New 2019 rules

If everyone has to do it that way, it's fair - the Rules establish what is fair.

That's the thing I don't get when others are objecting to the lb/oob, the rules are there for everyone, there will be times it works against you yet at times, guess what...they work for you.
 
Disagree, sorry!
When was it decided that golf and life had to be fair?

Your ball bounces off a tree in to the woods. My ball bounces off a tree in to the hole. Fair?

Placing counters the randomness of the lie as a result of the stroke
 
i may have missed the answer somewhere in the thread or completely missing the jist altogether but...
the scenario...

you(doesnt need to be you could be anyone) are out in the evening when the suns just setting,youve got a tee shot directly into the setting sun.

you(as above) have a lash with the driver..no-one sees where the ball went after it left the club,ball could be left ,right,ob,ten yards infront of the tee box,3 fairways over, 300yards down middle(as if!)..could be anywhere.
so can you now just walk down the middle of the fairway and say' i thought it would be about here' and get a drop?
 
I wish there was a new rule that allowed you to place the ball (rather than dropping) in a bunker when taking relief when needing to take a drop from water in the bunker. So unfair as it is.

Why would you expect to have a preferred lie when taking relief from casual water in a bunker which is sited to catch out poorly directed shots when another player having hit an accurate shot onto the fairway in casual water
has to drop his ball - now that would be unfair
 
Drop a ball on a fairway and it's fine, drop a ball in a bunker and the likelihood is that it will plug giving a worse lie than you would have had.
 
Drop a ball on a fairway and it's fine, drop a ball in a bunker and the likelihood is that it will plug giving a worse lie than you would have had.
Bunkers are Hazards. That means being in them is hazardous.
As the old maps warned "Here be pirates (sorry hazards)", keep away
 
The one I don't understand is changing dropping a ball from shoulder height to knee height. What was the problem there - just seems like change for changes sake?

I'm just catching up with this thread. This is one of the changes I can simply understand and like. I used to play on a links course, never had a flat lie. Whenever dropping a ball it would never remain within the required area but we had to go through the motions and then place it. Hopefully, after the changes, one drop is all that will be needed. Hopefully the landing will be softer.

Ironically Tiger has just done the same at Bay Hill. Three drops that rolled away and then had to place. It was obvious after the first drop the ball was not going to stick.

Even if you can't see the need for this change then at least it is one that is less likely to bring about controversy. It is not a fundamental or critical change.
 
Ironically Tiger has just done the same at Bay Hill. Three drops that rolled away and then had to place. It was obvious after the first drop the ball was not going to stick.

Even if you can't see the need for this change then at least it is one that is less likely to bring about controversy. It is not a fundamental or critical change.

3 drops?
 
Perhaps one landed outside the required area? (I only saw two.) However, did you notice how he measured the club lengths with his putter to help with the line for his next stroke? Many people grab the driver to measure club lengths without even thinking. I had a player once that took an unplayable and measured two club lengths with his driver. After he dropped the ball rolled behind a neighboring tree that was not in a good spot for his next stroke. He took out his putter to measure the distance the ball had rolled and claimed it was more than two club lengths so he was entitled to a re-drop. Sorry sir, you used a driver for your first measurement in this situation, and that is the club to be used to determine if it had rolled more than two club lengths. It hadn't, and he wasn't particularly happy. BTW, he could have reached the spot where his dropped ball struck the ground with two putter lengths. As I explained to him later - experience is what you get right after you needed it.
 
I've read and re-read it. I can't see anywhere that tells you when to stop dropping and place instead. It says no limit..... then place if .........Could you place after 1 drop that rolls past 2 club lengths?

20-2b tells you that you drop and says what to do if it is an illegal drop.

A ball when dropped must first strike a part of the course where the applicable Rule requires it to be dropped. If it is not so dropped, Rules 20-6 and 20-7 apply.

An illegal drop is not a drop so another (legal) one is not a re-drop but the drop.



20-2c tells you when you must re-drop. ie the drop was legal but the finish did not satisfy the rule.

A dropped ball must be re-dropped, without penalty, if it: .....

it goes on to say:

If the ball when re-dropped rolls into any position listed above, it must be placed as near as possible to the spot where it first struck a part of the course when re-dropped.

So there is only one drop and one re-drop.

An illegal drop does not count.
 
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You have to take this procedure coupled with the removal of the 2 club rule part of dropping ie the ball (currently) is allowed to roll 2 club lengths and will still be in play.

The 2019 rules state that the ball must finish within the relief area so it is more likely to do so if only dropped from knee height.

Will this apply to DZs -full of divot holes - currently you can drop so it runs out of DZ giving a divot free lie
 
I cannot find a reference to drop zones in the new rules but on the assumption that they are trying to simplify the rules I would expect that answer to be yes. The 'two club rule' for dropping has gone.

The new rules as published so far do have any of the allowable local rules in them and all the references to them are just blanks ready for the reference to be added.
 
Will this apply to DZs -full of divot holes - currently you can drop so it runs out of DZ giving a divot free lie

Yes it will apply. Dropping Zones are relief areas and 14.3.c clearly applies.

I don't see this a s a huge change - currently it can run a given distance, but there's no reason that where it finally stops has any less pivots at all! All a committee needs to do it increase the size of the DZ by a bit to maintain parity if they are concerned (I would rather they maintained the area and moved it around personally)
 
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