Two 'lost' balls, one search area

[BiMGuy]

Another reason not to donate £3 a week to play in the club comp.

When handicap management and cheating are openly admitted to on a golf forum, what is the point of trying to compete on a fair and equitable basis?

 

[Swango1980]

Of course. But nobody ever times in amateur golf. So its a rule systematically ignored.

Time to look being governed more by the situation of the group behind and the chance of finding the ball. 3 minutes. 5 minutes. Its all the same. If the group behind is tight, then time taken before abandonment will tend to be shorter. If the group is let through, the time will tend to be longer.

So a 'rule' more honoured in the breach than the observance. And probably the most common one in all the rules.


Pro and elite competition I am sure are more diligent.

I've no doubt it is a rule often breached. Although I'd be uncomfortable if golfers genuinely felt it was an "unwritten rule", suggesting they can have as much time as they like, before upsetting people by too much delay. Almost as an acceptance of the 3 minute breach.

I can just imagine that there is a player out there who will simply wave through the groups behind, purely for the benefit of getting an extra 10-15 minutes to look for his ball (i.e. probably the time it takes the group behind to play the entire hole).

Even when I've not strictly timed a search, I'll often suggest "think we've had the 3 minutes, that looks like a goner, must be buried under a leaf or something". I basically enter the conversation so that the person who is looking for their ball agrees that the time limit is up, so that if they decide they want another 5 or 10 minutes by letting a group through, or find it as they continue the search while the rest of us play on, it is less uncomfortable to remind them that the ball was technically lost once the 3 minutes was up.

 

[BiMGuy]

One of the benefits of wearing an Apple Watch. “Hey Sirri. Set timer for 3 minutes”

 

[tobybarker]

I remember seeing Gary Player on the telly borrowing a watch to time himself while searching for his ball. This was more than 30 years ago, however.

I expect he's given up searching for it by now