feet closer to the hole. Since my ball was just inside the bunker, farthest side from the hole, I dropped one club length backward, which brought me out of the bunker. I could not have hit from that deep of water. Are you saying I would have had to take a penalty stroke due to rain water?

So this situation happened. A bunker in front of the green was full of water. My ball was underwater in the very back of the bunker furthest from the green. There was a small patch on the front upslope of the bunker nearest the green that theoretically could have been used to hit from if the ball was placed. A drop would just roll back into the water. And this was the only part of the bunker you might be able to get a stance without standing in water. So my question is do you hit from that small front slope even though you would have to move the ball 6-7 closer to the pin? Or do you drop outside the bunker making sure you are no closer to the pin? I dropped in front of the bunker, so I had to chip over the whole bunker. Was this the right call? Also could I have moved it latterly outside the bunker, although this wouldn’t have made much difference as my ball was pretty much as far back in the bunker as you could be away from the hole.

Does anyone have experience with this cart? I recently bought one and and I’m having an issue with the speed of the cart. I have no issues at all when in follow mode. But when I get more than 20 yards or so away, and I try to use the regular controls to send it to the next Teebox, it moves extremely slowly, whether I put it on cruise control or full speed. So much so that it takes too long and everyone would be waiting for me on the green. I see that the phone app for it list three different speeds but I don’t see these as an option anywhere with the remote control. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for the responses. I'm leaning towards Enterprise, but from looking at the pictures it's possible it's Glen Dale. It was so long ago. I wish I had collected logo balls back then. It's tough to try to catch up. I have a couple in Pa and the Orlando area I can't remember as well.

I know this is an older post, but it hits home for me. I have some Rheumatoid arthritis that limits some of the things I can do. Every year I kept adding a higher-lofted hybrid and putting an iron in my garage. I now have everything from 3-hybrid to loft-wedge hybrid. I know that sounds strange, but they have really helped me be more consistent. They are SO easy to hit. The only shot they have trouble with is sitting up in heavier rough, where they can go right under the ball. I keep one iron wedge in my bag for that and chipping. I have old Nike SUMO Square 3-7 hybrids, and 8-LW hybrids from Thomas Golf (also square-heads). I have dropped from a 22-23 handicap to a 12-13 and have shot in the 30s several times (No 79s yet though). Does anyone else here play these clubs regularly?

I agree. I had some crazy things going on with my pitching and chipping. I took a couple days off and started with the basics, nice and slow. The other that is big for me is during practice. If you start doing the flaw on every swing, STOP and go home. I kept hitting more and more balls figuring I would eventually fix it, but in reality I was setting bad things into my muscle memory.

I find the hardest part to be trying to remember the course names from 20+ years ago. There's always a couple details I remember, so I try to ID them from those. People on the site have been helpful as well.

I have about 70, Unfortunately I didn't start until about 10 years after I started playing, and I've been trying to go back and get logo balls from courses I played during those years. I've been pretty successfll so far. So here's a Question, If a course you play has never had a logo ball, Is it cheating if you download their logo from their website and have it printed on a ball? Or getting them printed for courses that you played that have since gone out of business?

Thanks!

Can't remember a house or not. But if you could mail me a ball that would be awesome: Let me know how to play you for it. Do you have Venmo or Paypal?

Looked at their site. This may be it. I did stay in the Laurel-Bowie area a lot. Perhaps my memory of being in the DC area was because it was the first time I played down there. I played Bowie and others several times over a few years. That 10th tee sounds like a dead ringer, and the parking lot photo looks like I remember. Memory can be a funny thing, but I'm going to assume this IS the course and see if they have a ball to add to my collection. Thanks for all your input.

Ok. It's very hard to remember details from so long ago, and memory can be unreliable, but here's what I remember for sure: 1. 1997-2002 2. the 10th tee was way elevated, so much so that instead of leaving after 9 as my wife asked me to do since we had plans, I went first to the 10th tee box and hit two balls to see how far they would go form that high tee, then left them there and left.It wasn't like the top of a mountain, but it was pretty elevated. 3. The parking lot was shaded. 4. The rest of the course was mostly non-descript, and I don't remember much, except one of the middle holes (4th, 5th or 6th) had thick woods on both sides (not evergreens). I think you drove through woods to enter the course, but not certain. The most important detail is the one I can't remember - where was this? My memory is telling me that it had DC-area prices even though it was an average course, although I actually spent a lot more time in the Laurel area at that time. That's the best I got.

Golf has too many silly rules already. I couldn't care if you used a laser to line up putts. You still have to read it and hit it. Besides, the ball-maker putting an alignment aid on the ball is no different than someone using a marker.

I'm giving up on this one. Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

I collect logo balls, and I've been trying to identify a few courses I played years ago that I don't yet have balls from. You may have seen me looking for a course in Maryland recently. Now I am trying to identify a course I played in Central or east-central Pennsylvania in 1997-1998. I distinctly remember that there was a plaque on the ground (I believe near the first tee) that said "Dedicated to our father. The only thing he loved more than the game was his family". I can't find anything on the web about this. Does anyone remember this?

In a lot of the courses I'm looking at, they have a lot of evergreen trees. I remember that the course and parking lot had regular leaf-bearing trees, and at least one of the front nine holes had woods on both sides. It wasn't a bad course, just one of those older ones that the facilities were kind of old looking.