Relief from Divot Rule?

JB

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Obviously one does not exist currently, but let's say you were put in charge of the USGA and R&A to create such a rule. That relief could be taken from a ball that lands in a divot.

How would you go about making it work as divots age and begin to return to normal? So it does not turn into an every bad lie gives relief?
 
It can't be done. there should be no divot rule.

Same issue with footprints/bad lies in bunkers.

This is it exactly. Unfortunately it is a rub of the green situation.
 
Paging @Canadan haha. He hits into divots more than anyone person should..

I think there needs to some kind of percentage of ball below the surface measurement once it is determined it is a divot and not just a natural depression.
 
Lift clean and place everywhere in the fairway. That's the only way to do it IMO.
 
It can't be done. there should be no divot rule.

Same issue with footprints/bad lies in bunkers.
I kind of think the same thing. My rule would be that there is no rule. I don't know all of the rules, and it's unfortunate but that's just part of the game in my mind. Bad results happen and while most of us don't play for millions there could potentially be a lot of judges making that determination.

I think that there would be to much human input in this type of rule.
 
One official with every pairing. You can ask him if he considers it in a divot. He can either say yes or tell you to kick rocks.

Now there may be different officials who think one is relief and one isn't. Who you get will be your rub of the green :LOL: Hopefully the officials would have integrity though and not punish certain players lol

It really is a hard thing to come up with if you aren't just "lift clean and place" everything that hits fairway (which wouldn't bother me in the slightest). Outside of the fairway, tough luck. You should have hit the fairway. And that's coming from someone with about 33% of FIRs in a round if I'm lucky 😞

General golf population though, people make up their own rules with divots anyway so there is not policing that
 
Ball in hand in fairway.

Divot in the rough? Sorry.
 
Lift clean and place everywhere in the fairway. That's the only way to do it IMO.

This makes my skin absolutely crawl. One of the fundamental principles of golf is dealing with (most) of the challenges in front of you.

If we just want golf to be fun and stress free, not a problem. Play however you want. Roll it out of divots, pick it up out of the junk and throw it back in the fairway. Do whatever you want to make golf fun for you.

But when it comes to the official rules and thus, competitive play at whatever level, golfers should have to deal with a bad break, even in the fairway.
 
I don't see a need for a rule like this. Stuff happens. Find the ball, then hit the ball. If you can't hit it then take the appropriate penalty. Trying to do anything with divots would just further complicate an already complicated set of rules. Bad luck is a part of every game.
 
This makes my skin absolutely crawl. One of the fundamental principles of golf is dealing with (most) of the challenges in front of you.

If we just want golf to be fun and stress free, not a problem. Play however you want. Roll it out of divots, pick it up out of the junk and throw it back in the fairway. Do whatever you want to make golf fun for you.

But when it comes to the official rules and thus, competitive play at whatever level, golfers should have to deal with a bad break, even in the fairway.
 
That's what you get for striping one down the middle...

It's a tough pill to swallow for sure.
 
Divots suck but having to watch people get questionable drops in the fairway from every poor lie would be way worse!
 
This makes my skin absolutely crawl. One of the fundamental principles of golf is dealing with (most) of the challenges in front of you.

If we just want golf to be fun and stress free, not a problem. Play however you want. Roll it out of divots, pick it up out of the junk and throw it back in the fairway. Do whatever you want to make golf fun for you.

But when it comes to the official rules and thus, competitive play at whatever level, golfers should have to deal with a bad break, even in the fairway.

While I don't disagree, the purpose of this thread is to say "a rule is to be changed, how would you do it". Not whether or not it should be changed, that is a different discussion altogether.
 
It’s rare that I see a pro struggle with hitting out of a divot, and unless someone has really gouged one out, I gotta be honest, I rarely struggle. I’d be all for making a divot ground under repair, but I agree with the comment about the only way it could be done is lift clean and place everywhere, and I don’t think that’s a good idea personally.
 
This makes my skin absolutely crawl. One of the fundamental principles of golf is dealing with (most) of the challenges in front of you.

If we just want golf to be fun and stress free, not a problem. Play however you want. Roll it out of divots, pick it up out of the junk and throw it back in the fairway. Do whatever you want to make golf fun for you.

But when it comes to the official rules and thus, competitive play at whatever level, golfers should have to deal with a bad break, even in the fairway.
I agree that playing it down is fundamental to golf's fairness. My point is if you want to give people relief from a divot in the fairway the only way to do that without having rules stops and weird interpretations is to just play lift clean and place throughout the fairway. It really can't be done any other way.
 
It can't be done. there should be no divot rule.

Same issue with footprints/bad lies in bunkers.
Then they shouldn’t be aloud to fix ball marks and tap down foot prints in their line. They would obviously fix their own mark when they get to the green, but no further repairs to be made.

As far as divots in the fairway, I absolutely think you should be able to take it out. That would be determined by if the ball is sitting on grass or not. Even if you can tell it was a divot and still growing in, if the ball is on grass, play it as is. If there is obviously dirt/fill under ball and making direct contact with ball, you decision if you want to take drop. Drop would be within one club length behind divot, not to the left or right.
 
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