Clock watching

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Next time I start helping to look for a ball maybe I’ll also start singing Happy Birthday…and after I’ve sung it 18 times that‘s time up. Doing it in my head at the moment it doesn’t seem very long at all.

As it happens what I do when looking for a player‘s ball and I think time is up is to say - loud enough to be heard - I think that’s time up.

 

[theoneandonly]

Hang on lads you can’t start the search yet, I need to get my phone out of my bag, open the clock app and set a timer for 3 minutes.
They’d tell me to bugger off ?

Took us 20 posts but we got to the nonsense stuff in the end

 

[Orikoru]

Hang on lads you can’t start the search yet, I need to get my phone out of my bag, open the clock app and set a timer for 3 minutes.
They’d tell me to bugger off ?

Make sure they have their eyes shut until you press go on the timer. Otherwise they might find it too early.

 

[Orikoru]

Next time I start helping to look for a ball maybe I’ll also start singing Happy Birthday…and after I’ve sung it 18 times that‘s time up. Doing it in my head at the moment it doesn’t seem very long at all.

If you're going to do that out loud, no worries, I'll look for it on my own. You'd sound like a psychopath.

 

[jim8flog]

I remember an 'experiment' at a training course I was on.

The instructor asked us to all stand. He then asked each person to sit down after what they thought was 2 minutes from when he said go for all the group. Only 2 out of 24 Sat down at roughly the right time most of the rest sat down way too early.

There are a couple of players I play with that I would time if I had a watch on me but most give up way before the 3 minutes are up.

 

[Backsticks]

I think it's OK to stopwatch yourself if you really want to, though have never seen someone do it, and don't see any need at the golf level we all probably play. But I don't think it's OK to decide to time someone else. Don't think I've seen even pro level golfers or officials do it for them, though maybe it does happen without us noticing.

I would say even without timing, people are more conscious of time since the reduction to 3 mins, and probably do take less before giving up than they used to. I would also feel that same awareness of not overdoing it has at best not increased pace of play, or has decreased it. Where two drives are to be searched for in different areas, people are less inclined to split than in the past. Conscious of optimising the chances, the whole group goes to one location, find the ball or runs out of time, and then mentally start a second search when they then reached the second ball's area.

 

[Deleted member 30522]

But I don't think it's OK to decide to time someone else.

Absolutely it is. You're there to protect the field as well as play your own game. If you have a known offender, then absolutely I'll start timing them.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I've never timed a search, never seen anyone time a search. I suspect I rarely get past 2 minutes searching for my own ball. Looking for my pp, I'm with the others in that you pretty much know when time is up and I'm not going to sweat it for 10 seconds (I'm joining @Orikoru and @Beezerk with my tin hat on ). I've never seen someone push it beyond the limits and once it gets close I say similar to others 'that's about 3 minutes I'm afraid' and walk away to get on with the round.

 

[Backsticks]

Absolutely it is. You're there to protect the field as well as play your own game. If you have a known offender, then absolutely I'll start timing them.

Do you do it, and how often do you call the 3 minutes for them ?

 

[Sats]

Yet to experience that style of precision, normally it's common sense and 99.99% of the time the person whose ball we are looking for usually calls it.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

So we are now allowed to use common sense when applying rules? I thought this was a big no no when @Orikoru suggested doing the same with other rules?

 

[davidy233]

Hang on lads you can’t start the search yet, I need to get my phone out of my bag, open the clock app and set a timer for 3 minutes.
They’d tell me to bugger off ?

Lift Apple watch towards face 'hey Siri set a three minute timer'

 

[Deleted member 30522]

Do you do it, and how often do you call the 3 minutes for them ?

Yes, and gawd knows

 

[RichA]

So we are now allowed to use common sense when applying rules? I thought this was a big no no when @Orikoru suggested doing the same with other rules?

I was just thinking about this. It's a good job this isn't in the Rules section, since the penalty for not finding your ball within 3 minutes is exactly the same as seeing it fly 100 yards out of bounds.

 

[Backsticks]

Hang on lads you can’t start the search yet, I need to get my phone out of my bag, open the clock app and set a timer for 3 minutes.
They’d tell me to bugger off ?

If its your ball don't stop them searching ! The clock only starts when you start looking yourself. By time you have the phone out you have gained a minutes search time.

 

[Alan Clifford]

If I send my own ball into the rough, I get fed up with looking even before I get there. As for other people's balls ....

 

[hovis]

Had a good one recently playing a big comp at gleneagles. Player loses his ball, searches for ball whilst we wait for the golfers ahead (bottle neck). Player finds his ball after 6,7,8 minutes. An argument breaks out between two in my group. When they asked me I just said "blimey fellas, we ain't playing for a green jacket".
They went back and forth for a while but he decided to play his found ball because "how can you definitively say it was over 3 minutes if you have no method of measuring". You are basically guessing.

I would never time anyone. Unless they did it to me first

 

[IanM]

I always have a glance at my watch whether it is my ball or not. When it gets to about an hour, it's probably best to say something!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

If you're going to do that out loud, no worries, I'll look for it on my own. You'd sound like a psychopath.

Sing it to myself dear boy ?

Alternatively as soon as we start to look I just turn a 3min egg timer that‘s fixed to my trolley.

 

[Deleted member 30522]

Had a good one recently playing a big comp at gleneagles. Player loses his ball, searches for ball whilst we wait for the golfers ahead (bottle neck). Player finds his ball after 6,7,8 minutes. An argument breaks out between two in my group. When they asked me I just said "blimey fellas, we ain't playing for a green jacket".
They went back and forth for a while but he decided to play his found ball because "how can you definitively say it was over 3 minutes if you have no method of measuring". You are basically guessing.

I would never time anyone. Unless they did it to me first

Any other rules that are just optional to you?