What's the worst rule in golf?

[thejazzmarauder]

IMO, it doesn't get more arbitrary or dumb than the OB rules, even after the updates. All they do is disproportionately punish worse players and slow down the game. A lateral hazard is already a serious penalty for better players, which is why guys on tour are so conservative when their target is near a hazard. When you hit it in a lateral, you're already scrambling for bogey; that's a big deal if you're trying to break par.  

Many OB lines are already deep in the woods. Treating them as a lateral hazard (allowing a player to drop from within two club lengths of point-of-entry) would often require punching out with your 3rd, making double bogey likely anyway. We should've left white stakes in the 20th century. 

[Celeras]

I think Model E-5 goes a long way towards alleviating your example, even if it's not tournament friendly?

 

My vote isn't a rule, but rather a lack of one. Relief for hitting out of divots in the fairway!

[hoganfan924]

44 minutes ago, Celeras said:

I think Model E-5 goes a long way towards alleviating your example, even if it's not tournament friendly?

 

My vote isn't a rule, but rather a lack of one. Relief for hitting out of divots in the fairway!

 

Yes, divots I think should be considered ground under repair.  The problem is in clearly defining what classifies as a divot.  For example, would one that's a week old and sand filled, with it growing in still be considered a divot?  Would a scrape mark with just some torn grass from a shallow impact qualify?  It might be tricky writing the rule in a way where the borderline cheaters wouldn't get away with dropping every time their ball rolled into a small imperfection.  Also, I agree they'd need to define it as "fairway only," I would add, with a drop radius much less than a clublength (for example, maybe just the "grip length of a standard field club").

 

I also think that OB should be treated as a lateral hazard.  At one time in the history of the game, it was a stroke only penalty.

[596]

OB is probably the most ignored rule for the average golfer.  The majority of average golfers never go back and re-tee.   They treat it as a lateral hazard and move along.  I don't play tournaments and I don't think I've ever, in 12 years of golfing, seen someone  drive back and re-tee for a third shot.

 

And then under the new OB rule most people don't know that after you drop you then take a penalty stroke.  They are still treating it as a lateral hazard.  

 

OB is the worst rule in golf.  Should be a white stake that you MUST drop from at 2 club lengths.  

[phil75070]

17 hours ago, hoganfan924 said:

The problem is in clearly defining what classifies as a divot

Precisely! If left up to interpretation, how do you protect the field in an event where in like situations one player is given relief and another isn't because two different people or Rules Officials are making the determination?

[BrianMcG]

Anything that involves penalty strokes.