Penalty areas

[jim8flog]

The 2019 rules allowed areas without water to become a penalty area .

Great idea thought I, thinking quite a few areas on our course where it would save a walk back to where the last shot was played from and avoiding 'long'
delays on parts of the course.

Sadly I could not get anybody else on the committee to take this on board

Has anybody else's committee made to changes your course to accommodate this rule?

 

[timd77]

I didn’t know this was an option, would be great on our 18th.

It’s a shortish par 4, up a pretty steep hill. Around 150 yards from the tee is a road lined by a hedge either side, probably 10 feet high, which you need to clear, runs straight across the fairway. It’s OOB, naturally. 150 yards doesn’t sound far but it gets in your head, I’ve seen many times (including myself) players not quite connect, think they’ve just cleared it, only to find their ball in the hedge on the other side of the road.

Of course you play a provisional if you’re not sure, or blob in a stableford comp, but I’ve often thought it would be so much easier if it were a red penalty area, take a drop and play on.

 

[Pants]

Don't know about now as I haven't played there this year but a year or two back I played at Croham Hurst in Croydon where they had let the grass in places grow tall and thick - I think to reduce maintenance costs. They marked these areas with red stakes so if it was KOVC that your ball had entered then just drop another, under penalty, as there was only a snowball's chance in hell of finding yours, let alone playing it out.

I think that @Oddsocks is/was a member there so he may be able to confirm.

 

[backwoodsman]

We've used 'non-water' penalty areas in a couple of places. Hard to describe but in both situations, layout is sort of i) safety net, ii) path behind safety net , iii) thin sliver of ground behind path, iv) boundary fence. In short, this means that now, if the ball gets through the net and lies on the path, then the free relief (by geography) is in front of net. And if ball gets through the net and into the penalty area, the penalty relief also ends up being in front of the net. Avoids the scenario of ball on path with free relief being in crappy ground, behind the net, and with no line of sight relief available. (As I say, hard to describe but makes sense 'on the ground').

 

[Oddsocks]

Don't know about now as I haven't played there this year but a year or two back I played at Croham Hurst in Croydon where they had let the grass in places grow tall and thick - I think to reduce maintenance costs. They marked these areas with red stakes so if it was KOVC that your ball had entered then just drop another, under penalty, as there was only a snowball's chance in hell of finding yours, let alone playing it out.

I think that @Oddsocks is/was a member there so he may be able to confirm.

We did have two at Croham but personally I wasn’t a great lover.

One was barely in play and I believe was put in for safety reasons, if you were looking in that area people from the tee couldn’t see you so the following group would often tee off while you were in range.

The other was more sensible but had a negative impact. It reduced the required maintenance when it grew in the area between the 1st green & approach which reduced the air flow so dried slower in wet months

 

[Alan Clifford]

The 2019 rules allowed areas without water to become a penalty area .

Great idea thought I, thinking quite a few areas on our course where it would save a walk back to where the last shot was played from and avoiding 'long'
delays on parts of the course.

Sadly I could not get anybody else on the committee to take this on board

Has anybody else's committee made to changes your course to accommodate this rule?

Maybe I'm mis-remembering but couldn't there be water hazards that actually didn't contain any water?

 

[2blue]

The 2019 rules allowed areas without water to become a penalty area .

Great idea thought I, thinking quite a few areas on our course where it would save a walk back to where the last shot was played from and avoiding 'long'
delays on parts of the course.

Sadly I could not get anybody else on the committee to take this on board

Has anybody else's committee made to changes your course to accommodate this rule?

Yeh red posts that save a long walk back... though you should play a provisional. I had the same problems getting the Committee to consider such things. I think they'd be up for be-heading folk rather than offering a 'soft' solution.

 

[jim8flog]

Yeh red posts that save a long walk back... though you should play a provisional. I had the same problems getting the Committee to consider such things. I think they'd be up for be-heading folk rather than offering a 'soft' solution.

On one hole in particular it is not about playing a provisional (although it might still be after losing a ball) it is about the condition of the ground where a player would have to drop if electing to take relief from a path, finding a ball unplayable (mind you it could be about losing a ball after dropping for relief).

 

[jim8flog]

Maybe I'm mis-remembering but couldn't there be water hazards that actually didn't contain any water?

Pretty sure there had to be water but I have seen a few courses where it was ignored and red stakes were in place e.g. the course in Hawaii where they play the Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour and one new course close to me (it did get changed there to OB).