Unplayable lie. Is it acceptable or frowned upon?

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

OK, I don't think we are going to agree on this as the rule is there for all to see. Let me just say this (which you may not like or agree with )...

Any player who decides that a ball either...

a) on the fringe
b) on the fairway
c) anywhere else that is in a decent lie (i.e. light rough)
d) has nothing impeding the swing

...isn't playable or decides to take S&D relief and returns to the original spot because they consider that doing so will give them a lower score because the shot in hand is too hard from them to execute is taking the absolute unequivocal down right "biscuit" out of the rules

All IMHO of course

because they consider that doing so will give them a lower score

And there's the rub - there is NO guarantee of anything - and it is down to the player to assess the risk and reduce his own uncertainty. That's the game and the rules suggest that you should know the rules. Which is where we came in elsewhere in another thread

And I might agree with you on your general point if the rules didn't take the downright "biscuit" out of the player on occasions. Golf was never meant to be fair - so when you can use them to you 'possible' advantage then use them - and feels no qualms whatsoever about doing so.

 

[bobmac]

So I have the option go back to where I started - one shot penalty - a basic tenet of rules of golf.

So is dropping/rolling/placing not nearer the hole.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

So is dropping/rolling/placing not nearer the hole.

Only where it says so in the rules... And will equally apply to taking S&D where your ball should not end up any closer to the hole than the point it was before taking your shot.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And I'll add - that I'd agree with Bob and the others on this as it my instinct also that what I am doing is not right.

But in a similar vein as oft I have said - I do not think it is right for DMDs/GPS to be used in competitions for similar sorts of reasons. However I am overwhelmingly shouted down on that one - so I'm saying - well if you can use technology to reduce uncertainty in your decision making, the shot you are about to play, and the score you make - then by heck I'll use the rules to their very limits to reduce mine.

 

[Imurg]

Nobody's saying you can't do it
Same as the DMD question, if it's in the rules, fill yer boots.
It's whether there should be some restriction on when and where you can use S&D that is question.
Personally, I don't think you should be able to replay your shot if the ball is to be dropped/placed nearer the hole than the original position unless the ball has rebounded behind that original position after hitting something.
So if you putt off a green, if the ball is now further away from the hole than the original position you should have to play it unless it has hit something and rebounded behind you, behind you being beyond a spot at 90degrees between you and the hole..in a case of difficulty determining 90 degrees, benefit of the doubt to be given to the golfer and S&D may be taken

Should cover it shouldn't it...?

 

[Crow]

The Rules are written in such a way as to remove any grey area from a decision.

If they were to exclude calling an unplayable if your ball is in a "good lie", at what point is that lie no longer good?
We're now into the realms of opinion and two golfers will have a different opinion of when the lie is no longer good, or the ball is only in "light rough". Or is my ball now further from the hole than where I played it?, will we have to carry a tape measure to check this (or, heaven forbid, a distance measuring device?).

The rule as written excludes issues of "interpretation" of a good/unplayable lie by leaving the decision purely with the golfer whose shot it is.

I can't see a better way of doing it, if that offends the sensibilities of some then I'm sure that the R&A are very sorry but they're not going to change it.

Perhaps there should be some bifurcation, "purists" on one side, "realists" on the other.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

If they were to exclude calling an unplayable if your ball is in a "good lie", at what point is that lie no longer good?

And I'd simply say that the answer to that question is that it nothing actually to do with the lie as such, if the player simply decides that he doesn't fancy a shot for wshatever reason - he can take S&D if he choses.

and @Imurg - too complicated and too open to interpretation. The fact that your ball might be closer to the hole afgter taking S&D than where it ended up after the original shot is to me a red herring - neither here nor there - and something purely based on the notion that it feels better the closer we are to the hole - when in fact we know that that is certainly not always the case. If it was always the case then I'd see the merit in the 'closer' argument - but closer just does not always mean better or easier.

..and my point about DMDs, is that if doing what I have done is thought my some to be stretching the rules to gain an advantage - then allowing DMDs is also in my view also. A committee is stretching the rules that allow DMDs when they allow them in a competition - IMO.

Anyway I'm done on this - just no-one question my integrity if and when I use this rule in this way again in the future