Free Drop

With The Players starting tomorrow all attention will focus on the 17th green at the TPC Sawgrass.  Pete Dye’s island green presents some interesting rules issues. 

The primary question is how should the island green be marked?  It is a long way to the other side of the lake so marking it as a regular water hazard (Yellow lines) would be slow down play for the player who hits it over the green.  He could retee (Rule 26-1a) or keep the point of entry between himself and the hole (Rule 26-1b) and walk all the way to the other side of the lake.  But, marking it as a lateral water hazards (Red lines) creates even more problems.  The player who hits it over the green could probably find a place to drop on the island.  What of the player who hits a hook or slice and then claims that it flew over the edge of the green?  He would also want to drop on the island and arguments could ensue.

The best compromise is to mark it as a regular hazard, but then to add a Drop Zone as an additional option for the player.  Now the player who hits it into the hazard can replay from the tee, go to where it last crossed and drop keeping the point between himself and the hole or go to the drop zone which is about 80 yards from the green.  Most opt for the drop zone, but Fred Couples reteed it a few years ago and then slam dunked it for an interesting par.

The other question has to do with the wooden pilings that surround the green.  They are inside the water hazard.  If the player’s ball comes to rest inside the hazard, he wouldn’t get relief from them, but if his ball was just outside the hazard and he had interference for his stance he would get relief.  Because of this, the PGA Tour and most other organizations declare pilings in hazards to be integral parts of the course so that two players whose balls may only be inches apart get treated the same. 

I finally watched the CBS Rules of the Game II last night.   My thoughts.

I didn’t see Rules of the Game I, but I hope they covered some of the more basic mistakes I see players make.

Sunday at 2PM EDT / 11AM PDT, CBS will run a one hour show on the Rules of the Game.  I didn’t see last year’s version, but it is supposedly an interactive quiz program.  I’ll be watching or taping it.

Update - I didn’t get to see it on the air yesterday, but I do have it on the DVR so I’ll watch it tonight and comment then.

Rule 6-3 says that “The player must start at the time established by the Committee.”  Usually a player gets in trouble for being late to the tee.  The penalty for being late to the tee is disqualification, but a condition of the competition can be introduced that modifies the penalty to 2 strokes for anyone who arrives, ready to play within 5 minutes of that time.  All these penalties can go away if there was a very legitmate reason for being late such as an accident where the player was needed to stop and give assistance.

When you get to the tee, you have to have at least one club and a ball with you.  So, if your clubs are with your caddie and he isn’t there, you’re in trouble.

Occasionally there are instances when players get in trouble for being too early to the tee.  The most famous one of these occurred at the 1940 US Open when Porky Oliver and 5 other players started 30 minutes early to avoid a storm.  Oliver would have been the third player in a playoff with Lawson Little and Gene Sarazen if he hadn’t been disqualified.  This week at the PAC-10 Championships at the Meadow Club in Fairfax, CA, a player finished his morning round and rather than listening to the scorer who told him he had 40 minutes to get some lunch, went straight to the first tee and started his second round.  There was no marker, no starter, and no scorecard, but that didn’t seem to matter to him.

Today at the Wachovia, Sergio Garcia was lifting his coin on the 7th green after he had lifted and cleaned his ball.  As he lifted the coin, he bumped the ball and it moved.  He called for a rules official and Frank Kavenaugh came to help him.

Normally, if you cause your ball to move, you will be penalized under Rule 18-2a.  But, there are a number of exceptions.  One of these exceptions is that if the ball moves in placing or replacing your ball as long as the movement is directly attributable to the act of placing or replacing.  Decision 20-3a/1 says that there is no penalty if the ball is moved when removing the coin.  But, if the moving of the ball was caused by dropping the coin or your putter or you kicked it instead of just touching the ball accidentally the player would be penalized.  Decision 20-1/15 defines the phrase “directly attributable.”

Whether there is a penalty or not, the ball must be replaced when it is moved by the player.  Sergio replaced his ball and then made a 46 foot putt for birdie.

Geoff Shackleford provides a good synopsis of the coverage of the R&A’s press conference where they were questioned on the pace of play at the Masters and elsewhere.

Thanks to Geoff Shackleford and Stewart Cink for making April my busiest month since I started this blog on 12/29.  Over 3300 hits in April.  Not a lot compared to others in the blogosphere, but it is growing.

I’ve enjoyed the comments and questsions from all of you.

Sometimes we are unsure what to do on the golf course.  It might be that we don’t know the rule or there might be a place that we think should have been marked by the Committee but wasn’t.  So what do we do?  Well, the rules differ for stroke play and match play. 

In Match Play, the only other person or persons who are concerned about what we do are our opponents who are right there.  So, if we can come to an agreement on the proper procedure, we can do what we feel is correct as long as we aren’t knowingly agreeing to waive a rule.  If our opponent doesn’t feel we are proceeding correctly, he can make a claim under Rule 2-5 and the Committee can then rule on it. 

In Stroke Play, the entire field is concerned with our actions so we handle things differently.  We can choose to play a second ball under Rule 3-3 and ask the Committee to decide which one will count. 

Both of these procedures have specific requirements that must be followed precisely.  Players make mistakes in the procedure and it frequently costs them strokes or holes so it is wise to know these two rules.  More on making a claim.   More on playing a second ball.