Areas recovering from burnt and drought conditions

[woofers]

We have many areas on the course that have been scorched and are now either completely bare or in the process of recovery have haphazard, tufty grass growth. Many areas around the greens are also bare and now partially covered by sand and material used in greens maintenance.
Realistically there are too many areas for them all to be marked as GUR.
I don't think it's mandatory for GUR to be marked as long as the Committee or representative have defined the areas.
No one would consider these to be 'normal' playing conditions.
Under these circumstances I believe the Committee or Club Representative could issue a Local Rule, and using Specimen 2a Course Protection GUR;Play Prohibited, from these areas as a guideline.

I suspect we are not alone with this problem.
Does the above appear feasible, has anyone a similar problem and / or solution ?

 

[patricks148]

can't give any clue on a ruling on this, but at links courses ive played this year, including my own club, this is par for the course during dry hot summers, so its play it as it lies.

 

[rulefan]

We have many areas on the course that have been scorched and are now either completely bare or in the process of recovery have haphazard, tufty grass growth. Many areas around the greens are also bare and now partially covered by sand and material used in greens maintenance.
Realistically there are too many areas for them all to be marked as GUR.
I don't think it's mandatory for GUR to be marked as long as the Committee or representative have defined the areas.
No one would consider these to be 'normal' playing conditions.
Under these circumstances I believe the Committee or Club Representative could issue a Local Rule, and using Specimen 2a Course Protection GUR;Play Prohibited, from these areas as a guideline.

I suspect we are not alone with this problem.
Does the above appear feasible, has anyone a similar problem and / or solution ?

You are certainly not alone.

I and colleagues, have just been considering the same problem at our County Championship on one of our 'super-prestige' courses.

Our first decision was that if there is grass, however yellow, no relief would be given.
Splits in the ground would afford relief for the lie of the ball only and the ball must be placed within 6".
Bare areas on the fairway or fringe would be at the discretion of the referee on the spot. If relief was given, all other referees would be notified. In the event no requests were made for relief. I witnessed at least five players play the ball as it lay on sandy soil. Speaking to players after the first day, they had no issues.

The problem was mainly around the many severe bunkers. Where a ball landing in the area would be grabbed by the slope and scooted into the bunker, we didn't mark. But if an area would involve the player playing a delicate chip over a bunker onto the green, we white lined it.

Random checks with players during the week produced no complaints and all those approached were very satisfied.

 

[woofers]

can't give any clue on a ruling on this, but at links courses ive played this year, including my own club, this is par for the course during dry hot summers, so its play it as it lies.

Yes, I agree, and accept that the underlying ground conditions on a links course make these situations more the norm and part of the character of links golf.
However I am talking about a parkland layout on Sussex clay - totally different situation in my opinion.

 

[woofers]

Rulefan, thanks for your reply, the yellow grass and splits / cracks I accept. We have a local rule covering relief from cracks in the ground.
Your observations are helpful, but I suspect you were dealing with 'Elite' level players who can play from most surfaces, and you also had referees in situ.
My problem however is more mundane, average golfers of mixed ability playing in the monthly medal next week.

 

[duncan mackie]

Putting aside the issue of whether there should be relief from any particular area, if the committee decides that it is the case then one of the key factors in defining them becomes ensuring that there is no question of uncertainty ie every single player would be aware of any relief options available on any particular point.
The general nature of the situations you have outlined make such definitions pretty impossible.
I'm not sure from what has been posted whether this relief is for the benefit of the players, or to protect the course. You mention areas where it's clearly for the players, but then go in to mention GUR play prohibited which isn't for the players. This latter option carries it's own issues in that you can easily end up with a player having to take relief to a more challenging position if you aren't careful.
As Rulefan has outlined, even with referees it's difficult to ensure parity of treatment without additional communication through an event - to achieve it over more than one event without them is next to impossible.
If things are as extreme as you have outlined I'm sure you would be able to get approval for a temporary period of preferred lies on the short stuff - which is the easiest solution to providing players with a solution to most of these situations.
However (and we aren't that far from you) conditions are changing so fast, it's fundamentally the same for everyone and the worst bit we have are the patchy areas around the greens for which there's no relief when having to play through them either way....
Some green keeping practices can help right now - keeping pins away from the edges, increasing the mowing frequency for fringe areas that have mixed growth etc

 

[woofers]

Thanks Duncan, a well reasoned reply as usual, I hadn't really considered the different course / player benefit in detail, I suppose it's a bit of both.
Prefered Lies is an option of course, I know that West Hove have implemented these this week, the Downs Course at Goodwood have and they were in use at the Europro event at Mannings Heath recently.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

We have inplemented winter rules for social play, but medal/qualifiers are play it as it lies.

 

[rulefan]

We have inplemented winter rules for social play, but medal/qualifiers are play it as it lies.

You would have probably get permission from your county a couple of weeks ago but conditions are changing rapidly now. It may be worth a try.

Edit. That said 6" is likely to be of no use anyway

 

[mikejohnchapman]

I quite understand the frustration as fairways generally begin to recover and you get some very poor lies after hitting a decent shot.

I remember last year playing at Burhill which had suffered badly with burnt out fairways and they implemented a 1 club length placing rule on a temporary basis. Thi generally allowed you to avoid those areas.

Not sure how they handled qualifiers.