BluesManDan
Active member
So... hole 7 at my local course features a slightly uphill drive over a 200+yard ravine to a narrow fairway surrounded by woods to the right and the left. And by "woods" I mean woods on a severe slope with absolutely no chance of you ever hitting a ball that should find its way into them. A good drive will leave you a blind shot to the green from the left, or almost blocked out by a giant hill and tree on the right. I have to hit at least 3 wood to carry the ravine, and because of the danger of a severely blind shot or total blockage, I always just take driver, so that a well hit shot isn't completely blind into the green. I'm pretty accurate with my driver, so it usually works out okay. But not always.
Yesterday I hooked into the woods. Retee with a penalty. Hook another one into the woods. I'm not whacking another $3 ball into the woods, so I just take another penalty and drop one at the bottom of the ravine (it's grassy now, though it was all chest high briars and weeds last year) and hit a 7 iron up onto the fairway above to then hit a semiblind PW into the green and take an 8 on a par 4. Fun.
What's really the right play? I played the first one as if it were OB or a lost ball, even though I could see it. The second one I played as if it were into a hazard. I could see both balls but could get to neither of them.
Now... the woods/ravine on the left are NOT playable in the least. You can sometimes see your ball, but you ain't gonna hit it without some rappelling equipment, a machete for the briars, and a mountain goat for a caddie. (You think I'm joking...)
But NEITHER are they MARKED by white stakes or red stakes (as I would contend they SHOULD be).
And the hole does NOT have a designated drop zone anywhere.
What's the right play according to the rules, when I hit a ball into those woods?
Yesterday I hooked into the woods. Retee with a penalty. Hook another one into the woods. I'm not whacking another $3 ball into the woods, so I just take another penalty and drop one at the bottom of the ravine (it's grassy now, though it was all chest high briars and weeds last year) and hit a 7 iron up onto the fairway above to then hit a semiblind PW into the green and take an 8 on a par 4. Fun.
What's really the right play? I played the first one as if it were OB or a lost ball, even though I could see it. The second one I played as if it were into a hazard. I could see both balls but could get to neither of them.
Now... the woods/ravine on the left are NOT playable in the least. You can sometimes see your ball, but you ain't gonna hit it without some rappelling equipment, a machete for the briars, and a mountain goat for a caddie. (You think I'm joking...)
But NEITHER are they MARKED by white stakes or red stakes (as I would contend they SHOULD be).
And the hole does NOT have a designated drop zone anywhere.
What's the right play according to the rules, when I hit a ball into those woods?