Abnormal Ground Conditions?

delc

delc

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Just wondering why AGC doesn't include all types of animal damage? At the moment it is restricted to burrowing animals, reptiles and birds. Another recent thread was about deer hoof marks, and our course has suffered damage by horses and another creature which was initially unknown, but eventually proved to be badgers digging for worms and other invertebrates in grass banks. OK badgers are burrowing animals, but until it was established that they were the culprits, no relief! Affected areas were eventually marked GUR to avoid any doubt.
 
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delc said:
Just wondering why AGC doesn't include all types of animal damage? At the moment it is restricted to burrowing animals, reptiles and birds. Another recent thread was about deer hoof marks, and our course has suffered damage by horses and another creature which was initially unknown, but eventually proved to be badgers digging for worms and other invertebrates in grass banks. OK badgers are burrowing animals, but until it was established that they were the culprits, no relief! Affected areas were eventually marked GUR to avoid any doubt.
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Now that is one Rule that I think could be changed. Never really understood why you don't get relief from a hole made by a dog, but you do from a hole made by a rabbit.
 
delc said:
Just wondering why AGC doesn't include all types of animal damage? At the moment it is restricted to burrowing animals, reptiles and birds. Another recent thread was about deer hoof marks, and our course has suffered damage by horses and another creature which was initially unknown, but eventually proved to be badgers digging for worms and other invertebrates in grass banks. OK badgers are burrowing animals, but until it was established that they were the culprits, no relief! Affected areas were eventually marked GUR to avoid any doubt.
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I think you have just answered your own question. Why open up the possibility of players claiming relief from every bit of ground that isn't immaculately grassed when any damaged area- whatever the cause of the damage - can be marked GUR?

Hoof prints etc from animals that are persistently found on a course can, as said in another thread, be dealt with by local rule.
 
I may have related this before but I once denied relief to a player from a hole in the ground as we could see no evidence of rabbits anywhere in the area.
His ball was not in the hole but just on the edge. He made his stroke successfully and removed a large divot and a conker (horse-chestnut). He looked at it wryly and said something about b**** squirrels.
 
delc said:
Just wondering why AGC doesn't include all types of animal damage? At the moment it is restricted to burrowing animals, reptiles and birds. Another recent thread was about deer hoof marks, and our course has suffered damage by horses and another creature which was initially unknown, but eventually proved to be badgers digging for worms and other invertebrates in grass banks. OK badgers are burrowing animals, but until it was established that they were the culprits, no relief! Affected areas were eventually marked GUR to avoid any doubt.
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Them flippin worms!

Have you ever tried playing from the mess they make?? :whistle:
 
chrisd said:
Them flippin worms!

Have you ever tried playing from the mess they make?? :whistle:
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It wasn't the worms or the grubs, it was the badgers who ate them that was the problem! They had dug into a number of sloping banks, leaving them looking like mini WW1 battlefields! You wouldn't have wanted to play a ball out of these areas!
 
delc said:
It wasn't the worms or the grubs, it was the badgers who ate them that was the problem! They had dug into a number of sloping banks, leaving them looking like mini WW1 battlefields! You wouldn't have wanted to play a ball out of these areas!
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Badgers are a menace. They just roll the turf back, like a machine. They can do a new bit every night too. Luckily they don't seem to like doing the greens.
 
Back on topic. :whoo:

To my my mind a hole etc on the course is just a hole etc unless there is evidence that it was made by an animal, bird or reptile.
It is only a hole etc made by a burrowing animal if there is evidence that the evidence points to a burrowing animal.

Which neatly avoids a commitment to what the nature of the evidence might be, but the presence of rabbits in the area and droppings around the hole might be a clue. Not likely to be a reptile in this part of the world and as to recognising something made by a bird, I'd be at a bit of a loss unless it was obviously a hollowed out nest.
 
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