If You Could Change 1 Silly Golf Rule ?

Hi Folks , it's been a while since my last post but something happened to me the other day that made me stop and think about the many stupid and outdated rules there are in this great game.
I hit a tee shot of 250 yards with my 3 wood straight down the middle of the fairway and as i approached my ball imagine my horror to find that it had landed in the deepest divot that you can imagine. after my initial anger at the unknown person who failed to repair this terrible scar had subsided, i decided that my only decent shot from this would be a light wedge. the ball popped up really high and landed 10 yards from its original spot. my third shot put me on the green and two putts finished the hole.
normally i would par or birdy this hole but on this occasion had to settle for a bogie.
It seems a little unfair that a person can miss the fairway with a errant tee shot, land in a tyre track and claim relief and then a perfectly good , fairway splitting drive can land in an unrepaired divot but the ball must be played where it lies.

I know that the rules of golf exist to protect the golfer and not to penalise him, but on this occasion they fail to do so.
So this is the one rule i would change.

Merry Christmas all
Aft

__________________
the dog wags the tail....the tail dosn't wag the dog

How about adding a rule instead.

Failure to replace divot - 1 penalty stroke
Failure to repair pitch mark - 2 penalty strokes

I've made the pitch mark 2 because its my rule change so I can and its the thing that annoys me most - especially from "mature" golfers with all the gear but no manners or sense of etiquette - we've all met them, normally in the painfully slow Sunday morning fourball ahead of us.

Rant over.

I totally agree and we usually find its the better players among us who tend to ignore their pitch marks...

Great thread,

Why don't we have lift and place in the rough in winter?????????


Knee lenth socks with knee lenth shorts...................I'll never get over that one.




Ian.

Since you're allowed to repair pitch marks on the green, why not extend this to allow spike marks, too? Why am I allowed to take big dents made by balls out, but not small ones made by spikes?

Lets see, if I could change one rule! I would say HI score wins, that way I could beat my friends one time.

I woulk make a breech of etiquette rule
anything that hinders another golfer because of a golfers breech of etiquette, allows the hindered golfer to place his ball in a simlar lie of the conditions that are around his ball.

for example, if you are in a footprint in the sand, you can remove it from the footprint and place it back in the bunker

as you said, an unrepaired divot, the ball can be placed next to it or on top of a repaired divot

it is unfair that a penaly occurs because of someone else

For me alone, the tradition of golf means almost as much as playing the game. The rules have been passed down through the years, some are old and some newer, but all sanctioned by our governing bodies the way it was meant to be and the way our forefathers played the game.
Despite the difficulty with rules that ignore unusual ball placements, the rule I like the best from tradition is "Play the ball as it lies"
If we change the rules, where does it end.
Keep them the way they are and play the game as it was meant to be played.
For those who don't replace divot marks, repair ball marks, or rake sand traps, just shoot them.

Aft,

Greg Norman has the same view. If he could change one rule, it would be divots to be treated as GUR.

What rule would I liked changed, hmmmm, being disqualified for not signing the card or writing the incorrect handicap on it (but having played to your correct one).

I mate of mine won a junior open once and he put the wrong handicap on his card and i came 2nd! And the pro didnt say nothing!

CHEAT!

I dont think there should be rules, just hit the ball. Where ever it lands play it as it lies!

Simple as that, be more fun that way too!

I understand that originally, there were 2 rules to golf:


1) Play the ball as it lies.

2) Play the course as you find it.


It sure keeps things simple!