Have seen this rule used on some courses – would like to see a discussion here. Some consider it just plain bad luck if you end up on a bare patch, even though you have split the middle with your drive. Others consider you deserve a reasonable lie if you hit the fairway. Leaving divot marks and sand filled divots out of the equation … what say you experts????

My view is take what happens and play the ball as it lies.
A Committee may decide an area (some bare patch where the the grass doesn’t grow for example) deserves GUR status..fair enough and they will mark it accordingly.
Golf is not about everything being “fair”. ‘If only my ball was just a few feet away I would have a perfect lie’ or whatever misfortune.. Deal with the problem the best you can and move on.

St Andrews Old Course has gorse bushes in the middle of the fairway on a few holes

Get over it…

May do – many fairways have trees, hazards and bunkers on the fairways – but you can see them and can plan to avoid them.

Sorry, should have said – the Old Course has gorse bushes in the middle of fairways – often when you are hitting your drive blind over a little hill or a big patch of gorse

If it ain’t GUR it’s in play, end of story, ain’t it a great game

Unless the area is bad enough to be declared GUR, bald patches on a course are not uncommon. Learn to play off them. Just another string to your bow.

this is a local rule approved by the r & a and as such must be there for a reason. i think it is there for use by a course in unusually poor condition with too many patches to be marked and as such i can see no reason why a local rule should not be used in this case. if it was to be used all the time it would be rule of golf. the courses i generally play pride themselves on there condition and any bare patches are marked gur as approved by the r & a. i have no problem with this

helensvale at GC has a local rule that you get relief from aby bare patches on the fairway- a good rule but some people flaunt it like its no ones business…

Gladsone has a rule that you get a free drop if your ball lands on “bare rocky” ground whether that be in the rough or fairway. Players can get a free drop from there.

Essentially the rule is there to save players damaging their clubs as the rocky ground is quite flinty.

I can see the merits in learning to play it as it lies and I would certainly recommend doing that on a practice round.

But if your club allows it you should use that rule in a competition enviroment. Every other player playing that day will use it and so you will be handicapping yourself further if you do not use that rule to your favour also.

this is a local rule approved by the r & a

There’s no Local Rule that allows a player to drop away from a bare patch? To get relief the area must be marked as GUR.
If the condition of the course is bad, the Committee can make Local Rule on “preferred lies” (on closely mown areas) giving the player the option of placing his ball within a certain distance – club-length, scorecard – and that Local Rule is approved.

A Local Rule can also be made to give free relief from exposed natural rock in the fairway or semirough.

i have seen this posted as a local rule so many clubs will have to look at changing this

In my experience committees do what ever they want , and at the end of the day its the same for everyone I guess

They might define general areas as abnormal ground conditions
i.e. Areas of exposed rock or bare areas of fairway are abnormal ground conditions , relief under rule 25-1 note the exception

i may be wrong again but i dont think a committee can have a local rule that is against the rules of golf as noted before you can not have a local rule giving relief from sand filled divots

but they do it. just like many people flout the rules of golf but they shouldn’t. I think that you just play under what is happening at your club.

Our club cored their greens this week and sanded them on thursday morning. The comp was on thursday. They have in the past played a “2 puttt rule” on the greens when they are heavilly sanded. If you hit the green you can just pick it up and add 2. My partner ( who likes to streeeetch the rules wherever he can) wanted to have his first putt, then if he missed pick it up and add one more. I deemed this was having his cake and eating it too and told him i disagreed. It only made a difference on one hole ( the 1st) and some of the greens were heavily sanded but others were not.

when we got in to the pro shop he enquired and was told that the president deemed that 2 putt rule should apply on heavily sanded greens but if you were within one club length of the hole you could take one putt. I’m sure that he just made this up on the spot!!

to make it more interesting there was nothing written up on any local rules board referring to the greens in any way.

Like i said – particularly in country areas in small comps you just tend to live with what happens even though it breaches the rules

if a club has a local rule that should not be allowed ie. free drop from sand filled divots what is the markers responsibility. should he allow an opponent a free drop or say that if he allows a free drop they would be agreeing to waive the rules of golf and be dq’d. if the player ellects to take a free drop would he be in his rights to decide not to sign his opponents card

It is not the marker’s responsibility to assign penalties. That is down to the Committee.
However, the marker has a responsibilty to advise the Committee of any breach that he observes that is not recorded by the player.
He should also warn the player that he has breached a rule so the player has the opportunity to do something about it and record it.
The marker should simply not sign the card and report the matter.

33-7/9 Competitor Who Knows Player Has Breached Rules Does Not Inform Player or Committee in Timely Manner

The responsibility for knowing the Rules lies with all players. In stroke play, the player and his marker have an explicit responsibility for the correctness of the player’s score card.

There may, however, be exceptional individual cases where, in order to protect the interests of every other player in the competition, it would be reasonable to expect a fellow-competitor or another competitor to bring to light a player’s breach of the Rules by notifying the player, his marker or the Committee.

In such exceptional circumstances, it would be appropriate for the Committee to impose a penalty of disqualification under Rule 33-7 on a fellow-competitor or another competitor if it becomes apparent that he has failed to advise the player, his marker or the Committee of a Rules breach with the clear intention of allowing that player to return an incorrect score. (New)

Our club cored their greens this week and sanded them on thursday morning. The comp was on thursday. They have in the past played a “2 puttt rule” on the greens when they are heavilly sanded. If you hit the green you can just pick it up and add 2. My partner ( who likes to streeeetch the rules wherever he can) wanted to have his first putt, then if he missed pick it up and add one more. I deemed this was having his cake and eating it too and told him i disagreed. It only made a difference on one hole ( the 1st) and some of the greens were heavily sanded but others were not.

when we got in to the pro shop he enquired and was told that the president deemed that 2 putt rule should apply on heavily sanded greens but if you were within one club length of the hole you could take one putt. I’m sure that he just made this up on the spot!!

to make it more interesting there was nothing written up on any local rules board referring to the greens in any way.

Like i said – particularly in country areas in small comps you just tend to live with what happens even though it breaches the rules

I’d probably get back in the car and drive home if I came across such conditions.

Everybody plays the same conditions – the Australian handicapping system caters for it unless it’s really shocking, so I don’t see why they have to change the game of golf.

Your partner was breaking the rules – stretching was putting it nicely.

still does not answer my question. does a local rule even if incorrect overule the rules of golf

still does not answer my question. does a local rule even if incorrect overule the rules of golf

No. The Rules can not be overruled.

From Rule 33-1, The Committee:
The Committee must establish the conditions under which a competition is to be played.
The Committee has no power to waive a Rule of Golf....

The problem is – what can a player do, if he play in a tournament, and the Local Rules are contrary to the Rules of Golf?
If the player makes a practice swing on the teeing ground and is told he has incurred a 2-stroke penalty because of a (wrong) Local Rule?
Must he accept this penalty?

I don’t have an answer for the actual situation, where the player knows better than the Committee. At the time where a higher Authority can tell the Committee that the Local Rule is against the Rules, the tournament is closed.

Hi RulesDoc,

As I recall, in a one day tournament a few years back with heavy rain, the committee wrote a local rule that relief from casual water was to be by placing at the NPR. I questioned that before teeing off, and took correct relief (as per the ROG) during the round.

When discussed at Leith, opinion was that I had breached the LR each time I took relief…. ;-) and that it didn’t matter that the committee had it wrong with their LR.

Trysil

Thanks Trysil,

I’ll try to find the thread, and read the arguments.

RD

Our club cored their greens this week and sanded them on thursday morning. The comp was on thursday. They have in the past played a “2 puttt rule” on the greens when they are heavilly sanded. If you hit the green you can just pick it up and add 2. My partner ( who likes to streeeetch the rules wherever he can) wanted to have his first putt, then if he missed pick it up and add one more. I deemed this was having his cake and eating it too and told him i disagreed. It only made a difference on one hole ( the 1st) and some of the greens were heavily sanded but others were not.

when we got in to the pro shop he enquired and was told that the president deemed that 2 putt rule should apply on heavily sanded greens but if you were within one club length of the hole you could take one putt. I’m sure that he just made this up on the spot!!

to make it more interesting there was nothing written up on any local rules board referring to the greens in any way.

Like i said – particularly in country areas in small comps you just tend to live with what happens even though it breaches the rules

I’d probably get back in the car and drive home if I came across such conditions.

Everybody plays the same conditions – the Australian handicapping system caters for it unless it’s really shocking, so I don’t see why they have to change the game of golf.

Your partner was breaking the rules – stretching was putting it nicely.

No he didn’t break the rules Stebboko, cos i didn’t allow him to. I told him to putt it out as it was and count his putts and we would sort it out when we got in. I ended up just leaving his card as it was.

I normally avoid the course for a couple of weeks after the greens are done but i had a new driver and was wanting to try it out. I didn’t really care what i scored. Funny thing is that 44pts won the day with about half inch of sand on half the greens!!!

Rules doc, trysil, AAA and co

If you guys wouldn’t mind, i would find it most helpful if you could add to your signature on this site a brief precis of your “official accreditations”. My reason is that I get a heap of good stuff from the info you provide but i would like to be able to say “the bloke that provided that info is an accredited (NSW/ european/ US/ whatever) tour rules official”. Just a brief summary e.g.

“European PGA rules official 1990-current”

or such would be sufficient. I would understand if you don’t want to, but I for one would find it helpful when passing on info to other golfers.

Keep up the great work

Ken

RO from the Danish Golf Union (R&A jurisdiction)

RO accredited by the English Golf Union
Yorkshire Golf Union Referees Panel