Yesterday during the final round of coverage we saw DJ hit a ball OB. This of course leads to a different penalty than that of the water hazard. One ball was playable, one was not.
There was a social media firestorm with tweets such as this and many others like it.
Now clearly this tweet forgets that sometimes OB is set in place, because it means no longer on the property of the golf course. Retrieving one’s ball might not be applicable in these instances.
Yet that still brings many questions regarding the rules. Should they be changed? Sound off below.
To me this makes plenty of sense. Why over complicate things?
Provisional yes. But there’s a little incentive to keep it moving on a crowded course on a weekend. Walking back to the tee is not really an option anyway is what I’m getting at. I’m not sure how closely this rule is really followed for weekend warriors anyway.
So you feel that from a scoring perspective it’s too penalizing to be OB?
I think it makes perfect sense. Most locations that are marked OB are intentionally set to deter golfers from hitting there.
That’s why I play provisionals liberally. That being said, I have made the walk back when necessary.
there’s no such thing as a hazard anymore
So are lateral hazards…
I completely agree. Sorry if that wasn’t clear in my post.
That’s why they implemented a new rule that can be adopted locally to avoid returning to the original location.
It’s a great feature – And as any golfer constructs their handicap, I see no reason why they couldn’t encourage their local club to adopt said rule (or use it during handicap tracked rounds). We are not 100% inclined to play ‘letter of the law’ golf each location we visit unless it’s in tournament play.
I mean this with no disrespect but if I saw someone making the walk back on a Saturday morning round, I would lose my marbles if their pace of play was bad.
You mean penalty areas?
Yes and no. Many penalty areas are within the confines of the individual hole. The only place I can think of where OB is present on my course that still belongs to the course is the driving range, which absolutely should be OB.
But yet we still have OB…
My point is that changing OB to a lateral is not going to result in an influx of balls being hit into those areas.
I don’t get the comparison?
I don’t follow?
I’ll concede that taking a side on such an argument is highly subjective, but I can pretty comfortably say that no one I golf with would feel the same way about a penalty area than OB in certain locations.
It’s a totally different experience.
hazards are gone.
We are in the ‘penalty area’ era.
And that was my point. Why isn’t it all "penalty area"? Keep the OB designation but treat it as unplayable penalty area.
You also have to consider that people will no longer be hitting multiple balls into the OB area on the same hole.
Sir, it’s important that I count every stroke in this very important $5 Nassau.
I think the OB rule needs tweaking. Let me take my penalty and go from there. I’m not gonna try and play from a backyard, I didn’t want to be there to begin with.
Because OB areas must be avoided by golfers – for the safety of pretty much everyone not playing golf.
Backyards, roads, driving ranges, train tracks, parking lots… We definitely want golfers playing away from them, not into them.
Not with the new potential local rule addition that was added in 2019. Anyone can use this, or encourage their course to adapt it (for both, actually).
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Make them all red penalty areas and it will make the game the much faster. No need for a provisional ball.
I still haven’t seen the evidence that making it a 1 stroke penalty vs a 2 stroke penalty encourages people to hit into back yards and roads and such. OB doesn’t stop balls from doing that now, right?
Not necessarily. Areas formerly known as lateral hazards are very playable sometimes.
I’m with you on that. I try to avoid the back yards, roofs, parking lots, and ranges just as much as I try to avoid the woods and water. I just don’t like being penalized an extra stroke because I found a roof and not a pond that runs from tee to green.
I haven’t seen anyone touting encouragement, but if you remove 1/2 the penalty, more people might take the chance.
I think we both know that arguing either side of this one is completely arbitrary and dependent on the individual.
Find me a reckless individual who hits driver on every hole no matter how challenging and I’ll find you two guys that play away from trouble at any chance as soon as OB comes into play. I do it myself on numerous locations of my home course.
We use it in one of the local amateur tours I play with so that it speeds up play. There are no complaints. We also play a modified version of it In another tour I play in. The only difference is that it does not apply to OB, just lost balls.
If their pace of play is bad, you should probably "lose it" on them even if they don’t walk back to the tee. Slow play is worse than almost anything else that can happen on the course.
I don’t know too many people who enjoy getting penalized regardless of how many strokes it is
Take the chance to hit away from the direction of the hole? I am guessing you are talking about that slim situation where an OB situation exists on a straight line of flight to the green from yiur ball position. How many holes have this situation from the tee? I’ve played over 20 courses around here and none of them have that situation. So we should keep overly harsh penalty for the 1% of 1% chance it might happen.
Most average golfers:
1) aren’t willing to risk any penalty area much less OB.
2) are hitting the ball far enough to fly over any penalty area, including any OB.
So how does the extra stroke really impact that again?
Even without the local rule, hitting a provisional takes minimal time.
I can think of 2 courses within 10 miles of my house that have scenarios that fit that description. Just because it doesn’t affect you doesn’t mean it’s not out there.
I think you give the "average golfer" too much credit, too.
The problem we had on one of our tours is that it happened too many times where no provisional was hit because the player was “certain” the ball stayed in bounds. So it was decided to implement the local rule once it became available.
Yeah, that’s where, especially in tournament play, I’d be very liberal with provisionals.
True. OB really isn’t that bad. I’ve bladed chips that took more time and cost me more strokes.
I’ve had spells of horrible bunker play that cost me several strokes, too… and one round of 79. Maybe we should just make a rule allowing a free drop out of bunkers to save strokes.
i don’t see how that’s an issue?
Preach. It’s easier to grumble quietly when they are 250 yards away. If they walk back to me, they will hear the grumbling much louder.
Eh I guess. Luckily I’m pretty unfamiliar with yellow stakes, I honestly don’t recall many courses I’ve played that has yellow stakes and I’ll read what it says on the scorecard on how to score it. I’m fine with white stakes, and I am aware you can elect to drop from the fairway and you’re hitting your 4th shot, not something I do. I just drop in bounds from the rough of where I went out and hit my 3rd shot.
In terms of the red stakes hazard. I hit a fat 9iron on the Par 3 and cleared the water barely, but I was up. That next shot is my 2nd shot, leave red stakes the way they are.
No not joking. I just see it as one penalty stroke. I don’t see the loss of distance as a penalty in itself, that will, or might show up as a second penalty stroke on a score card. It’s just part of the over all penalty for hitting a bad shot.
At the pro level, on a par 4, it’s still a possibility to make par after hitting 3 from the tee box. I’ve seen pros make par on a par three, after hitting their first shot into the water, and hitting their 3rd shot from the tee box.
I will agree that the loss of distance part supports slow play, and should be changed in the non professional, or sanctioned levels of golf. Slow play seems to be a bigger problem than the ob penalty.
how what’s an issue?
why would loss of distance support slow play?
Sensible play is to hit a provisional and then concede the first one being lost once you cannot find it. Takes an extra 20 seconds.
But so is a pond that is adjacent to the fairway. It is the same thing from a playing perspective.
There is no way that any one playing a NYC area public course is making a walk back to hit another tee ball. The groups behind you would just get violent if you tried it (exaggerating, but it wouldn’t be pretty).
How? Most golfers would be more inclined to play away from a pond than from a white stake where there is open grass on the other side.
Whoever always plays away from OB would do the same for a pond.