Our "Club Without Real Estate" holds about a dozen handicap tournaments each summer. Our membership handicaps range from 3.0 to 36.0 so we have a wide range of skills at any tournament. Getting some of these guys around the course in under 5 hours is a challenge.

The "Club" instituted a rule that all dense woods and unmown vegetation areas lining a hole may be played as lateral hazards. While this is put out as a "Local Rule", it strikes me that this exception goes too far. A player that uses this exception rather than proceed under the "Lost Ball" rule should not really post his score since it was played using a "Local Rule" not acceptable to the USGA.

Any opinions or ideas?

Ask the 30-36 handicap what they feel about the rule. Don't pay any attention to what the single digits think. The rule hardly ever applies to them. Otherwise look forward to nine hour rounds.

joe jones wrote:

Ask the 30-36 handicap what they feel about the rule.

Yeah, I hear you. We also have a "10 Stroke" rule which I am more than okay with. With ESC, no one needs to have more than 10 strokes on a hole. To my shame, I have recorded several 10's over the past 5 years.

I think that's the way the rule should be anyway. I play a beginner's course that is links style with a lot of fescue grass. Most of the shots that end up in the fescue *should* be played as lost balls (stroke and distance). But the course is slow enough as it is. It would take four hours to play nine holes if everyone played stroke and distance from the fescue.

That LR is utter nonsense. People seem to be afraid to hit a provisional every now and than. You don't see that ball and you fear it may be out of bounds or lost? Play a provisional! How hard can it be?

jev wrote:

That LR is utter nonsense. People seem to be afraid to hit a provisional every now and than. You don't see that ball and you fear it may be out of bounds or lost? Play a provisional! How hard can it be?

I don't think the provisional is the answer to speeding up the round. Not in the slightest. I've just seen too many instances where the two balls are nowhere near each other, and now you take just as long walking to look for the first ball and then walking across the fairway to find the second ball as it would take to go back to the tee and rehit. Or even worse, you find the first ball right away, but then spend forever trying to find the second one.

Bryan K wrote:

I've just seen too many instances where the two balls are nowhere near each other, and now you take just as long walking to look for the first ball and then walking across the fairway to find the second ball as it would take to go back to the tee and rehit. Or even worse, you find the first ball right away, but then spend forever trying to find the second one.

Usually I hit a less than perfect ball as my provisional. Once I have located my first, Someone is usually near the 2nd and can pick it up for me. If the provisional is hard to find, I just let it go.

My experience is hitting a provisional takes relatively little time. Of course, the people I play with generally are not spraying the ball all over the place. It could get messy if all 4 players had to hit provisionals on the same hole and/or frequently throughout the round.

Our +25.0 handicap index players generally are older gentlemen (older being a relative term since I am 59)who hit the ball straight but not very far. They are not the ones taking advantage of the "lateral hazard" local rule.