Should you be able to get relief from divots in the fairway?

Should you be allowed to get relief from divots in the fairway?

  • Yes

    Votes: 40 34.2%
  • No

    Votes: 78 66.7%

  • Total voters
    117
D

Deleted member 15344

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Nope - it opens up all sorts of issues , you would end up with people taking relief from the smallest mark on the fairway and it would end up just being pick and place

And realistically how many times have people actually landed in that much of divot that it causes issues -? Once in a blue moon
 

Ethan

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I think not, actually. It may seem unfair and arbitrary, but we are playing in a natural environment and the environment is therefore variable and sometimes imperfect. We put large pits of sand on the course, so learning to play from a divot should be acceptable.
 
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Imagine the likes of Matt Kuchar and the rest of the pro's if that was allowed. They wouldn't be able to finish a round under 8 hours as they'd claim a missing straw of grass under the ball being a divot.


It's a no from me.
 

Curls

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Too many will take advantage especially in matches, it’ll slow everything down checking. Just get on with it, you don’t get relief from a bad lie in snooker do you?
 

upsidedown

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Voted no, but why not take it the enth degree and have placing all year round to take any question as to what a Divot is out of the equation ???
 

Lord Tyrion

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Too many will take advantage especially in matches, it’ll slow everything down checking. Just get on with it, you don’t get relief from a bad lie in snooker do you?
Do you get a bad lie in snooker? The table is immaculate, if there is dust on it it gets cleaned. (if the post was made tongue in cheek then I apologise for being slow)

I'm torn on this but on the basis that too many would take advantage I have gone no.
 
D

Deleted member 17920

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For help with an online piece... thanks
If we do that we may as well go to preferred lies all season long.

This discussion gets done to death every year and for each little mark on the fairway everyone will be calling it a divot.

Its a bit like the embedded ball rule now and how many times can you see professionals claiming that they have broken ground when the ball has clearly bounced.
 

clubchamp98

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On the fairway yes.
You should be entitled to a fairway lie if your drive is on it.
I have snapped a shaft in the Club Champs playing from a divot.
It can hurt and is quite dangerous.
A seeded divot should be GUR as the greenkeeper has taken time to fill it but when you play your shot there’s nothing to put back.
This is a problem at short par 4s or dog legs where everyone lays up.

I do understand the cheating issue but imo that is a different issue.
If the turf is missing it’s a divot.
If there’s grass under the ball it’s not a divot it’s a depression.
 

Doon frae Troon

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It can be a very cruel rule.
My daughter [then aged 14 or 15] was playing in the last eight of the SW Women's championship.
She was dormie 4 down to the previous years British Champion.
She parred 15, birdied 16, and parred 17 for wins then split the fairway with a great drive on 18 to find her ball in a deep divot that had obviously been removed by a crow/bird [upturned divot was lying next to it.]
She could not make the green from there and lost to a par.
Cost me £30 as the night before I said would give her a tenner for every hole she played past the 15th. [:love: A lot of money in those days]
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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No. Too subjective and liable to give rise to contentious actions/decisions and bad feeling between players. And that's not the nature of our game even when playing in a highly competitive context.

It's just rub of the green - one of these things. There are plenty such 'things' we encounter during a round, and plenty of times the rules help us out of a scrape...sometimes literally. And over the piece, good and bad breaks even out.

An old fella once told me as I moaned over the unfairness of something that could easy have been my ball in a divot hole - 'who said golf should be fair?' Well I'm not sure of that but I get what he was on about. Bottom line in the game is that you play the ball as you find it.
 
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