Preferred lies...

[Deleted member 3432]

Looks very dry in East Lothian Ken, get the mats out for preferred lies ?

 

[rosecott]

How comes its a club length if you don’t mind me asking?

I don't think South Africa is bound by CONGU rules.

 

[Golfnut1957]

Years ago a read a proper golfing nerds book. It was written by a chap who worked in the city and played golf every Saturday somewhere in the home counties with his golfing buddy, the winner of the match receiving a single, new, wrapped ball.
The author had claimed to have received more balls that year than his opponent, who made the same claim. So the author decided to keep a record of each Saturday's match, this record evolved into the book and the year in question was 1976.
The bit that always stuck with me was when he was writing about the drought that year. His club* introduced a local rule the essence of which was; If a ball dropped into a crack in the fairway and was out of arms reach the player was entitled to a free drop.

* I have no idea which club it was.

 

[clubchamp98]

And what do they know……

I think the thinking is .
Taking a divot atm is really only taking the blades of the grass.
With the ground being so hard it’s quite difficult to take a deep enough one to take the roots.
So in theory a shallow divot is better for the course long term than destroying the seed / sand repairs in old divots .
Nothing will grow atm until we get some rain ,but if the root system is still intact the “new” divot should grow ok with no futher work from the GS.
On the other hand I might be wrong.

 

[Oddsocks]

I think the thinking is .
Taking a divot atm is really only taking the blades of the grass.
With the ground being so hard it’s quite difficult to take a deep enough one to take the roots.
So in theory a shallow divot is better for the course long term than destroying the seed / sand repairs in old divots .
Nothing will grow atm until we get some rain ,but if the root system is still intact the “new” divot should grow ok with no futher work from the GS.
On the other hand I might be wrong.

I was being sarcastic in my first response, but if it helps my understanding of their logic is bang in line with your theory ?

 

[D-S]

I

Reason being given from the golf club (who have discussed with the greenkeepers):
With the continued dry conditions, the Kent Golf Union are approving requests from clubs to implement a short period of preferred lies. This will help with the reduction of grass coverage from divots as seed germination is not possible in these conditions, leading to poor lies becoming more common.

I don’t think this is to do with improving future recovery of the grass rather that the dry conditions are leading to more ‘unfair‘ lies than usual, therefore to maintain equity in scoring preferred lies are deemed acceptable (the correct view from EG as an administrative body).
As per my original point, this is fine, but only using the ’good bits’ of the fairway to hit off is not going to speed recovery.

 

[RRidges]

Why we don’t play proffered on fairways all year round has always boggled me. Pro’s get it after heavy overnight rain on perfectly manicured and tested courses yet the club hacker playing on over used, under maintained tracks do not- if a pro can’t play of a damp fairways they should change career!

Preferred lies at the moment for courses in my area.

It could be more the potential for 'mudballs' that causes tournament golf - where participants are playing for their livelihood, as opposed to recreational golfers - to go that way.

 

[Oddsocks]

It could be more the potential for 'mudballs' that causes tournament golf - where participants are playing for their livelihood, as opposed to recreational golfers - to go that way.

If it’s your profession you should play all conditions, that’s why they spend hours on the practice ground and in practice rounds.

You can’t expect harry hacker to play every condition with a once a week/fortnight/month commitment yet expect pros, the elite of our game to not have to.

But that’s just my own feeling.

 

[RRidges]

If it’s your profession you should play all conditions, that’s why they spend hours on the practice ground and in practice rounds.

You can’t expect harry hacker to play every condition with a once a week/fortnight/month commitment yet expect pros, the elite of our game to not have to.

But that’s just my own feeling.

Alternatively...If they are playing for their livelihood, then conditions should be as immaculate as possible, with allowances made (for all) if that can't be achieved.
I'm happy for them to play in rain, with mark/lift/clean and place (on fairways) to make it a 'good and fair' contest.

 

[JonnyGutteridge]

Burnham and Berrow have, I understand, just introduced mandatory mats on the fairways. I would like to think they are discounting the £130 green fee but can't see mention of it on the website.

I posted this in another thread, they have indeed, introduced on Saturday 6th August from all fairways and par 3 tees.

The pro there told me that their reservoir is the lowest it has ever been at this time of year, and they are having to pump water from the mains at huge expense in order to keep the reservoir from running dry.

I played on Friday - all the mats were out in front of the clubhouse, but luckily got away with it. It was bone dry, and that was a week ago now - the notable thing was how balls often ended up in the collection areas which were littered with divots. The grass doesn't grow, they don't have much other choice than to introduce mats in my opinion.

 

[rulefan]

Alternatively...If they are playing for their livelihood, then conditions should be as immaculate as possible, with allowances made (for all) if that can't be achieved.
I'm happy for them to play in rain, with mark/lift/clean and place (on fairways) to make it a 'good and fair' contest.

They don't need to mark now.

 

[KenL]

I posted this in another thread, they have indeed, introduced on Saturday 6th August from all fairways and par 3 tees.

The pro there told me that their reservoir is the lowest it has ever been at this time of year, and they are having to pump water from the mains at huge expense in order to keep the reservoir from running dry.

I played on Friday - all the mats were out in front of the clubhouse, but luckily got away with it. It was bone dry, and that was a week ago now - the notable thing was how balls often ended up in the collection areas which were littered with divots. The grass doesn't grow, they don't have much other choice than to introduce mats in my opinion.

Mats sound like a good decision rather than PL in this situation.

Do you know if they are watering the areas most affected?

 

[Slab]

If its that bad maybe clubs should limit the number of rounds any player can play in any week

 

[garyinderry]

Can someone take photos of these wild conditions from the course. Thanks

 

[Oddsocks]

If its that bad maybe clubs should limit the number of rounds any player can play in any week

I like this idea, that will really get the seniors backs up.

In all seriousness some would claim they have paid for a seven day membership so they should be able to play 7 days

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Can someone take photos of these wild conditions from the course. Thanks

Wild ?

Surely you have seen courses where the fairways haven’t had water for 2 months , the picture of the whole country should give you a good picture

And these are parkland , inland courses where the soil underneath reacts differently to a links course - the ground at courses are cracking , divots won’t be able to repair for weeks maybe months , when the rain does come some of these fairways will turn to mud.

We are very lucky we are able to put water on the course - but not every course is that lucky and preferred lies will help those courses

 

[JonnyGutteridge]

Can someone take photos of these wild conditions from the course. Thanks

 

[Oddsocks]

That looks a links course John, even scarier!

 

[Smiffy]

They look bad, but believe me, Littlestone was worse than that last week.
Like walking around on a dusty path, and delicate chip shots were a joy to behold...????

 

[KenL]

Preferred lies will help the golfers, not the course.