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.
I think you should have had the option to play that ball. Doesn’t seem like it’s materially different from a ball on the edge of a water hazard.
Interestingly enough, one of the guys i was playing yanked his hard left on the sane hole and hit into a hazard by like 50 yards. He dropped at the edge of the hazard and ended up bogeying the hole after his 1 stroke penalty.
You honestly think a ball off the playing "field" should be playable? So, basically, when you start playing, you can just hit the ball anywhere and it doesn’t matter?
You cannot play a ball submerged at the bottom of a pond. And water hazards can have riskier safety issues than OB.
No, I don’t. I think it should be the same penalty as a hazard with a drop in bounds and a one stroke penalty, as I have been saying over several threads now. I think it’s a reasonable position, as do some others. I think the OB penalty as currently constituted should be for tournament play only.
Except that you literally just said that he should have the option to play a ball that was OB.
That’s a fairly original reply. You know, besides not acknowledging that at least one person in this thread has argued to allow hitting a ball that lies OB.
All depends on how deep the pond is.
Look man, I’m not going to continue to get into a pedantic argument over this. I don’t see those two as inconsistent with respect to my thoughts on the rule. I posted the earlier comment in the context of the discussion regarding why paying a ball three feet out of bounds but still in grass and on the golf course property was no different than hitting a ball at the edge of a pond. If that can’t work because of the technical possibility but practical impossibility of situations where OB balls are on Johnny Law’s lawn or on a highway (as you said) then the hard and fast rule should be if it’s over the line, treat it as a lateral hazard and drop with a stoke penalty.
I get it, you don’t agree with that. You believe OB should be a greater penalty because it is off the field of play, as opposed to a hazard which is unable to be hit but within the field of play. I get it, but for most golfers, I just don’t see it as any more of a deterrent.
From a practical perspective, the only difference in @Tevenor ’s situation was the color of the line as a result of the designation by the course. The ball wasn’t “anywhere” as you stated. His ball was three feet over the OB line and on golf course property.
It’s not pedantic at all. I mean, the course is laid out. It’s like Scrabble, Monopoly, chess, checkers, and countless other games people play. You play on the designated area laid out for game play. No one spells words off the side of the playing area in Scrabble and allows it because the line is arbitrary and it’s not going to hurt anyone.
As has been said many times, too, hazards are able to be hit out of often. Just depends on the lie and the player’s decision.
We are discussing changes the rules and the reasoning behind it, not that we shouldn’t obey the rules. When I play golf and I hit it OB, I take the appropriate penalty as the rules require.
But you don’t play a ball submerged at the bottom of a pond. It is physically and practically impossible. No different from a results standpoint from OB.
Also, as to the new OB rule that "lets" someone not have to re-tee, it doesn’t really work in practice. If I drill a ball OB, Unless I’m completely fed up and want the round to end, I’m not going to play 4 from the point where it left golf course property (which will be short and in the rough) because on average I’m going to get a better result from re-teeing. The same applies to lost ball penalties. If all you’re playing is Sunday league, just make everything a lateral to speed things up – rounds are already painfully slow when you get stuck behind leagues. Its also weird how only golfers seem to have this obsession that you need to follow the rules exactly how they’re written regardless of where or what level ones playing. In our low level mens baseball league the strike zone is enormous – definitely not called as listed in the rule book and for good reason. The games would take forever otherwise. Yet somehow the local courses don’t give a **** about their leagues taking 5 hours with players hitting provisionals every other hole and looking for balls deep in the trees because the penalty is so steep. On a tangential note, thats one good thing about corona golf – no leagues.
At the end of the day, 1-stroke for a lateral hazard is a totally arbitrary penalty.
I’m confused on why you think your league needs to follow the rules. Play everything as a lateral hazard if you wish. For that matter, have anyone who hits the ball in a hazard or OB drop it in the center of the fairway. If it makes you feel better about golf, there’s nothing stopping you or your league.
Yeah all the penalties are arbitrary, that’s kind of my point. Its pointless to discuss whats a fair or unfair penalty.
The leagues could (should) choose to play like this but they don’t and its one of the big reasons they clog the course up. They ought to adopt rules that allow them to finish in a reasonable amount of time but would rather follow the rules to the book and slow everybody down in the process.
That’s the fault of the league, not the rules, IMHO.
There are numerous 2-stroke penalties in the rules of golf. The OB rule gets complained about far more than any other. The honest answer is that’s not because of a fundamental flaw in the reasoning. The honest answer is people complain about the OB rule because they violate it so frequently and they don’t like what it does to their score and thus, their ego. Especially with the new local rule, there’s no reason to complain about having to go back to the tee (which nobody did except in tournaments anyway). Go to the edge of the fairway, drop and charge yourself two strokes. Every bit as efficient as the lateral hazard rule. But the problem is not the procedure, it’s that people don’t like writing down a triple.
That’s the honest truth. If you kept the exact same procedures, or even went back to the old procedures but made it just a 1-stroke penalty with no loss of distance or even no penalty, people would cheer so loud we’d make contact with aliens.
If the local rule doesn’t work, then neither would treating it as a lateral. You’d be dropping no further up the hole. You’re dropping in nearly the same spot under either scenario. The reason why "treat it like a lateral hazard" is acceptable is because of the reduced penalty.
If OB was treated as a lateral, I would pretty much never retee after hitting it OB. I’m re-teeing almost all the time under the point of entry + 2 strokes penalty. Same thing goes for dense trees where the ball will almost certainly be lost (a more common offender than OB areas).
One penalty for one bad swing doesn’t seem arbitrary. It seems logical.
The new local rule for OB allows the drop to be in the fairway closest to where the ball went OB, with a two stroke penalty. Regardless, it’s still nonsense to not treat it the same as a lateral hazard.
You can if the depth allows.
Please find me one example where anyone hit a golf shot on a ball that was 100% submerged in a pond or lake.
Been there. Done that.
I think it’s been done a time or two.
The best part of that video was him putting on his full rain gear before the shot. Goodness that guy is insufferable. It’s on 18 man, just go change after the hole.
Seriously! (Ball not fully submerged here.) Just strip down to your undies like Woodland!
That video proves my point. Not one submerged ball was able to be played.
What’re you talking about? At 0:34, he definitely played the ball.
The ball went sideways. Look at the replay.
I believe he advanced it 25 yards into the fairway, but I’m so lost in this argument I don’t know what’s going on. I didn’t hit OB yesterday though, so that’s a plus.
What’s your point? He still played it.
That is your big evidence to support this theory that you can hit balls on the bottom of ponds? That among the greatest skilled golfers in the world, for a ball right at the edge of a pond, you can clank one sideways? Ok then …
No I’m well aware of the new rule for OB / lost ball drops. The problem is the 2 stroke penalty makes re-teeing the preferable option, so most everyone just re-tees anyways.
It doesn’t matter that you can drop in the fairway since you’ll likely be dropping it so far back. Now if you crush a 300 yard drive that goes OB by an inch, than yeah dropping where it went out + 2 strokes is looking like a good option. Unfortunately, most OB drives are 150 yard snap hooks / banana slices.
Also, let‘s be the real that ball was probably under 2 inches of water max. Over 99% of the time you hit it into a pond it’s unplayable.
It’s not a theory. You’ve asked multiple time and have been shown several times that it IS possible to play a submerged ball.
Rule #51.
As I’ve always said, it depends on how deep the pond is (or more accurately, how deeply the ball is submerged).
You haven’t shown one time a submerged ball actually being played. A golf swing and a golf shot result.
Why should I? @RealPretendPsychic did a great job.
All of the rules can be described as arbitrary. It is a game, not an examination of the nature of the universe.