So I've been thinking about the new local rule of avoiding penalty of stroke and distance when hitting out of bounds or losing your ball. I finally learned that if you drop it is two penalty strokes if I understand it correctly, so you would be hitting your fourth shot in either scenario of dropping down the fairway or hitting again after the rehit (provisional or not) from the tee.

But two different articles from Golf.com described the drop process differently. One claimed you could drop anywhere from two club lengths behind a perpendicular line from where it was deemed lost or the point from which it went out of bounds. The other one said to drop from between the edge of the fairway and the point it went out of bounds or was thought to be lost. I'm thinking it should be the former because a two stroke penalty is harsh enough, especially considering you might have lost considerable distance with a poor shot, so you should be able to drop it in the center of the fairway. I used to think the new rule was just to take one penalty stroke, but that seemed so odd because you would be so much better off than if you took a provisional or rehit, but with a two stroke penalty it all makes sense.

But I'm wondering if people here actually do or did prior to this rule walk all the way back to the tee or there previous shot when you couldn't find your ball or found out that it was out of bounds? I could never imagine taking that much time outside of competitive golf, especially without having a cart. Do any of you actually do this in a casual round? I don't think I've ever seen anyone do it at the courses I play. I'm not necessarily against it, but it just seems so time consuming that I have trouble imagining someone doing it, especially after a long tee shot and al the more so without the aid of a cart.

Have legit never walked back to the tee to re-hit, after not finding an OB ball, in a casual round of golf. Have never played with anyone who did that either. I have never played a "competitive" round of golf, i.e. in a tournament or club event, etc.

In any case, whenever me and playing partners hit into a hazard and cannot find or retrieve the ball, we just play everything as lateral and drop no closer to the hole on the path it entered the hazard. Hit 1 off the tee into hazard, drop, hit 3 from beside hazard, etc.

Certainly helps our indexes and scores.

^^^^that's how we play as well. as Leslie Nielson says "it's not a lost ball....it's a stolen ball. someone will find it and it's not like they'll turn it in at the club house."

or something like that.

I guess we are more strict in our $ games. In our game you drop and hit 4, which almost everybody does, or you can re-tee.

It's so punishing. Makes keeping it in play even more critical for better scores. Or playing courses with minimal hazards.

Thanks! That video was spot on in terms of clarification, almost too good to be true.

The danger of re-teeing being that if you hit it out again you will really hike up your score? Because if you were certain you would hit a better shot on the re-tee you'd obviously be in a better spot score wise and literally. But have you or anyone in you $ games actually walked back and re-teed?

It seems odd that if you were unsure if a ball went into a hazard and it was therefore considered to be lost, you would then incur a two stroke penalty to drop under this rule, but if you hit it shitty enough to be certain that it was in the hazard, therefore making it irrelevant that you couldn't find it, you would only have a one stroke penalty to drop? WTF?? lol Am I missing something?

By definition, a ball cannot be lost in a penalty area.

ntnBO you are a true pro here. let's say you're playing and you spray your drive a little left and are certain it's in play. you look and look and look and just can't find it. what do you do?

my buddies and i would just drop and play on, no penalty.

again, this is in a "we're all absolutely positive the ball is in play but just can't find the damn thing" scenario.

This is my understanding of penalty areas:

If you are not certain your ball went into a penalty area, and you cannot identify your ball, then your ball is deemed lost.

You also cannot advance a ball to a drop zone if it is not certain that your ball passed that drop zone when traveling into a penalty area. In that case you must play the ball as though there were no drop zone.

So all these courses with a drop zone on the far side of a water hazard aren’t doing anyone any favors?

If there’s money involved we almost certainly wouldn’t go back to the tee unless there’s a chance bogey could tie the hole. The player in this case would be out of the hole and may or may not throw down a ball. All our games are match play so total score is irrelevant.

The quote from the rule book is “reasonably certain”. Basically this means that chances are high the ball is in the penalty area and everyone in the group concurs. If somebody does not agree then your ball is lost. But you don’t have to be 100% certain your ball is in there.

In most cases it’s pretty easy to tell. If there’s nothing but fairway and light rough between you and the penalty area and you can’t find it then it’s in the penalty area. If there’s 6 inch rough involved your ball could easily be in the rough and you’d have to declare a lost ball. If there’s trees in the way and your ball flew into them it could have bounced anywhere or stayed in the tree and it’s a lost ball. If your ball rolled into the trees and there’s little rough then it’s probably in the hazard.

Never. Basically if you don't get up and down from wherever you dropped you are picking up anyways.

Jogging your memory about this incident a few years back:
"Reasonably certain" or "virtually certain" or whatever term you want to use is quite subjective, apparently.

It is and that’s where issues can arise. But since golf is a gentleman’s sport, the golfer is usually given the benefit of the doubt unless it’s obvious.

Also, officials can and do make mistakes. Trey Holland at the 1994 US Open one of the more infamous.

I've never done it in a casual round, but I've had to do it a few times in competitive rounds where we thought we knew where the ball was and then just couldn't find it. It totally sucks, especially when you're walking. Run back to the tee, feeling pretty moronic as the guys in the group behind stand there and wait for you, try to hit, run back down to the fairway, now try to play after running several hundred yards and knowing you are making a big number.... That's why in a tournament if I have any doubt at all I'll hit a provisional, but I've still had it happen.

I think you are referring to the TV crane that Els advocated was an immovable obstruction (it was not in fact).

I would not connect that to obvious player "certainty" errors that the above example illustrates. Using the term "gentleman" to describe players essentially making stuff up is a bit over the top. It cannot be more obvious than the example above.

I get it, player (A) playing with player (B) wants to feel good and support (B) in arguing with the official to get a favorable ruling. I guess the most egregious was O'Meara in the 1999 Open.

Going for a driver fitting at True Spec in Tampa (actually Belleair) on Friday. It's actually at Pelican Golf Club (where LPGA event is). You hit from inside out onto the range.

Current gamer:

Callaway Rogue SubZero 9* turned to 8* (heavy weight forward)
Graphite Design Tour AD BB 7x 45.5 inches.

Currently have 12g of lead tape between the heel and back of the club making it a heavy monster. I want to explore hot melt at some point and reducing the overall weight of the club to get back to "normal".

Gonna say it’s about 50/50 that you find something better. You’ve already got a big boy shaft in that gamer.

Just for kicks I built myself a TSi3 on the Titleist site, dropping an Atmos in it pushed the price tag to $820 and the lead time to 8 weeks before ship. Yow.

When did they stop calling it the British open and start just calling it the Open?

Branding pre 1990 was "Open Golf Championship".

"British Open" is primarily a US thing. I'm guessing most media sites gave up on it around 2000.

Still waiting on the email with the numbers but the best fit ended up being Ping G425 LST 9* with a Paderson Kinetixx Ballistic TP shaft.

I know nothing about that shaft but have been doing some research. Hard to find on the used market so I will likely have to buy it new. It's $279 on the manufacturers website. I will look for the head used.

One thing I did learn is that I was teeing it way too low. With the old club teeing it higher I immediately dropped 700 rpm in spin.

How was the fitting setup? Pelican looks like such a great place on TV.

Never heard of that shaft, or that shaft maker for that matter. What else did you try? Anything close? Was it a lot better than your current setup?