My recent article on the infamous Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas exchange motivated me to share my thoughts about some of the silly rules in the game of golf.
Stroke and Distance Penalties
Imagine a straight golf hole. Standing on the tee, you can see the flag straight ahead in the distance about 360 yards away. On the left, you have a pond that is in play pretty much the entire length of the hole and is marked by red stakes. On the right, you have a cart path and then homes whose property line is marked by white out-of-bounds stakes.
Bob tees off first, pulls his drive a little left and about 200 yards out the ball trickles into the pond. Steve tees off next, pushes his drive a little right and about 200 yards out the ball trickles past the white stakes into someone’s yard.
According to the rules of golf, Bob is to take a one stroke penalty, drop the ball within two club lengths of where his ball passed the red stakes and entered the hazard, no closer to the hole. Bob is hitting his third shot approximately 160 yards from the hole. Steve, on the other hand, is penalized stroke and distance and has to go back to the tee and strike his third shot from 400 yards away.
In a similar scenario, Bob’s drive trickles into the pond 200 yards from the tee and Steve’s drive goes into the right rough, crosses the cart path and enters an area with lush vegetation (there are no stakes in the area). They search for 3 minutes but can’t find Steve’s ball. Just as in the first example, Bob (whose ball is also lost) gets to drop 160 yards from the green, but Steve is required to re-tee.
Proposed solution: Red stakes currently represent a lateral hazard or penalty area. If the player’s ball is visible and playable inside the penalty area, that player is currently allowed to play from the hazard if they wish. We’ve all seen the golfer with his pants leg rolled up, shoes and socks off and whacking one out of a muddy bank. I propose that white stakes simply represent a lateral hazard from which the player is not allowed to play. We can’t have golfers taking divots in people’s back yards! But the penalty should be the same as for the player who loses his ball in a lateral hazard (creek, pond, etc.). Two club lengths from where it crossed the hazard line no closer to the hole.
Same with lost balls, one stroke penalty and two club lengths from where we think it disappeared.
Drop Rules
Years ago, if a golfer was required to drop after incurring a penalty, he or she dropped it over their shoulder behind them. Later the rule was changed so that the player held their arm straight out at shoulder height and dropped it straight down. More recently the rule was changed where the player now drops from knee high to the side. Frequently we see professional golfers drop twice with the ball bounding forward or too far backward, resulting in the golfer placing the ball where it landed before rolling.
Recently I saw a situation where the golfer’s “nearest point of relief” was on a concrete cart path. The golfer dropped twice with the ball bounding away each time. The golfer placed the ball on the cart path and is now eligible for relief from the path. So they then went to the nearest point of relief from the path and dropped again. Was that middle step really necessary?
Proposed solution: If a golfer is entitled to a free drop or if they are forced to take a drop after a penalty stroke, simply allow the golfer to place the ball in a legal spot.
Playing from a Divot
Most mid to high handicap golfers play winter rules much of the time. This means the golfer can roll the ball a few inches to find some grass for a decent lie if they are in the fairway. But some golfers, especially lower handicappers, prefer to play the ball “down,” meaning you always play it from where it lies. I don’t have a problem with tour-level golfers having to play it down all the time. They play on well-manicured courses, their competitors make excellent swings and take shallow divots, and their divots are usually sand-filled. Pros don’t have much problem with that shot.
But the recreational golfer who hits a great drive and finds his ball in a divot in the middle of the fairway should get relief, even in a money game. Landing in a divot in the fairway is random, and not something a golfer can control using their own skill. There should be a reasonable expectation that if one hits a good solid drive that lands in the fairway, they should have a reasonable lie in that fairway.
A similar situation occurs in bunkers. Recreational golfers who play on public courses often find themselves in divots or footprints in sand traps because some golfer in front of them failed to rake the bunker. In this situation, golfers should be permitted by their playing partners to pull the ball out of the footprint or divot and play from a similar lie in the bunker (meaning if the ball was sitting down in the sand, it should be sitting down in the new spot as well). The exception to this would be if the golfer was unable to get the ball out of the bunker on the first swing and the ball rolled back into one of his own footprints or divot. In that case, the golfer must play the ball where it lies.
I enjoy playing golf, both recreationally and competitively, but I enjoy it less when required to follow the goofy rules mentioned above. Let’s “roll it in the fairway, play it down in the rough” and “no stroke and distance penalties.”