Category: Humor

So no ladies play day eh? So whatcha gonna do? Read Rules of course!

Ladies:

Discovery Bay Country Club has 16 of its 18 holes where water can come into play, ouch! Many of our seasoned members know exactly how to follow the Rules of Golf when their ball goes into the water, but our newer members may not. What I want to do today is to go over three difficult areas on our course where you may be unsure of what to do, and try to make it as easy as possible for you to understand what you do next, apart from using bad words.

Every time your ball goes into the water the very FIRST thing you should do, and most importantly is,

Identify the place where your ball last crossed the margin of the hazard as accurately as you can, or estimate that point as honestly as you can. Sometimes at long distances the “exact” point is hard to establish. Be realistic and honest. This is your reference point for Rule 26.

Secondly. Identify what color the stakes are in the area where your ball took its nosedive into the water hazard.

Yellow stakes or yellow lines: A water hazard. Three options

Red stakes or red lines: A lateral water hazard. Five options

A lateral hazard is different from a water hazard by the fact that it is, well, lateral ! It runs alongside or adjacent to the line of play, rather than across it, and it is difficult to drop a ball behind.

Ladies please don’t get worried over all the “options”, it’s simpler than it sounds and I have included a link at the bottom of the page with an extremely informative video from the USGA on Water Hazards. It will be worth your while to check it out, and you won’t even get wet!

Here we go.

Difficult and often misunderstood scenario 1. Hole #2

You played your ball from the teeing ground and it went across the water and you were sure it was going onto the green but…..it landed on the grass bank in front of the green and bounced back into the water! Rats……………………….Now what?

Identify the point where your ball last crossed the hazard and went in

What color are the stakes? Yellow

Here on hole #2 it makes no difference that your ball touched land first. Your ball crossed the margin of the hazard at the yellow stakes and ended up in the water.

Options?

1. Play the ball as it lies, no penalty, you can’t swim or even see it, therefore not an option.

2. With your reference point of where the ball last crossed the hazard when it bounced back into the water go back as far as you like in line with the pin and drop a ball. You could possibly be up against the boundary fence, under a tree, or maybe on the men’s teeing ground. One penalty stroke

3. Play a ball from where you made your last stroke, the teeing ground.

Your smartest choice is playing a ball again from the teeing ground. Take a one stroke penalty and try again.

Difficult and often misunderstood scenario 2 Hole #11

You hit from the teeing ground, your ball sails across the water but hits the rocks lining the hazard alongside the cart path, and takes huge bounce backwards into the water. This time it did not touch land on the other side. Now what?

Identify where your ball last crossed the hazard.

No, no, not at the rocks where your ball hit them but at the rocks right in front of you

What color are the stakes? Red.

Options? Really only 4 of the 5** are possible at this place

1. Again no swimming ….so you can’t play it as it lies….

2. As the stakes are red you have the option of dropping a ball within two club lengths from where your ball last crossed the hazard. Okay it’s a possible choice, but watch out the grass can be long there! One penalty stroke.

3. As far back as you like in line with the pin. You might end up on the men’s tee box, and also it could be extremely difficult to estimate the line accurately. One penalty stroke.

4. Play a ball from where you made your last stroke, the teeing ground.

My choice? I’d take the teeing ground. Take a one stroke penalty, and try again.

Difficult and often misunderstood scenario 3 The dreaded hole #17.

This hole is tricky, nasty tricky.

Let’s use the scenario that you hit from the teeing ground, your ball lands on the green, it bounces to the right, and rolls over the pilings and plops into the water. Unlucky you!

You saw where your ball went in……………….. Great!

What color are the stakes? Yellow

Options?

1. Again, (are we tired of this yet?) no swimming to play the ball where it lies

2. Drop a ball in line with the pin as far back as you like, ….you are gonna be in the water, or on the 18th fairway. Neither a nice place.

3. So yes, you’ve got it………… Play a ball again from the teeing ground.

Take a one stroke penalty, and try again!

Now ladies, please check out this video link below

You can actually see how the options work, (**including the rarely used by us “opposite margin option” for a lateral water hazard) Our golf course it not set up in a way that we could use it to our advantage, so please don’t worry too much about this option.

Let’s keep playing here, and learning the Rules of Golf, as simply as possible.

Any questions? Just ask me or send me an e mail.

I hope this helps you,

Hilary

Zach Johnson Penalised After His Last Putt on 18th Many of you may have heard about Zach and his almost costly mistake last week. Here’s a good article about it and my tip for you at the bottom. Enjoy. A common breach of Rules in Club golf is failing to replace a ball on the putting green where it had come to rest before being marked to the side, at the request of a fellow competitor who is putting on a similar line. However, it does not often happen following the very last putt by the tournament leader on the 18th green of the final day of a Tour event. That is exactly what happened to Zach Johnson on Sunday at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, Fort Worth, Texas. Zach he put his second shot into a greenside bunker, splashing out to about five feet from the hole, where he marked his ball.Dufner was putting on a similar line and asked Johnson to mark his ball to the side, which he did. Dufner missed his putt but then holed out, so that his fellow competitor could take the limelight. As Johnson stood over this putt to close out the tournament he must have been more relaxed, thinking that he had three putts to win. In fact, because he had not replaced his ball where it was originally marked, he was putting from the wrong place and needed to hole the putt to avoid a play-off. The Rule that he breached was Rule 20-7c. Decision 20-7c/1 clarifies; Q. In stroke play, a competitor in replacing his ball on the putting green inadvertently put the ball in a wrong place nearby and holed out. The error was then discovered and the competitor put his ball in the right place and holed out. What is the ruling? A. The score with the ball played from the wrong place counts and the competitor must add two penalty strokes to that score (Rule 16-1b or 20-3a and 20-7c). The competitor incurs no penalty for having putted from the right place after holing out from a wrong place. Note that you do not have to return to where you originally marked your ball in these circumstances. The score from the wrong place counts, including the penalty of two strokes. Zach Johnson was celebrating his win with his caddie, Damon Green, who had been busily raking the bunker when his player was marking his ball to the side; both of them blissfully unaware of the breach. It appears that it might have been Peter Kostis, the on-course CBS reporter who first brought it to the attention of a Rules Official, who in turn notified the caddie, who broke the news to Johnson. He immediately realised that he had indeed played from the wrong place and had to think twice before realising that he had still won without the need for a play off. He entered the double bogey score of 6 for the hole, before signing his card and returning it to the scorers. The two-stroke penalty dropped Johnson to 12 under for the tournament, just one shot ahead of Dufner. Ladies: My tip for all of us finding ourselves in this situation is to put our marker down WRONG SIDE UP ,then when we go to replace our ball we get a visual clue to remind us to span back. I hope this helps you. Hilary