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Fall Season "Leaf" Rule

I know it doesn't count under the leaf rule, but still one of the best photos I've taken on a golf course!
 
I'll play with some sort of leaf rule for sure. I would way rather a guy just drop a ball and play instead of digging through mounds of leafs with his 7i for 15 minutes. I would never penalize a guy if his ball landed in a mess of leaves and it was clearly in-bounds.
 
Nate said:
If it's a friendly game and there was 100% no doubt that it could be anywhere else (hazard nearby, OB, thick brush or trees, etc.) then we do with no penalty.
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This is how we typically play as well.
 
We play it all the time in the Autumn. No one takes advantage since the group has to agree that the ball would have been visible if not for the leaves.
 
Does anyone find that in addition to leaves swallowing up your ball, the autumn sun just seems to put a glare on everything? Something about the low sun this time of year...so many lost balls in plain sight.
 
Hawk said:
Here that's not even a guarantee lol. Between leaves or plugged balls, you can lose them in the fairway too.
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haha, good point. That is very true here as well.
 
staticline said:
Do any of you plays at clubs or in events, that, when all the leaves are falling, a local rule is instituted that basically says, if a ball cannot be found, and there are lots of leaves in the area, AND the group agrees that the ball has got to be in that area, the player may take a drop (no penalty involved) in the area and continue play?

I played at a club last year that had this unwritten rule during the fall. Last week, I played in an event, and thought that this would have been a good local rule to implement.
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never played it in an event...but my buddies and I do it all the time this time of year.....nothing more frustrating than to see a ball go into an area and then spend 5 minutes and still can't find it.

This is also the only time of year yellow balls can really suck....really blends in with the leaves.
 
TripleBogieTim said:
This is also the only time of year yellow balls can really suck....really blends in with the leaves.
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Yeah, I like the B330-RX yellows, but have switched to white because I lost a dozen yellow ones in the leaves in 2 weeks.
 
AngryYankee said:
I've stopped taking drop penalties when I lose my ball in the leaves during the autumn months. Really sucks when you see the flight of the ball, saw where it landed, go there to the spot only to see nothing but leaves.
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^^^^this^^^^
 
Between the low angle sun and the leaves we always play by the leaf rule.

One of the worst rounds I have ever played was in the fall, we played with a guy that refused to give up looking for his ball when it was in the leaves. I offered him all the balls in my bag that I had found over the course of the year but he still just kept on looking. I think we were out there for five hours and we were one of the only groups on the course. If that happened again I would just play ahead without him but I was being nice because it was my buddies father in law.
 
That makes sense and would have to agree.

Luckily we don't have a long season of leaves on the ground...they fall, become compost quickly or blown off the course. Snow is a longer standing concern, orange balls work best against white. Again, fortunate that the snow doesn't stay too long either. Gotta love Colorado
 
I'm gonna start it now. Last week we lost a few in the leaves. Nothing aggravates me more than to hit a great drive down the middle and can't find it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Jackal
 
I've never played a course that had that bad a problem with leaves but I would totally back a local rule that said if all players agreed a ball "should" be in an area and was unable to be found then the player is entitled to a free drop.
 
Shook said:
I always tell my playing partner "It probably went into a gopher hole under the leaves. Free drop."
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We had to use that rule for Darrell last Saturday
 
Matter of fact, last year a buddy hit his ball up to a green we couldn't find it, told him to take a free drop. When we were walking off the green I happen to kick a leaf & there was his ball just a foot off the fringe
 
bulldog said:
We had to use that rule for Darrell last Saturday
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Nice drive he had on that one too. I think he was the only one of us stepping up his game in the wind lol
 
Never in an event, only to help the pace of normal play and there is not a lot of "common sense" in the rules of golf.
 
SliceOfLife said:
Does anyone find that in addition to leaves swallowing up your ball, the autumn sun just seems to put a glare on everything? Something about the low sun this time of year...so many lost balls in plain sight.
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I employed the sun glare rule on myself one of the last few rounds I played this year. On my drive on the 1st hole even. I hit it solid, probably better than I've ever hit it from the tee there. For the life of me, I could not find it. Didn't see it off the tee since it was early morning and I was teeing off facing the sun. I didn't see it's ball flight, didn't catch it out of the corner of my eye when it came back below the tree line, and didn't hear any remaining leaves rustle from it flying through the trees. I hit a provisional from the tee right away and couldn't even find the first ball walking a zig-zag back and forth through the #1 fairway/rough. I even checked the #9 fairway which runs parallel and...nothing.

I decided I wasn't going to penalize myself for the lost ball because the sun stole it.
 
I play that rule, but if I have to use it I won't put in that card for cap purposes. I don't think there's an allowed rule where you could.
 
Generally don't but I don't see anything wrong with it. Would have saved me a couple strokes last week. The group I normally play with is usually betting some beers at the very least, so we count everything.
 
Not sure if my CC actually uses it or not, but I know whenever playing with anyone from the WNY area it is always how we play. During the fall around here it seems as if the balls just disappear!!
 
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