How much time...to make a decision?

My drive went way right, possibly OB. I hit a provo ball onto the fairway. Found the first ball, about 3 inches from the OB barbed wire fence sitting on some twigs and surrounded by short shubbery. Very unplayable .

I asked the fellows if i could take the provo ball after i called the 'unplayable'. NO, absolutely not. So i considered the options of what to do next. The paved cart path was about one yard from the fence, up a slope of mostly slick dirt. I knew, if it called unplayable, i could get 2 club lengths away, not nearer the hole. But the OB blocked the 'back on the line' option and half the total 4 clublengths.

I could drop, i thought, onto the cart path but what if the ball rolled back 12 yards and went into a shrubbery again? I thought then that the ball onced dropped must remain within the 2 clublengths so rolling ball would need to be redropped. So i might redrop 2x, see the ball roll away then place the ball onto the cart path. Then maybe take a free drop from that off the path onto a better place.

But before much of this happened fellow competitor yelled out to me 'just hit the dam* ball, we don't have all day!' Upsetting coz he does this a lot and i've told him not to talk to me. He's a total jerk. We teed off at 7:30 am, no one in front nor behind us and we finished, the 4 of us, in 4 hrs.

Is there any time limit to making such a decision, which i found more complex than usual?

There is no specific time limit in the Rules. See below for Rule 5.6a,5.6 Unreasonable Delay; Prompt Pace of Play a. Unreasonable Delay of Play

A player must not unreasonably delay play, either when playing a hole or between two holes.

A player may be allowed a short delay for certain reasons, such as:

When the player seeks help from a referee or the Committee, When the player becomes injured or ill, orWhen there is another good reason.Penalty for Breach of Rule 5.6a:

Penalty for first breach: One penalty stroke. Penalty for second breach: General Penalty. Penalty for third breach: Disqualification. If the player unreasonably delays play between two holes, the penalty applies to the next hole. From Interpretation 5.6a/1:

Unreasonable delays in the context of Rule 5.6a are delays caused by a player’s actions that are within the player’s control and affect other players or delay the competition. Brief delays that are a result of normal events that happen during a round or are outside the player’s control are generally treated as “reasonable”.

Determining which actions are reasonable or unreasonable depends on all the circumstances, including whether the player is waiting for other players in the group or the group ahead.

As RO said, there isn’t a time limit for a legal procedure. Remember Spieth and the car park at the British.

If your group has nobody in front of you, just tell those guys to go ahead and you’ll catch up. It won’t be hard to catch them somewhere on the next hole.

The Spieth incident was an extreme example, and took place during the Open Championship. I guess my question for the OP is how long were they planning on mulling this decision over? Get on with it already.

Was he really a fellow competitor? What type of tournament? If it was a real tournament, all this would be normal if you were in contention and you wouldn’t be worried about time so long as you weren’t on the clock. If this was just a casual round or Saturday morning game I’m with the guy. Just hit the ball.

No, drop the ball in a legal place and then hit it. I’ll happily wait.

And you think all the groups waiting behind would be happy to wait as well? I think the reasonable thing lies somewhere in between.

And to the OP I would remind that there is always the option of letting the group behind to play through while pondering the correct way to rule a situation. This option is far too seldom used, IMO. And before anybody says that in a competition one cannot let any group to play through I say that also in a competition it is allowed and certainly also recommended when there seems to be a longer delay and a referee is waited to come to the scene.

In a real competition, fine. Anyone taking 20 minutes like Spieth did in the 2017 Open in a casual round or club event is going to get left behind. Make a decision quickly, drop and play on, or just put your ball in your pocket.

Let's not blame Speith, other than for the poor shot. He was operating under the direction of a referee. That is not a good example.

It was also the final round of the Open and he was in contention. That is perfectly fine in that situation. I was using it as an example of what not to do in a Saturday morning round that's completely irrelevant. There are different expectations for behavior based on the situation. The OP used some terms that painted a conflicting picture of the actual situation. I asked for clarification, which will inform a better answer if he responds.

"In between" what and what? The OP mentions no specific amount of time taken, just mentions some hot head yapping (one who does this a lot and has a longstanding conflict with OP).

Really, people who are upset at someone spending a reasonable amount of time to consider options during one of these very rare situations that require a bit of thought are often way too full of themselves. Is it the Open Championship? No. But there was no one behind them and even with this situation they finished in a fair amount of time.

And I'm sure the fellow in the OP's group who was complaining would be thrilled with your suggestion to let the (non-existent) group behind play through. How about a little support for a fairly quick player interested in playing by the rules?

I was merely commenting on your post about happily waiting for a person to find the correct spot where to drop on a casual round. If that procedure takes longer than two minutes it takes way too long. On a casual round. In my opinion.

Two minutes is your opinion, but, as has been stated above, the Rule do not provide any such numerical limit.

The more interesting question is why ruin the start of a good day and a round of golf playing with a total jerk? Or is this a morning comp?

I guess I’m missing something? Was there a memo that I missed that said we SHOULDN’T be playing golf at a golf course?

Maybe I’m selfish, but I’m going to take a legal drop in a way that benefits me most and gives me the best chance to score the lowest score possible. If that means dropping once, running after it to grab it, drop twice, run after it to grab it, place it. Then take relief from the cart path, and again, drop twice, chase, and eventually place, I’m going to do that. If that is the procedure that gives me the best chance to shoot my lowest score.

I don’t care about “slowing down” the guys in my group. Those are the guys I have wagers with and am trying to beat. I also don’t care if there is a group behind. I’ll make up the time easily on the next hole.

When I’m at the course I’m going to play the game of golf by the rules of golf and try to shoot my lowest score.

I’m not there for exercise. I’m there to shoot a score.

Sure, you'll make up the time on the next hole, after you've just piled up the course, well, unless you have another conundrum on the next hole and then I really feel bad for those guys behind you, you know, the ones you don't care about.

This is where etiquette and common sense come in. Two minutes is fine to do all the drops and what not. If you need to start consulting the rule book or phone a friend for a ruling, that's a pace of play issue.

Those folks are behind me. They should have taken an earlier tee time.

In the given scenario, there is no group behind or ahead. So there is zero reason to rush besides the numbskull in his own group.

'Those folks are behind me. They should have taken an earlier tee time.'

Hilarious!