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Writer's pictureTodd Morris

And it had to happen on the last hole...



Something happened to me on the golf course this past week that I'd never had the misfortune of addressing.

I'm in a good match on Tuesday - even up with two holes to go when my opponent nails about a 25-ft putt from the back fringe of #5 for a dagger par to answer one of my own (but I'm giving a stroke on the hole). One down with one to go. Good drive puts me in the driver seat on #6 but I'm giving another stroke and it looks like my opponent is easily going to make bogey. Time to go pin hunting. A good seven iron looks great until it draws just left of the deep left bunker on that hole and I'm left short-sided and all downhill to the hole. I've already chipped in on #2 for a crazy par, so I said "What the hell", pulled out the 60-degree and went for the Phil Michaelson super flop. It was really the only way I could win the hole.

Unfortunately, the ball never had enough forward velocity and a lot of spin and never made the putting surface, didn't make the fringe, didn't even make it over the bunker. It stopped dead on the steep embankment of sand on the green side of the bunker. I was the only one not on the green, and I told everyone "you gotta see where this ball ended up!" Unless you were on my side of the bunker, you couldn't see it - there was about 6 inches of overhanging grass shading the ball. So, I had to finish the hole, but what was I going to do?

I didn't even get into the bunker to try a bunch of weird stances, I could see my only play from in the bunker was a shot toward the woods which would be no help at all.

I ended up taking an unplayable from the bunker. The options are going to be changing next year for this rule, but I won't try to confuse you yet, and will talk only about my options in 2018, which were three. The first (and this is the one I did select) would be to replay from the previous spot, but (as with all unplayable situations) there are two more options, and they're a little bit different than the normal unplayable situations like ending up under a bush. Option 2 would be to play from an area no closer to the hole within 2 club lengths of the place where your ball came to rest (but if that location was in the bunker, you'll have to play from the same bunker). Same deal with the third option (drawing a line between the hole and your ball and going back as far as you like - when your ball is in a bunker, you have to play from that bunker under the option).

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