Would you like to go back to five minutes to look for your ball?

[Slab]

Another who voted to keep it at 3min, I think its plenty time for the majority of searches

@MarkT If it hadn't been 5min previously & we'd 'always' used 3, do you reckon you'd be advocating an extension from 3min to 5 ?

 

[Imurg]

Cut it to 2.
If you haven't found your ball inside 2 minutes....
A. You're not going to find it
Or
B. If you do find it you probably won't be able to play it.
Not recently but I've witnessed a search which eventually found the ball
The player then took nearly 5 minutes more getting the ball out of the jungle before slicing it back in again..rinse repeat.
The wait was life-sapping.
If you hit it in the clag, play a provo, have a look, 2 minutes, move on...it's only a game.

 

[oleinone]

A regular playing partner boasts of having hundreds of balls available. Nevertheless, he treats the loss of one as a minor tragedy. He lurks dolefully until the rest of us get on with it and he's forced to give up. Leg pulling - "minute's silence, black armbands, period of mourning" - are water off a duck's back.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

A regular playing partner boasts of having hundreds of balls available. Nevertheless, he treats the loss of one as a minor tragedy. He lurks dolefully until the rest of us get on with it and he's forced to give up. Leg pulling - "minute's silence, black armbands, period of mourning" - are water off a duck's back.

I'm like him to a degree. More golf balls than even I'll ever lose but I do get frustrated if I lose one. Not to the extent of your mate and more annoyance that I hit a crap shot when I know I should be able to do better

 

[Smiffy]

Less rough? ? Isn’t it supposed to be a challenge. We would end up like those American resort courses with 500 yard wide fairways (slightly exaggerated but you get my point)

I actually wrote to our secretary when I was a member at Cooden, as the club had deliberately let the first cut grow a lot more than usual. Just a foot or two off the fairway and you were scratching your head looking for a ball, taking the full 5 minutes sometimes and even then giving up as a lost cause. It was ridiculous. On our invitation day, we were on 5 hour rounds, purely because of the state of it. I'm all for penalising a bad shot. But not a slightly iffy one.

 

[Boomy]

I actually wrote to our secretary when I was a member at Cooden, as the club had deliberately let the first cut grow a lot more than usual. Just a foot or two off the fairway and you were scratching your head looking for a ball, taking the full 5 minutes sometimes and even then giving up as a lost cause. It was ridiculous. On our invitation day, we were on 5 hour rounds, purely because of the state of it. I'm all for penalising a bad shot. But not a slightly iffy one.

Fully agree, it’s all about balance - shouldn’t be looking for a ball just off the fairway, but the first cut should be a clear length differential from the fairway length.
Getting the balance right between rewarding accuracy and punishing errant shots is always going to be hard as everybody plays to a different level - and especially now everyone wants to smash a driver off every tee..

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I actually wrote to our secretary when I was a member at Cooden, as the club had deliberately let the first cut grow a lot more than usual. Just a foot or two off the fairway and you were scratching your head looking for a ball, taking the full 5 minutes sometimes and even then giving up as a lost cause. It was ridiculous. On our invitation day, we were on 5 hour rounds, purely because of the state of it. I'm all for penalising a bad shot. But not a slightly iffy one.

Nicklaus course at St Mellion. Only got to be foot off and its gone. the slowest round I've ever played as we were looking for at least one ball per hole.

 

[RichA]

In terms of rough, the skylarks are already around in numbers on our course. Once they start nesting in the rough, it won't be cut until their young have fledged. By that point the longer stuff will be a yard tall and becomes OoB. Lots of stroke + distance here in the spring without wasting time looking.

 

[MarkT]

Another who voted to keep it at 3min, I think its plenty time for the majority of searches

@MarkT If it hadn't been 5min previously & we'd 'always' used 3, do you reckon you'd be advocating an extension from 3min to 5 ?

I think I'm very much in the minority, I could spend 10 minutes looking for my own ball as I generally play at very odd times. I don't play comps but do get it that three is plenty. I have two mates who are like gannets to a lost ball and that makes a huge difference to other mates who make no effort to help

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

In terms of rough, the skylarks are already around in numbers on our course. Once they start nesting in the rough, it won't be cut until their young have fledged. By that point the longer stuff will be a yard tall and becomes OoB. Lots of stroke + distance here in the spring without wasting time looking.

Last summer the rough on our course was a nightmare for the wayward golfer and a delight for the nature lover - indeed we had beautiful wild orchids growing in places and in numbers not previously seen and with the long rough the course looked stunning. The weather was such that the greens team just couldn't keep on top of the rough - it was just growing too fast and early on the growth had been very vigorous and created a very lush and dense lower layer - even the first cut was dense and difficult.

As a result we very quickly realised that unless we knew almost exactly where our ball had gone into the rough then we play a provisional and if a first look didn't find it then we gave it up very quickly. So lots and lots of lost balls, but not a lot of time searching. Keeping out of the rough became #1 priority for most shots and that's not a bad thing...

 

[Mel Smooth]

3 minutes and only the player who hit the shot can look, it's a pain in the arse looking for someone else's ball, and just adds further delay when the 180 seconds is over as everybody goes back to their own balls.
3 minutes to look, everybody else plays their shots while you search, and if you can't find it you go and play the provisional that you BETTER have hit.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

3 minutes and only the player who hit the shot can look, it's a pain in the arse looking for someone else's ball, and just adds further delay when the 180 seconds is over as everybody goes back to their own balls.
3 minutes to look, everybody else plays their shots while you search, and if you can't find it you go and play the provisional that you BETTER have hit.

I could get behind this. Nothing is more irritating in golf than spending hole after hole looking for a playing partners ball. Then the one time you need help looking they don’t help.

 

[GG26]

Three minutes is about right I believe. Only takes two or three five minute searches before you are losing holes to the group in front.

 

[sunshine]

Last summer the rough on our course was a nightmare for the wayward golfer and a delight for the nature lover - indeed we had beautiful wild orchids growing in places and in numbers not previously seen and with the long rough the course looked stunning. The weather was such that the greens team just couldn't keep on top of the rough - it was just growing too fast and early on the growth had been very vigorous and created a very lush and dense lower layer - even the first cut was dense and difficult.

As a result we very quickly realised that unless we knew almost exactly where our ball had gone into the rough then we play a provisional and if a first look didn't find it then we gave it up very quickly. So lots and lots of lost balls, but not a lot of time searching. Keeping out of the rough became #1 priority for most shots and that's not a bad thing...

This sounds familiar, was the same at my place last year. The course manager sent out an email explaining that the rough was actually being cut at a lower height than usual, it was just so lush with none of the wispiness you usually get in summer.

 

[sunshine]

I could get behind this. Nothing is more irritating in golf than spending hole after hole looking for a playing partners ball. Then the one time you need help looking they don’t help.

I played with a high handicapper last year who was having a bit of a mare. I must have saved him £20 in golf balls (he was using expensive TP5's - why?), he was usually looking in the wrong place.
My game really suffered, I lost all rythm. Would be ok in a casual round but I'm not playing with him again in a medal

 

[Jaco]

Are you a fan of the three-minute ball search (brought in 2019)?

If I could change one rule it would be to go back to five as think it’s a fairer rule and don’t think it speeds up play… don’t play enough comps to say for sure but would guess a lot of club golfers don’t time anyway?

Honestly, if anything three minutes is still too long. My mate searches for his ball like it’s a family heirloom. Just drop another and crack on, or learn to hit straighter.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Honestly, if anything three minutes is still too long. My mate searches for his ball like it’s a family heirloom. Just drop another and crack on, or learn to hit straighter.

I know a few members like that. Just crack on

 

[The Fader]

Simple maths:

A regular 4 ball of mid handicappers - each need 3 searches in a round. Assuming an extra 2 minutes for each of the 12 searches - potentially 24 minutes added to the round.

Slow play is the biggest blight on the game - why go back to something that slows play down?

3 minutes is plenty and I could probably support a further reduction. Might also have the knock on effect of making some golfers play more conservatively and within the boundaries of their abilities which would also help the pace of play!

 

[Backsticks]

Simple maths:

A regular 4 ball of mid handicappers - each need 3 searches in a round. Assuming an extra 2 minutes for each of the 12 searches - potentially 24 minutes added to the round.

Slow play is the biggest blight on the game - why go back to something that slows play down?

3 minutes is plenty and I could probably support a further reduction. Might also have the knock on effect of making some golfers play more conservatively and within the boundaries of their abilities which would also help the pace of play!

Would people just get smarter about it though if it was reduced further - not looking for their ball until the full group was on the spot ready to search, as that would start the clock ticking. At present the hitter generally goes to look for his ball and other may join up at various times according to where their own ball is, whether they are also looking for one, or whether they feel they may as well hit, and then join the search if it hasnt been found in the first scan. 3 minutes in the rules is fine I think, no clocks, and probably about 5 mins in practice.

 

[Backache]

Simple maths:

A regular 4 ball of mid handicappers - each need 3 searches in a round. Assuming an extra 2 minutes for each of the 12 searches - potentially 24 minutes added to the round.

Slow play is the biggest blight on the game - why go back to something that slows play down?

3 minutes is plenty and I could probably support a further reduction. Might also have the knock on effect of making some golfers play more conservatively and within the boundaries of their abilities which would also help the pace of play!

For those maths to work that assumes that no ball is found or not found untill the end of the fifth minute. How often does a four ball lose 12 balls in a round that are fully searched for?