AmateurStatus

Thanks for clarifying, Dave, it helps a lot to have a explanation of specific examples. The rule book (yes, I have it and have read it) can be sometimes vague to the average reader i.e. me - so much so to the point that there's an entire section on clarifications/interpretations. These types of situations come up quite often in regular play so I just wanted to make sure I was following the rules correctly - but most importantly being armed with adequate knowledge to make sure my playing partners also follow the rules correctly.

Thanks for the layman's terms explanation of the rules, Dave. Assuming the ball did land at point C outside of the penalty area, and assume the area of relief was playable within 2 club lengths (just a slope with no impediments to the swing), the player could take normal relief procedures correct? (Since the ball did roll back into the water on the first/original shot it's probably an area that slopes toward the water thus executing a drop in the intended relief area might result in the ball rolling into the water again, and assuming the second drop at the same point also rolls back into the water, the player would then place the ball in the relief at point "C", correct?)

Quick question about where a player would get relief in this situation. Assume the area around the water in the picture is a red penalty area. Scenario 1: When hitting from point A the ball goes in the water somewhere along the dotted black line. The reference point for a penalty drop or back on the line relief would be point B, correct? Scenario 2: If the ball carries the water to point C but rolls back into the water, is the reference point C or B? If point C itself happens to be dry land but is still in a penalty area (i.e. an area of grass that is between the spray painted red line and the water) would this force the reference point back to B or can the player move horizontally along point C to find a point no closer to the hole and outside of the spray painted red line?

Some good points made above so here is my on-course and range experience since trying to implement a 3.0 swing tempo. A day or so after I posted this question I played an 18 hole round - the first 3 holes were abysmal, I found trying to speed up my backswing resulted in lots of bad shots (bogey, bogey, triple bogey for those holes) which was a much different result from my previous driving range outing possibly because hitting from an uneven grass surface is much different from a smooth artificial turf surface. I decided I wanted to keep trying a 3.0 swing tempo so I tried reducing the backswing and smoothing out the downswing which resulted in much better contact and directional control - the remaining 15 holes saw 5 bogeys and 10 pars. I think a 3.0 swing tempo is a good target to aim for and I'll probably keep trying to achieve it using a shorter backswing as opposed to a faster backswing.

So I've been reading a lot about using a 3.0 swing tempo (i.e the backswing taking 3 times longer than the downswing) and have tried putting it into practice. For wedges and short irons it seems to be really easy and the result is pretty good, consistent ball striking and predictable results (only tried on the driving range so far but will try it on course as well). For longer irons the tempo seems to take a bit longer, maybe 3.1-3.2 but where I'm really struggling to hit the 3.0 tempo is in the driver which ends up being around 3.4. Not sure if it's because the club is longer/heavier or what but the backswing takes much longer (from about 1.1-1.2 seconds with an iron to about 1.3-1.4 seconds with the driver) while the downswing stays the same for pretty much all clubs around 0.37-0.39 seconds. Should I try to take the driver back more quickly or should the backswing go back less (i.e. rotate less)? I believe there is merit in a 3.0 swing tempo so would like to get my driver in this range.

"...another small piece of equipment" so arguably another ball could be used to mark the place of the "ball in play". Practical? No, but legal? Presumably, yes.

Thanks for sharing all the excellent input! I'm in the process of improving my swing (aren't we all?) and have experienced both good shots and bad shots from using a more aggressive swing - to clarify, it's not like I'm really cranking the clubs to hit farther, just more like trying to get more body involvement and less arm. I've noticed well the ball is struck well it's great but when it's not the result is as you would expect. I think I'll take the feedback I've gotten here and give it more time and practice to see how it all works out.

The selection of 7 vs 8 iron is actually arbitrary but the question really is would a player be more consistent playing a longer iron with an easy swing or taking a shorter iron and making a harder swing? Is the shorter club length of the shorter iron enough to offset the greater effort needed to swing harder? I'm trying to settle on a swing/playing style that will produce more GIR (more consistency in iron shots) but I find myself switching back and forth between these two playing styles. The current problem with landing on the green for me is not distance, but it's control of left-right direction. I'm playing an average 36% GIR with a lot of the missed shots landing just left or right (usually not long nor short)