USGA Proposes to Modernize Rules of Golf

[QMany]

Golfers shouldn't be penalized because someone couldn't afford more land. Jack would agree with me, he has said in the past, "Internal OB means you didn't buy enough land."

 

I'd like to talk to Jack about my home course that he designed :censored2: Wind is usually out of the SW (bottom-left).

 

[North Butte]

Regardless of what the Rules say about if you agree to break one you're breaking them all, specific "groups" who play together have been making up their own pseudo-rules for as long as there has been a rule book. Some of the participants in this thread seem to simply want the Rules of Golf to be twisted around and conform to their group's pet pseudo-rules.

 

The problem being, of course, if they dumbed down the Rules of Golf to allow free drops instead of penalties, OB to be disregarded, two off the first tee, gimmes inside the leather and rolling the ball from tee to green it would only be a matter of weeks, if that, before "groups" found something they still weren't allowed to do and so they decided to do their own thing.

[LeoLeo99]

i like any attempt to simplify and condense rules....just playing devils advocate. i see a lot of suggestions in rule changes, but actually attempting to put that rule into writing without being vague or leave the rule open for interpretation is a pretty tough task.

 

 

 

LOST BALL: the problem is the ball is lost because the players in the group don't know where it went. the "most likely location" is a guess at best, and typically the ball is lost because your idea on that most likely location isn't correct. I've seen numerous times a guy looking for his ball in an area only to have someone else in the group who happened to watch the tee shot find it 30 yards back. dropping where you think it 'might' be works for the casual weekend round but not so sure under tournament conditions. i'd prefer dropping anywhere on the line of flight, but this still leaves distance forward up to a guess, unlike a lateral hazard where you're dropping at best guess of where it crossed hazard.

 

FAIRWAY DIVOT: impossible to determine what constitutes a divot during weekend play. A lot of these rules sound great in theory but you have to be specific or you're going to have a mess on your hands. If a rule is vague its an open invitation to abuse or needing a rules official after every shot.

 

SPIKE MARKS: again sounds great in theory...but a 30ft putt has a lot of imperfections that are open for a tour pro to tap down. is televised golf now going to include watching a tour pro tap tap tap tap tap ..............every little mark on their line? The good thing....hopefully players go ahead and putt out more often instead of marking when they are worried about their stance on an others through line.

 

DROP: why not just let a player place their ball when 'dropping'. whats the point of watching a guy hover the ball as close to ground as possible then drop it.

 

LASERS: i'm all for using lasers without slope, i just don't believe this will do much to speed up pros. they'll still have their yardage books out calculating distance they want to hit shot in reference to the front, flag, back, point on green, talk wind direction, type of shot, shape, etc....but yeah let'em use lasers. then who lasers....will the caddy laser the pin and then the player feel the need also take a look? will they each have a laser?

 

OB: i'd say keep OB marked, but only difference to a lateral hazard is that you are not allowed to play a shot from OB. i like the 1 shot / 2 shot suggestion for internal and external OB, but then this also has to be specifically marked for all OB. Not all courses is this completely obvious which it is.

 

Will someone call into the rules officials that they saw some pro on TV drop from what they estimate to be 7/8 of an inch and they call all huddle around the TV to see if there was a rules infraction?

 

If they did, it would be a waste of their time, as 1" is only a suggestion, not the actual proposed rule. So 7/8" would be fine.

 

"The only requirement is for the player to hold the ball above the ground without it touching any growing thing or other natural or artificial object, and let it go so that it falls through the air before coming to rest"

 

The first summary of the rules I read said "drop from 1 inch". Makes more sense that it's just a recommendation.

[ccheezy]

LIFT THE ANCHOR BAN #FREEWEEZY #FREEBELLYPUTTERS

[Shilgy]

Still wish they would implement free relief from fairway divots.

 

How could this possibly be implemented?

 

Per the proposed changes, I like quite a few of them..

 

I don't quite see what the challenge would be to implement this? We, as golfers, police ourselves. Why would it be any different if a player walks up to his ball and sees he's in a sand divot and takes relief; it would be no different than if he was in ground under repair.

We need to have these rules so there is little to no interpretation needed where possible. Yes, we are always going to have some judgement calls about where a ball crossed the margin of a hazard for example. But to give relief from divots is just impractical imo. In a tournament,even at the club level, one group could be giving relief and another group does not from the same "divot". How is that equitable? Same with lost balls. One group would could give a much more advantageous ruling than another.

Leave lost ball rule-out of bounds-divots and other rules alone. I am all for making the rules easier to understand but we do not need to make the game easier in the process.

[Roadking2003]

Still wish they would implement free relief from fairway divots.

 

Why not allow you to move the ball a foot or two for any reason when you are in the fairway?

[Roadking2003]

We need to have these rules so there is little to no interpretation needed where possible. Yes, we are always going to have some judgement calls about where a ball crossed the margin of a hazard for example. But to give relief from divots is just impractical imo. In a tournament,even at the club level, one group could be giving relief and another group does not from the same "divot". How is that equitable? Same with lost balls. One group would could give a much more advantageous ruling than another.

Leave lost ball rule-out of bounds-divots and other rules alone. I am all for making the rules easier to understand but we do not need to make the game easier in the process.

 

So, move it anytime you are in the fairway for any reason at all. Divot problem solved.

[Newby]

I am all for making the rules easier to understand but we do not need to make the game easier in the process.

 

I agree.

If you want easy go and play on the range or practice area (but not in the practice bunker).

[Augster]

The drop thing is ridiculous. If you are going to say drop from an inch just let the player place it and move on. Then I don't have to play the tee and measure game in case it's still going to roll away on a bank.

 

Playing devils advocate I'm going to hold the ball as high as I can above my head and drop it if they still allow the 2 drop and place thing and then it will roll away and I'll get to place it anyway.

 

They are getting rid of EVER placing it. You will need to drop to infinity, or drop from 1" to make sure it stops.

 

It's a great change and not complicated at all.

 

Plus people are worked up about the 80". The 80" will really only come into play if someone needs to drop all the way out at the extreme. Any other time, just drop within a club length or so and you'll always be in compliance.

 

Plus, now that the ball needs to stay in the marked area, 2 club lengths don't become 4 club lengths as before. AND, because I can accurately drop where I want to from 1", I'm very rarely ever going to need to drop again.

 

 

[mctrees02]

i like any attempt to simplify and condense rules....just playing devils advocate. i see a lot of suggestions in rule changes, but actually attempting to put that rule into writing without being vague or leave the rule open for interpretation is a pretty tough task.

 

 

 

LOST BALL: the problem is the ball is lost because the players in the group don't know where it went. the "most likely location" is a guess at best, and typically the ball is lost because your idea on that most likely location isn't correct. I've seen numerous times a guy looking for his ball in an area only to have someone else in the group who happened to watch the tee shot find it 30 yards back. dropping where you think it 'might' be works for the casual weekend round but not so sure under tournament conditions. i'd prefer dropping anywhere on the line of flight, but this still leaves distance forward up to a guess, unlike a lateral hazard where you're dropping at best guess of where it crossed hazard.

 

FAIRWAY DIVOT: impossible to determine what constitutes a divot during weekend play. A lot of these rules sound great in theory but you have to be specific or you're going to have a mess on your hands. If a rule is vague its an open invitation to abuse or needing a rules official after every shot.

 

SPIKE MARKS: again sounds great in theory...but a 30ft putt has a lot of imperfections that are open for a tour pro to tap down. is televised golf now going to include watching a tour pro tap tap tap tap tap ..............every little mark on their line? The good thing....hopefully players go ahead and putt out more often instead of marking when they are worried about their stance on an others through line.

 

DROP: why not just let a player place their ball when 'dropping'. whats the point of watching a guy hover the ball as close to ground as possible then drop it.

 

LASERS: i'm all for using lasers without slope, i just don't believe this will do much to speed up pros. they'll still have their yardage books out calculating distance they want to hit shot in reference to the front, flag, back, point on green, talk wind direction, type of shot, shape, etc....but yeah let'em use lasers. then who lasers....will the caddy laser the pin and then the player feel the need also take a look? will they each have a laser?

 

OB: i'd say keep OB marked, but only difference to a lateral hazard is that you are not allowed to play a shot from OB. i like the 1 shot / 2 shot suggestion for internal and external OB, but then this also has to be specifically marked for all OB. Not all courses is this completely obvious which it is.

 

Will someone call into the rules officials that they saw some pro on TV drop from what they estimate to be 7/8 of an inch and they call all huddle around the TV to see if there was a rules infraction?

I think the intent of this language is to mostly get rid of the "booth review" in golf. Whether or not it resulted in a correct ruling, it's caused too many black marks in recent years. From USGA website:

• Reasonable judgment standard: When you need to estimate or measure a spot, point, line, area or distance under a Rule, your reasonable judgment will not be second-guessed based on later evidence (such as video review) if you did all that could reasonably be expected under the circumstances to estimate or measure accurately.
  

[Shilgy]

We need to have these rules so there is little to no interpretation needed where possible. Yes, we are always going to have some judgement calls about where a ball crossed the margin of a hazard for example. But to give relief from divots is just impractical imo. In a tournament,even at the club level, one group could be giving relief and another group does not from the same "divot". How is that equitable? Same with lost balls. One group would could give a much more advantageous ruling than another.

Leave lost ball rule-out of bounds-divots and other rules alone. I am all for making the rules easier to understand but we do not need to make the game easier in the process.

 

So, move it anytime you are in the fairway for any reason at all. Divot problem solved.

Posters keep saying that it's because you hit a good shot and "deserve" a good lie. How about if you bounce off a tree into the fairway? You already got one good break and that deserves another? Another post mentioned good lies in the rough. Do you always deserve a good lie then? Like Newby said a few posts above then just hit balls on the range. Should severe uphill and downhill lies also be treated in some manner? My biggest issue is when does a divot hole cease to be? That is the judgement I do not wish to see groups making.

[Hawkeye77]

Regardless of what the Rules say about if you agree to break one you're breaking them all, specific "groups" who play together have been making up their own pseudo-rules for as long as there has been a rule book. Some of the participants in this thread seem to simply want the Rules of Golf to be twisted around and conform to their group's pet pseudo-rules.

 

The problem being, of course, if they dumbed down the Rules of Golf to allow free drops instead of penalties, OB to be disregarded, two off the first tee, gimmes inside the leather and rolling the ball from tee to green it would only be a matter of weeks, if that, before "groups" found something they still weren't allowed to do and so they decided to do their own thing.

 

Can't remember the last time in dozens of rounds I ended up in someone's divot scrape and in 40+ years of golf never cared. Learn to hit the shot or don't but golf isn't played in a giant manicured bubble. OB similarly silly. Those are the boundaries - "boy I'm not a very good ball handler I should be able to dribble out of bounds and avoid the press" - the penalty is slightly more penal compared to others to keep you on the course for lots of good reasons and not let you think you can just wail away and maybe only lose a stroke. Nothing intrinsically unfair about it, some just apparently can't stand to get an 8 instead of a 7 on a par 5.

 

Make the rules easier to understand and apply.

 

Don't change the nature of the game.

 

Old Tom Morris would be wondering where all the bawsacks went the last 100 years.

[Hawkeye77]

We need to have these rules so there is little to no interpretation needed where possible. Yes, we are always going to have some judgement calls about where a ball crossed the margin of a hazard for example. But to give relief from divots is just impractical imo. In a tournament,even at the club level, one group could be giving relief and another group does not from the same "divot". How is that equitable? Same with lost balls. One group would could give a much more advantageous ruling than another.

Leave lost ball rule-out of bounds-divots and other rules alone. I am all for making the rules easier to understand but we do not need to make the game easier in the process.

 

So, move it anytime you are in the fairway for any reason at all. Divot problem solved.

Posters keep saying that it's because you hit a good shot and "deserve" a good lie. How about if you bounce off a tree into the fairway? You already got one good break and that deserves another? Another post mentioned good lies in the rough. Do you always deserve a good lie then? Like Newby said a few posts above then just hit balls on the range. Should severe uphill and downhill lies also be treated in some manner? My biggest issue is when does a divot hole cease to be? That is the judgement I do not wish to see groups making.

 

Deserve's got nothing to do with it!

[martinbns]

I love the various proposal about the drops, about the use of the rangefinders and all. Finally no more spike marks in your line.

 

http://www.golfchann...-item-graphics/

 

How about changing the rule on the Out of bound?

 

Chat do you guys think about the revised changes proposed?

I agree, it's the most ignored rule in recreational golf. A guy turbos one WAY out of bounds, says I think I will find that and hops in the cart.

 

Treat it like a lateral hazard would kill 90% of "cheating"

[bladehunter]

Golf without out of bounds is like ten pin bowling with the gutter rails up. It's supposed to be a game of skill.

 

 

oh i agree..but while we are dumbing it down i figured i would get my 2 cents in for what would improve my rounds.....leaing the pin in, relief from a bunker etc are all same asif we did away with OB ... its making it easier

[Frankensteins Monster]

Add an asterisk. A ball can be played out of a penalty area. *Except those deemed to be boundary markings by the committee.

 

The problem is how do deal with a lost ball, and have it be consistent with out-of-bounds. Player A hits it off the planet (out of bounds), and drops at the boundary with one stroke penalty. Player B hits a ball, and NOBODY sees where it went. Where to drop? Player C hits ball and everyone thinks it is on the edge of the fairway...but it can't be found. Where to drop?

 

Group decision. Majority rules.

How does that work in a tournament? One group says yes and another no.

 

Three others in a foursome.

[Arb8889]

So many hot takes ??????

[rawdog]

i like any attempt to simplify and condense rules....just playing devils advocate. i see a lot of suggestions in rule changes, but actually attempting to put that rule into writing without being vague or leave the rule open for interpretation is a pretty tough task.

 

 

 

LOST BALL: the problem is the ball is lost because the players in the group don't know where it went. the "most likely location" is a guess at best, and typically the ball is lost because your idea on that most likely location isn't correct. I've seen numerous times a guy looking for his ball in an area only to have someone else in the group who happened to watch the tee shot find it 30 yards back. dropping where you think it 'might' be works for the casual weekend round but not so sure under tournament conditions. i'd prefer dropping anywhere on the line of flight, but this still leaves distance forward up to a guess, unlike a lateral hazard where you're dropping at best guess of where it crossed hazard.

 

FAIRWAY DIVOT: impossible to determine what constitutes a divot during weekend play. A lot of these rules sound great in theory but you have to be specific or you're going to have a mess on your hands. If a rule is vague its an open invitation to abuse or needing a rules official after every shot.

 

SPIKE MARKS: again sounds great in theory...but a 30ft putt has a lot of imperfections that are open for a tour pro to tap down. is televised golf now going to include watching a tour pro tap tap tap tap tap ..............every little mark on their line? The good thing....hopefully players go ahead and putt out more often instead of marking when they are worried about their stance on an others through line.

 

DROP: why not just let a player place their ball when 'dropping'. whats the point of watching a guy hover the ball as close to ground as possible then drop it.

 

LASERS: i'm all for using lasers without slope, i just don't believe this will do much to speed up pros. they'll still have their yardage books out calculating distance they want to hit shot in reference to the front, flag, back, point on green, talk wind direction, type of shot, shape, etc....but yeah let'em use lasers. then who lasers....will the caddy laser the pin and then the player feel the need also take a look? will they each have a laser?

 

OB: i'd say keep OB marked, but only difference to a lateral hazard is that you are not allowed to play a shot from OB. i like the 1 shot / 2 shot suggestion for internal and external OB, but then this also has to be specifically marked for all OB. Not all courses is this completely obvious which it is.

 

Will someone call into the rules officials that they saw some pro on TV drop from what they estimate to be 7/8 of an inch and they call all huddle around the TV to see if there was a rules infraction?

 

If they did, it would be a waste of their time, as 1" is only a suggestion, not the actual proposed rule. So 7/8" would be fine.

 

"The only requirement is for the player to hold the ball above the ground without it touching any growing thing or other natural or artificial object, and let it go so that it falls through the air before coming to rest"

 

The first summary of the rules I read said "drop from 1 inch". Makes more sense that it's just a recommendation.

 

No worries. It's a lot of info to digest all at once anyway. Just giving you a bit of a hard time!

[DrSchteeve]

Golfers shouldn't be penalized because someone couldn't afford more land. Jack would agree with me, he has said in the past, "Internal OB means you didn't buy enough land."

 

I'd like to talk to Jack about my home course that he designed :censored2: Wind is usually out of the SW (bottom-left).

 

 

Which house is yours?

[hogans71]

We need to have these rules so there is little to no interpretation needed where possible. Yes, we are always going to have some judgement calls about where a ball crossed the margin of a hazard for example. But to give relief from divots is just impractical imo. In a tournament,even at the club level, one group could be giving relief and another group does not from the same "divot". How is that equitable? Same with lost balls. One group would could give a much more advantageous ruling than another.

Leave lost ball rule-out of bounds-divots and other rules alone. I am all for making the rules easier to understand but we do not need to make the game easier in the process.

 

So, move it anytime you are in the fairway for any reason at all. Divot problem solved.

 

Just tee it up. Everywhere.

 

Problem solved.

[Leftofleft]

OB should be played the same as a penalty area--1 stroke and dropped where it crossed.

 

Lost balls should be 1 stroke and dropped at point the ball was last seen. This would significantly speed pace of play and would simplify the rules by effectively treating OB, lateral hazards (penalty areas), and lost balls in the same manner.

 

The counterarguments to these changes are bogus. Legal liability and general decency will still discourage players from taking unsafe lines even without a stroke and distance penalty. Stroke and distance penalties are an enormous obstacle to wider adoption of people playing golf 'by the Rules' because adherance to the current rules is totally impractical and unduly penal.

[bladehunter]

I think the concern about spending 20 minutes tapping down spikemarks would be taken care of by 40 second rule, in theory?

 

so enact yet another rule to make a new rule viable? isnt that making things more complicted instead of less?

[bladehunter]

The USGA could do wonders at repairing their reputation by giving us back our sharp grooves and maybe eliminate some of the most penal rules like stroke and distance

 

 

 

i second that ... groove rule repealed would be a great start...ihave a box full of 300 and 400 series vokeys i cant use... and thats the best wedge shape ever...

 

 

as for the proposals here... leaving the flag in ?? what will that solve? and giving a commitee a blank check to issue stroke penalties of unknown number and or DQ for un specified behavior is a bad idea.... the commitee should always be able to be questioned without fear of DQ .... and repairing marks on greens? that will only lead to guys on TV spending 10 minutes doing landscapep maintenance on their line before every putt.... bad idea... and the short drop??/ why not just say place it ... thats what it is... relief from a bunker ? that could be a huge advantage for someone who hits into one of the huge OPEN bunker lips and takes 3-4 strokes to get out... not a fan of that rule either...

 

South Carolina Golf Association does not currently list post 2010 wedge grooves as a condition of competition.

 

 

yes... and when you show up to the county am which gets the winner into the state am and they loosly mention "groove rule" and "no anchored putters" as they did last year what do you do ? .. yet you will get reported by someone for sure if you anchor and if you play well and have illegal grooves.......

[kevin2]

I'm at odds with several of the proposed rule changes, and this is one. I'm not sure it is good or not. After thinking about it for some time, it has some good sides. I know that I've been screwed more then once when having to take a free drop with no penalty. The 1 inch thing would at least get you on some turf that appears to be OK. Dropping in a sand trap is also another spot where you can get screwed with a fried egg after a drop. This new rule might address that injustice too. With that said, I'm still not on board totally.

 

I think the biggest issue I have might be with the new drop rule. You only need to drop it from at least 1 inch above the ground? That seems rife for abuse with guys looking for a just the right patch of grass to get the ball to sit up in, versus the randomness of dropping from shoulder height, especially in grass that is long where the ball tends to sit down.

 

On grounding in penalty areas - if I'm interpreting that correctly, it's everywhere BUT a sand trap, right (since a sand trap is not technically a penalty area)? I guess that's good and takes away the innocuous "he brushed a blade of grass on his backswing" penalties we sometimes see.

[landolakes]

I would like to be able to fix MY pitch mark anywhere, before hitting ... i.e. On the fringe between my ball and the hole

[Augster]

The lower, roughly 1" drop is to stop the nonsense I go through most every time. I want to place the ball, so I always try to drop where it will hop forward, closer to the hole than my NPR, twice. Then place it.

 

This new rule will get rid of that. I can still try to get it to jump forward, but it ends up in endless redrops. No placing.

 

For me, I know exactly where I want it to end up. Dropping from shoulder height is very random. Dropping close to the ground, I can drop and most likely get a good lie, but there is still more randomness than PLACING it on top of long grass in the rough.

 

Ultimately, I think the change was to bring in compliance your average golfer that just "throws one down" in casual play, but then does it in league play or tourney play and gets called on it. It puts everyone witnessing his illegal drop in an awkward spot where they need to tell a grown man that he needs to play by the rules. Now those casual drops will also be legal, even by accident.

 

The 1" drop will save me all the time I'll waste by hitting more provisionals because of the 3-minute search time.

 

Really though, these rules just make the game easier for bad players, which is like 99% of us, the golfing public. Your good player that just hits it down the middle, puts it on the green and two-putts will not be affected by nearly all these changes.

 

Lastly, whining about the grooves? Still? OMG. The grooves make ZERO difference and if you look at the data, you can make the case the new grooves make scoring easier.

 

How many 59's were shot on tour before the groove change? 3. Geiberger, Beck, and Duval in 1999. Then 11 years nobody shot 59 or better. Since the groove rule started in 2010 there have been 5 59's and a 58.

 

If you can't score, it's certainly not the grooves.

 

From '77 to 2009, 32years, the world's best, only carded 3 59's. From 2010 to 2017, 7 years (and barely that it's only March) there have been 6 scores of 59 or better.

 

The "groove rule controversy" is an old dead horse that needs to be put out to pasture. It's been 7 years.

[Shilgy]

Add an asterisk. A ball can be played out of a penalty area. *Except those deemed to be boundary markings by the committee.

 

The problem is how do deal with a lost ball, and have it be consistent with out-of-bounds. Player A hits it off the planet (out of bounds), and drops at the boundary with one stroke penalty. Player B hits a ball, and NOBODY sees where it went. Where to drop? Player C hits ball and everyone thinks it is on the edge of the fairway...but it can't be found. Where to drop?

 

Group decision. Majority rules.

How does that work in a tournament? One group says yes and another no.

 

Three others in a foursome.

But you're making my point Frankie. I'm playing in a group with Newby,Sawgrass and Sui and they deny my drop. Your group has Roadking and the other guys that want to roll it in the fairway. Do you think we get the same ruling?

Play it as it lies whenever possible. That's golf.

[bladehunter]

The lower, roughly 1" drop is to stop the nonsense I go through most every time. I want to place the ball, so I always try to drop where it will hop forward, closer to the hole than my NPR, twice. Then place it.

 

This new rule will get rid of that. I can still try to get it to jump forward, but it ends up in endless redrops. No placing.

 

For me, I know exactly where I want it to end up. Dropping from shoulder height is very random. Dropping close to the ground, I can drop and most likely get a good lie, but there is still more randomness than PLACING it on top of long grass in the rough.

 

Ultimately, I think the change was to bring in compliance your average golfer that just "throws one down" in casual play, but then does it in league play or tourney play and gets called on it. It puts everyone witnessing his illegal drop in an awkward spot where they need to tell a grown man that he needs to play by the rules. Now those casual drops will also be legal, even by accident.

 

The 1" drop will save me all the time I'll waste by hitting more provisionals because of the 3-minute search time.

 

Really though, these rules just make the game easier for bad players, which is like 99% of us, the golfing public. Your good player that just hits it down the middle, puts it on the green and two-putts will not be affected by nearly all these changes.

 

Lastly, whining about the grooves? Still? OMG. The grooves make ZERO difference and if you look at the data, you can make the case the new grooves make scoring easier.

 

How many 59's were shot on tour before the groove change? 3. Geiberger, Beck, and Duval in 1999. Then 11 years nobody shot 59 or better. Since the groove rule started in 2010 there have been 5 59's and a 58.

 

If you can't score, it's certainly not the grooves.

 

From '77 to 2009, 32years, the world's best, only carded 3 59's. From 2010 to 2017, 7 years (and barely that it's only March) there have been 6 scores of 59 or better.

 

The "groove rule controversy" is an old dead horse that needs to be put out to pasture. It's been 7 years.

 

 

it isnt about wanting sharper grooves... its about the hundreds of iron sets and wedge shapes that are nolonger made and were made illegal for zero reason by the usga... Take titleist for example ..always used V grooves in their blades, yet anything older than around 2002ish wasnt tested for the groove list and therefore is illegal... the only solution is to ship your set for testing to the usga lab... I have sent in 2 "illegal" titleist sets and both passed and i was issue a certificate that they conform..... but pre groove rule that hassel didnt have to happen... now it is the norm ... alternative being buy new..( which i think was the end goal to begin with) .... so you see the groove rant isnt guys wanting to rip balls back on the greens... its about the illegal clubs it created that once tested arent even illegal..... its the hypocrisy of it all...then there are the grandfathered square groove ping irons...so we have "legal" illegal grooves and "illegal" yet tested legal grooves.... clear as mud ..yes?

[mneumann]

I'm focusing on on this drop thing for some reason.

 

There was a past argument on this forum that resulted in the conclusion that if you could drop your ball on the tee you used to mark the edge of your drop zone you could play the ball off the tee. Someone was trying to advocate the use of martini tees.

 

So they definitely need to make sure they figure this out, cause I can definitely practice dropping a ball on a tee from an inch up.

 

I still have to mark the edge of my 80 inches right?

 

I also can't wait for the time in the future on a shaved bank at Augusta where the ball just won't stay, even after a 1 inch drop, and the pro has to drop like 30 times.

[ratspros]

The one I see slowing down play more then speeding it up is the flag rule. I'm guessing there will end up being guys that always want to leave it in unattended and guys that always want it out. Meaning I can see multiple times a hole the flag being taken out and put back in.

 

I also don't like the drop rule. Seriously how often do we need to drop re drop place? I don't think one time this year in any group I was in this took place. Dropping was an art form and a skill people practiced. Now it's basically placing the ball.