My teammates had a couple of rule questions for me this morning after their round last evening. That’s a good thing – a good bit of the rationale behind doing this blog was to help them understand golf’s 34 (and soon to be 24) rules and get us all talking about them. If the other teams glean some goodness from our unfortunate bounces and situations, good for you!
Sounds like the weather was perfect for golf – would have been a good night to play, as opposed to my 9:30 AM tee time on Friday morning – weather looks to be a little bit dicey. The first question from last night revolved around what to do about a ball that lands just in front of the abandoned walking bridge on the right-hand side of #2. I’d love it if the staff would simply demolish the thing and leave no trace of its existence, but we’re stuck with it for the foreseeable future. Mr. Potter’s approach to the green had sailed right and short and just made it over Romney Creek and rolled to within a foot or two of the bridge. Rich could not make a normal full swing without contacting portions of the bridge. He thought he should be able to take relief from the immovable obstruction, verified that with his opponents, and whipped out his handy, dandy laminated rules card which showed him the proper procedure and placement for relief from the obstacle. He found his nearest point of relief (which allowed him a proper stance and ability to swing his club without interference and was not in the water hazard), and dropped a ball within a club length of that spot. Ball was in play.
Simple, right? Well, how about a couple more similar situations which are not so simple. What if your ball was nestled in the grass right near the bridge, but within the limit of the water hazard? (If Ruggles Golf Course would actually mark their hazards with painted lines or stakes, this discussion might have a bit more relevance….. but I digress.) Do you get relief from the obstruction while in a hazard? Answer – No! Since you’re in the hazard, you have more options open to you, one of which allows (for the penalty of one stroke) to draw that imaginary line from the flagstick through your ball’s location and go back as far as you like along that line to drop your ball and make your next stroke. As you back up, I’m sure there is a location in which your swing or stance will not be impeded by the abandoned bridge. Here’s another – your ball ended up short of the creek and the hazard, but that bridge is now between you and the hole. You can make a full swing and take a normal stance without touching the bridge, but your intended line of play to the hole is right through one of the vertical elements of that bridge. Are you entitled to relief from this immovable obstruction due to your line of play? Again, unfortunately, the answer is “No.”
The only area of the course in which you receive line-of-play relief is for an immovable obstruction on the putting green and only if your ball is on that green to begin with. And what could an immovable obstruction be on a putting green? How about casual water? (see last week’s blog entry….) Or, GROUND UNDER REPAIR! (We’ll get to that next…)
Rule issue #2 occurred on the very next hole – the par-3 3rd. My other teammate, Dave, had landed an approach to the green on the green’s surface, but right in a patch of sandy dirt on the green (probably a 2-ft diameter circle of deadness). You get patches like this sometimes on greens where water lays for long periods of time, or if diseased turf dies. As you all probably know, putting from this stuff is a dicey proposition – you really don’t know how the sand will affect the ball’s speed during the putt. Patches of green like this (on some course I’ve played, but not Ruggles) can be marked with a while line around them, and IF SO MARKED, you can get relief from stance, swing, and line of play by finding the nearest point of relief (which could be off the green and require you to chip the ball instead of putt it), and placing the ball at that location for your next stroke if you seek relief from the ground under repair. However, we’re at Ruggles Golf Course, where it’s a freak event when GUR, hazard limits, or out-of-bounds is marked. (I know, I know, other things like mowing grass, keeping grass alive and keeping the course open for play are much more important that proper marking of the course in this age of reduced budgets, but this is my blog, it’s a common problem for all but the best of courses, and I don’t like it!) Apparently there was some discussion, but Dave’s opponent (rightly) said that no relief was available to Dave, and Dave putted from the dirt spot. Everyone acted within the rules of golf, but I do contend that areas of Ruggles Golf Course could and SHOULD be marked to reflect things like Ground Under Repair. Until marking is done, I can only offer the following option – play two balls. In Dave’s situation, he could have putted from the dead spot, and then played another ball from the point at which he would have received relief from what he thought was GUR and recorded both scores on the hole with an explanation on the back of the card. The committee could then decide whether the area should have been marked GUR or not, and then decided which score to record for Dave.
To be perfectly fair, proper marking of a course to delineate hazard boundaries, out-of-bounds, and ground under repair are something that very few courses spend a whole lot of time or money executing. The sad truth is – your sport is dying. More on that in my next blog entry.t blog entry.