Virtually Certain!????

[Colin L]

Marc

In each of your experiences, there was rough or at least semi-rough around. Crazyface describes a water hazard where the ground around it is closely mown. That being said, I am curious about the matter of its being 240 yards away, up a hill and further than he thought he could reach. I hope the claim of virtual certainty of his ball being in the hazard is not influenced by any gratuitous boasting

 

[Crazyface]

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllll maybe a little.

 

[cliveb]

We've seen in this thread how the concept of virtual certainty causes fierce debate.
And it routinely causes arguments at my club.

Perhaps it would be simpler for everyone if the idea of "virtual certainty" was just removed from the rules?
In other words:
- You (or someone else) actually witnesses your ball go in a water hazard: proceed under rule 26-1.
- In all other cases, the ball is lost and proceed under rule 27-1.
- No more appeals to "there is nowhere else it could be"; man up and take stroke & distance!

 

[Crazyface]

Agreed, but what if you're playing a track you've not played before and it's a blind shot? Do you keep hitting balls off the tee until you think one of them will be ok? It's a long way back to the tee when you've got a chance of a prize. I actually didn't think I had but poor scoring on the day the 2 points would have seen me home.

 

[pogle]

We've seen in this thread how the concept of virtual certainty causes fierce debate.
And it routinely causes arguments at my club.

Perhaps it would be simpler for everyone if the idea of "virtual certainty" was just removed from the rules?
In other words:
- You (or someone else) actually witnesses your ball go in a water hazard: proceed under rule 26-1.
- In all other cases, the ball is lost and proceed under rule 27-1.
- No more appeals to "there is nowhere else it could be"; man up and take stroke & distance!

To be absolutely certain, which I think you're suggesting, someone would need to be close enough to the water hazard to ensure that the ball didn't skip off the surface of the water, or even bounce off a very shallow area, and land outside the hazard. For a driver tee shot this may well mean that it's impossible to have absolute certainty without a forward observer.

 

[Crazyface]

...and the wording is "virtually certain". Not absolutely certain. To absolutely certain, as you say, you would need someone to actually see the ball go in. Virtually, although not absolutely, means there just isn't anywhere else it could be looking at the course conditions and the flight of the ball.