New OB rules

[fixyurdivot]

On 7/2/2020 at 4:23 PM, Micah T said:

As someone who hits it into OB regularly, I fully understand why it’s a 2 stroke penalty, but I’ve always been confused as to where to drop. Specifically, if my tee shot never realistically was ever traveling over an in bounds area. I’ve always taken the 2 shot penalty and re-tee’d, and was confused by playing partners telling me to,
“take the distance”
- I was always like, “what distance” lol: ball was OB before it flew 20 yards


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

Well in the case you describe it probably makes sense to simply re-tee but for many OB shots, the new rule can be a better option - principally because it significantly reduces the chance you hit another OB from the tee.  Mesa Del Sol (Yuma) has OB on both sides of fairways on well over half the track (residential golf community).  A couple holes in particular have waist high walls down most of the length.  A good number of pulled shots will run down the length of the wall, on compact dirt, before rolling OB. Rather than having to try again from the tee, players can drop where the wall ends and now have a clear shot to the green. This reduces a ton of anxiety for higher handicap players and, in a good many cases,  helps their score.

 

1 hour ago, Pandaman said:

Personally I would like to see this optional local rule become a normal rule that is acceptable for handicap qualifying club comps and supplementary cards.

I agree.  Not only are many casual players still confused in applying the "new rule", but add to that the question as to applicability at a course, makes it worse. 

[Firebird]

On 7/3/2020 at 9:53 AM, THEZIPR23 said:

Where is that from? 

 

I will need to go look or ask Gerard (PGA Rule Official). I was part of a discussion group when the new rules were being hashed out and the reasoning was behind them was to speed up play. Hence the reason for reducing 5 to 3 min to look for the ball and the new lost ball rule.  If you then could not find your ball the last thing they wanted was that you then had to waste even more time by going back to the where you hit your last shot hence this ruling.

They remember that they were both to be local rules and went hand in hand. They were not meant to be used in Professional of Elite Amateur Comps.