Can assure you I haven't and won't be falling out with anyone.
Agree. When the rule was 5 minutes, it was proven that the number of times a ball was found after 3 minutes of searching was basically nil. If you don't find it in your first 2 minutes you probably ain't gonna.What a thread. Some fantastic analogies
Going back to being called a cheat for not using a timing device to correctly measure 3 minutes - if someone, a cheat, was knowingly going to go into find their ball and go over the magic 3 minute mark they'd just drop another ball and claim it was their's rather than spend 3m 27secs looking for what they probably already knew was a lost ball.
The people that don't use a timing device I'd bet give up after around a minute if that at most.
I play to the rules thanks, change the bloody record. Everything is black and white in the rule book but we don't play in a rulebook we play on a golf course and apply those rules to our situation.
So rather than take my acceptance that I can improve on being mindful of the time as a positive, you label it "backtracking". So you'd rather I ignore everything you've said like you have to me? No wonder people don't want to play golf when there are people as pig-headed as you out on the course. Here am I showing open-mindedness and you shut it down as a negative.
Yeah great analogy, that's exactly the same. I follow the rules and I'm getting a bit sick of people saying otherwise. You're better than that, show a bit of reading comprehension at least. I do realise the topic is a lot to get through if you've only just arrived at it though.
Where, when and by whom?
Literally everyone said that was one of the reasons the rule was changed.
Not everyone, do you mean a few people you know who play golf?
There has been no published proof. The USGA/R&A posited it from anecdotal evidence.
I didn't say they didn't use the whole 5 minutes. Once again you have skimmed a post and replied to what you thought it said rather than what it actually says.
Ok thanks, I think that's what I was getting at.
You can't be DQ on the grounds of something that 'may have' happened.
Funny enough that's the point I was making for a while that the majority still won't do it and how could we ensure perhaps they do, I get told I'm droning on. You get immediate agreement. I wonder if that's to do with being an old hand on here 🤔
I think what Homer is trying to get at is if we know the majority of players don't and won't use a timer then somewhere in the field of play there is going be someone that perhaps goes over a touch, not all will most won't but some may. In that knowledge I think what he's getting at is then in most comps then in the eyes of the watch police it means the whole field has been cheated whether intentional or inadvertently, perhaps even when using a timing device that has no seconds on it. So therefore all this back and forth would lead back to same question how do you ensure the whole field does it accurately.
I fully accept that the first three scenarios are all fine and dandy and are a given that all is fair and above board, on the understanding of course it is timed. It still boils down to when the clock starts and that is is adhered to. In the last scenario, a player has taken longer than he should, played it and carried on (and again by default I assume the PP's let it go) and whether they believe it to be less than 3 minutes is irrelevant and the rules is broken
