2017 Golf Thread

Koufax

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Since we're doing the year in review here, I'll report that I managed to drop my handicap from 24 to 21 while playing about 20 rounds this year. I'm a public course gypsy. I play Black Swan in Georgetown most often. My most pleasant surprise of the year was Butter Brook, which I hadn't played in a few years. It's not a blow-your-socks-off course, but it is really very nice. The only drawback for me was that they made me use a cart on the back nine. Other pleasant surprises of the year were Boothbay Harbor, which was beautiful; and Lake of Isles, which was also very nice.

I've not been keeping in shape the year, sadly. I have to start. I want to get my handicap below 20, and I'm on the cusp. Most of my problems are between the ears but my short game is in need of serious repair if I'm going to improve.

At the beginning of the year I got an email from Knuth Golf touting their driver. Sucker that I am, I bought it. They were alert enough to question my choice of shaft (I asked for a senior flex, since I was 68 at the time) and they talked me into a regular flex. I started playing with it and have kept it in the bag, replacing my TaylorMade R11. I didn't get any extra distance with the Knuth but I got straighter and more consistent shots. It makes a funny sound that you might not like, but it has a large sweet spot. Next year I'll probably try out their 3 wood. They are not cheap.
 

Doug Beerabelli

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Kids off from school yesterday, got in 9 holes with my dad (76), two of my brothers and my son (11). It was fun to have one final swan song of golf in an otherwise miserable golf year for me quality wise, and spend some fun time with three generations of the clan. There was a sixsome in front of us, so we kept pace and didn't slow anybody down behind us. November allows for such shennanigans.

Greens were rolling like Augusta - dry weather and lesser growth I guess. Fun in an evil kind of way. With the leaves and accuracy issues, I opened up much space for inventory for new golf balls in 2017.

One great thing is my son got into the game for the first time in a meaningful fashion, and he took to it. Played in the Jr. PGA league (this was great), and the summer program at the club.

Looking forward to playing more and playing better in 2017, as well as watching the boy do his thing on the course.
 

Plantiers Wart

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Nice Belli - Was it the Farms you played?

I've been playing a bunch of November golf. I pop into the recently redone Keney park in Hartford about 8;30, grab a cart and play the back in an hour. No one out, course is really in good shape for a city muni. Then head into work.

This has been a really long playing season in CT. I played my first nine on my birthday (Feb 1st), and had three rounds in before the calendar hit March. And it looks like I have a few more days to play before putting the clubs away .
 

Phragle

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Do you guys often go at flags with your 3 wood? I've been thinking lately that the landing angle and roll out make the club not that useful
 

jercra

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It really depends on the situation. On soft greens, sure. On hard greens, no. Danger short? Probably not. Can roll up there, sure. With that being said, I usually only find myself in the situation of hitting 3 wood when going for the green on a par 5. In that case it's really about trying to make birdie or eagle with my putter vs trying to stick one close with a wedge. Depending on tourney play or just messing around or if I'm scoring or not makes all the difference in the world with that decision. And, with all of that said, unless you're a low handicapper it's probably almost always better to lay up then to go for it.
 

Phragle

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Well I don't lay up, so back to the long ball discussion. Playing around on the simulator I found that my 3 woods roll out is 22 yards on average. I thought that switching to a 4 wood might be more useful, but it doesn't seem like the difference is big enough to get what I want.
 

4 6 3 DP

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This may or may not be of any use to you guys, but it may be.

I posted here a few times about my year, joining a club, etc, etc.

So through playing a ton of golf my handicap went from 18/19 (and a soft one at that) to 13, as low as 11, with rounds in the low 80s. Basically it was a bit of a combo of golf school plus playing a lot and learning a good bit of course management.

The reason I type though is that I became a solid iron player throughout the year, playing Callaway Apex CF irons with project x shafts and particularly getting solid with shorter irons. I struggled mightily with the longer irons, though. Always felt like I was fighting them through the swing. Very inconsistent with them.

I had read this article

http://wishongolf.com/why-moi-matching-is-important-to-your-golf-game/

So I ended up needing regripping, having the lies checked, etc, so I took my clubs to a clubfitter who specializes in the MOI stuff above, and he ended up measuring the MOI on my clubs and saw notable differences in MOI between the irons I hit well, and ones I didn't (and it's funny, like I hit the 7 iron well but not the 8 iron, and they measured markedly differently) - so I ended up having him match up my clubs as well. So I'm spending a few bucks extra I probably wouldn't need to if I was a more consistent ball striker but for me it's worth doing. I've confirmed with a few fitting pros (including the guys at Joe and Leighs) that the MOI thing has some merit for guys who aren't as consistent hitting the sweet spot. Also, I happen to be incredibly sensitive to changes in the way the shaft flexes per the fitter - not just R vs Stiff shaft, but tip heavy vs tip soft - it turns out I need as soft a tip as possible to feel connected through the swing - and this wasn't just placebo effect (which I assumed it would be) - blindly I could feel the shaft load. My brother, who's a bit better player than me - you can give him pretty much any stiff shaft, and while he can feel weight differences, he doesn't really feel the shaft load - thinks it's all in my head.

I lastly share that because my clubs are in the shop I went with my brother in law to hit on a simulator and was using my travel set, which was my old set of Mizunos I had year before last - which uses a different stock shaft - and I struggled to hit them well and battled a slice which I never do.

Real point of my story - you can't buy a golf game, but if you play enough to care and you haven't been fit - get fit, hit a bunch of iron shafts - figure out if there are performance differences. And maybe read into the MOI stuff - there are as many who don't believe in it than do, but it's interesting anyways..
 

Koufax

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Olde Scotland Links in Bellingham is open for the winter. I have played there twice in December and hope to get back in January. The ball rolls and rolls on frozen ground.
 

jercra

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According to trackman stats that puts you around a scratch golfer average and 13 mph below a tour player. How are you measuring and how did you gain 15 mph?
 

Phragle

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According to trackman stats that puts you around a scratch golfer average and 13 mph below a tour player. How are you measuring and how did you gain 15 mph?
I wish my score could be around a scratch golfer too. I forget who makes it, by my local shop has a bunch of simulators I use. I'm always getting stronger in the gym but I made some routine changes to help with golf -- more speed work, box jumps, shoulders, core. So that has helped but changing my swing to work out flaws and increase efficiency has made the biggest difference. It's a much better overall swing too. I still hit plenty of bad shots but there are less of them and the misses aren't as severe.
 

4 6 3 DP

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Olde Scotland Links in Bellingham is open for the winter. I have played there twice in December and hope to get back in January. The ball rolls and rolls on frozen ground.
Anywhere else open in MA? Weather looks promising this weekend.
 

Leon Trotsky

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I played Olde Scotland on Sunday and it was fun. Guy that joined up with us said Crosswinds in Plymouth would be open by this weekend, and I think Lakeville and Blissful Meadows are also open. Oh yeah, and Newport National is open.
 

Dave Stapleton

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I played Olde Scotland on Sunday and it was fun. Guy that joined up with us said Crosswinds in Plymouth would be open by this weekend, and I think Lakeville and Blissful Meadows are also open. Oh yeah, and Newport National is open.
So folks aren't confused Scotland Links is in West Bridgewater not Bellingham.
 

4 6 3 DP

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Played bass River yesterday, was in decent shape a couple weeks after that storm. Was playing pretty short but fun hitting a lot of wedges..
 

FL4WL3SS

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Some interesting rule changes being proposed by the USGA for the simplification of the game.

- spike marks being repaired on the greens
- use red stakes for all water hazard (great move)
- reduce lost ball time from 5 to 3 minutes (great for the pro game, I don't like it for AMs who actually pay for balls)
- eliminating club length restrictions from penalties (woot)
- can drop ball from any height (this one is odd)

More to come, but love the direction they're going.

Next on the list for me, divots should be ground under repair and get rid of stroke and distance.
 

jercra

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Some interesting rule changes being proposed by the USGA for the simplification of the game.

- spike marks being repaired on the greens
- use red stakes for all water hazard (great move)
- reduce lost ball time from 5 to 3 minutes (great for the pro game, I don't like it for AMs who actually pay for balls)
- eliminating club length restrictions from penalties (woot)
- can drop ball from any height (this one is odd)

More to come, but love the direction they're going.

Next on the list for me, divots should be ground under repair and get rid of stroke and distance.
I agree that all of those are great moves. I wouldn't change any of them.

Two of your responses are complimentary. Lost ball time should be reduced to 3 minutes but with the option for it to be played as lateral (get rid of stroke and distance). Amateurs pay for balls, but if cost is a concern, there are many, many options for cheap golf balls and I'll take almost any measure that speeds up play. All lost balls as lateral is absolutely the right way to go (at least for amateurs),

The divot rule is a no brainer. You shouldn't be punished for hitting it in the fairway and if you ever play someplace with tapering fairways or collection areas you'll end up playing out of divots again and again. It's stupid.

The other rule I'd like to see changed is around "testing" bunkers. The PGA tour has standards for bunkers and they are raked by pros. I play where sometimes the bunkers are 1/4 of sand and then concrete. I play where the guy in front of me is a dickhead and my ball comes to rest in his footprints. I play where the bunker hasn't been raked since the herd of elk came through 2 weeks ago. Why should bunkers be harder for me than for pros? It's the only place on the course that's true in general (shit conditions are the other). Would it really be an advantage for the pros to know the bunker quallity before they hit? I highly doubt it since they're almost always the same. Would it make a ton of difference to the amateur golfer playing muni courses? Of course it would.
 

FL4WL3SS

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I agree in principle about the bunker rules, but I don't think courses want a bunch of hacks taking practice swings in their bunkers and eliminating even more sand.

Personally, I think a lot of courses would do well with getting rid of all of their bunkers and having grass bunkers or higher rough around the greens. Bunkers are usually the most expensive thing to maintain on a course and most of the time are in such bad shape that it's a double whammy for the amateur.
 

jercra

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Yeah, that's a great point on the maintenance costs. Many bunkers are totally useless too. If you can't maintain them, turn them into something else.

The issue will be that bunkers are counted in stroke and rating assessment so that whole project would need to be updated to handle grass bunkers in a similar way as sand bunkers.
 

Stickman709

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I used the simulator there last winter. Inoy on the range setting and not to okay a simulated round on a famous course. Seemed to be consistent with the real range in terms of approximation of distance and spin. It is all done over now and I've heard very nice inside. Looking forward to playing there this winter and watching the B's game in the background. Usually an active Groupon for them too.
 

4 6 3 DP

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Anyone interested in trying to get out in MA on Saturday? Looks like around 40... Not ideal but better than nothing
 

Phragle

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I used the simulator there last winter. Inoy on the range setting and not to okay a simulated round on a famous course. Seemed to be consistent with the real range in terms of approximation of distance and spin. It is all done over now and I've heard very nice inside. Looking forward to playing there this winter and watching the B's game in the background. Usually an active Groupon for them too.
It's really nice inside. I had fun but it's just a little more expensive than I want it to be. I don't think simulated golf should cost as much as real golf. It also has a really strict feeling -- I got a talking to for warming up wrong. My last complaint is that I'd rather pay by the whole than by the hour. Having said all that, if you can afford it, it's very fun.

-----

I feel like I'm starting to understand my swing more -- how the different angles and swing characteristics affect the path, face, and ball flight. I've been starting to feel this way recently and today it really came together. I had a tight grouping on the face and in the fairway, and my average ball flight was almost completely straight. Hopefully this progress sticks because it feels like a breakthrough.
 

TFP

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Thanks to a gift card I got at Christmas, I braved the snow storm yesterday and took a trip to Joe and Leigh's to get fitted for woods. Just an awesome experience, the fitter was incredibly nice, knowledgeable, and low pressure. One side effect that the snow brought is that I literally could not see my ball when I hit it, the grey sky and white snow background of the range made it impossible. So I really did end up making my decision based on the stats and overall feel - I wasn't influenced by watching my ball. Pretty cool stuff.

Ended up with a Ping G Series Driver 10.5º tuned up ++ Tour65 S shaft and 5 wood head tuned normal with a 3 wood Tour 80 XS shaft in it. Really looking forward to using them when I go to Palm Springs in a month.

Oh yeah - Playing PGA West Stadium, both Indian Wells courses, Escena, and Desert Willow out in Palm Springs in March.
 
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jercra

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Thanks to a gift card I got at Christmas, I braved the snow storm yesterday and took a trip to Joe and Leigh's to get fitted for woods. Just an awesome experience, the fitter was incredibly nice, knowledgeable, and low pressure. One side effect that the snow brought is that I literally could not see my ball when I hit it, the grey sky and white snow background of the range made it impossible. So I really did end up making my decision based on the stats and overall feel - I wasn't influenced by watching my ball. Pretty cool stuff.

Ended up with a Ping G Series Driver 10.5º tuned up ++ and 5 wood head tuned normal with a 3 wood shaft in it. Really looking forward to using them when I go to Palm Springs in a month.

Oh yeah - Playing PGA West Stadium, both Indian Wells courses, Escena, and Desert Willow out in Palm Springs in March.
Sounds like a great trip. Have fun with bunkers at the stadium course. Desert Willow is great fun too and a total bargain for the desert. I just played down there a month or so ago and due to a good friend got to play The Palms, Andalusia and the Quarry. Shot 72 on both The Palms and The Quarry and had Norovirus on Andalusia so had to bail on the round half way through. I love desert golf. I'm 20 minutes from teeing off at TPC Las Vegas.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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I also picked up a Ping G30 10.5* with a stiff flex a couple weeks ago. The sale price was way too good to pass up and it felt great. Makes the two feet of snow on the ground even more depressing.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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Seeing this thread at the top, along with receiving my bill last week for my club makes the 8 weeks until play starts seem so far away.

I didn't have any winter trips booked this year, but I am doing my bachelor party in Montreal with a focus on golf, gambling and other extracurricular activities.

Anyone have any good course recommendations in the Montreal area for June?
 

Phragle

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Thanks to a gift card I got at Christmas, I braved the snow storm yesterday and took a trip to Joe and Leigh's to get fitted for woods. Just an awesome experience, the fitter was incredibly nice, knowledgeable, and low pressure. One side effect that the snow brought is that I literally could not see my ball when I hit it, the grey sky and white snow background of the range made it impossible. So I really did end up making my decision based on the stats and overall feel - I wasn't influenced by watching my ball. Pretty cool stuff.

Ended up with a Ping G Series Driver 10.5º tuned up ++ Tour65 S shaft and 5 wood head tuned normal with a 3 wood Tour 80 XS shaft in it. Really looking forward to using them when I go to Palm Springs in a month.

Oh yeah - Playing PGA West Stadium, both Indian Wells courses, Escena, and Desert Willow out in Palm Springs in March.
I have a similar driver and I love it. Averaged 10 yards longer than my TM R1. So the 5 wood but with a longer shaft? I like how that sounds. Hmmm.

I also picked up a Ping G30 10.5* with a stiff flex a couple weeks ago. The sale price was way too good to pass up and it felt great. Makes the two feet of snow on the ground even more depressing.
Pings don't go on sale often. Good move.
 

Freddy Linn

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Sounds like a great trip. Have fun with bunkers at the stadium course. Desert Willow is great fun too and a total bargain for the desert. I just played down there a month or so ago and due to a good friend got to play The Palms, Andalusia and the Quarry. Shot 72 on both The Palms and The Quarry and had Norovirus on Andalusia so had to bail on the round half way through. I love desert golf. I'm 20 minutes from teeing off at TPC Las Vegas.
Both The Palms and The Quarry are fabulous, and Desert Willow is one of the best bargains I have ever seen.

Remember that everything breaks toward Indio and you will be just fine.
 

TFP

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I have a similar driver and I love it. Averaged 10 yards longer than my TM R1. So the 5 wood but with a longer shaft? I like how that sounds. Hmmm.
I hit the 3 wood with the regular 3 wood shaft, was just hitting it meh. Not terrible, but not consistent or great. He put on a 5 wood head (which I generally prefer) but started with the longer 3 wood shaft and I was striping it, 235 carry/245-250 rollout. It was basically the same distance as a 3 wood but way better accuracy, and it felt fantastic. I naturally choke down a little bit on fairway woods too so it made even more sense.

With my old driver, I started with basically a 5 degree launch angle and like 4600 RPM backspin, about 245 carry and 260 rollout with a general fade. I got the new Ping up to 7-8 degree launch, RPM in the high 2000s, 265-270 carry/295 rollout with a slight draw. And it felt great on top of that too.

I'm excited, to say the least.
 

Phragle

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I hit the 3 wood with the regular 3 wood shaft, was just hitting it meh. Not terrible, but not consistent or great. He put on a 5 wood head (which I generally prefer) but started with the longer 3 wood shaft and I was striping it, 235 carry/245-250 rollout. It was basically the same distance as a 3 wood but way better accuracy, and it felt fantastic. I naturally choke down a little bit on fairway woods too so it made even more sense.
Did it land softer with the 5 wood head? I hate that my 3 wood rolls out like 20-25 yards.

With my old driver, I started with basically a 5 degree launch angle and like 4600 RPM backspin, about 245 carry and 260 rollout with a general fade. I got the new Ping up to 7-8 degree launch, RPM in the high 2000s, 265-270 carry/295 rollout with a slight draw. And it felt great on top of that too.

I'm excited, to say the least.
That's unbelievable.
 

( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)

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I took some swings at Mike Harbours indoor golf in Johnston, RI last week. It was just ok. There is a simulator you can get time on and also an indoor "range", where you're hitting balls into a net that's about 20 yards away. You really don't get much out of it aside from feeling if your squaring up the club and hitting it on the sweet spot or not. So if anyone is in RI and curious about the place I'd say that it's most certainly better then nothing but also not quite a slam dunk must do in the winter months.
 

jercra

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Wow, those are almost all about making the rules more logical, encouraging fun and making the game faster. I think all but two are loosing restrictions with the exceptions being dropping on the opposite side of a lateral and your caddie not being able to line you up at address.

All of the new rules on accidentally moving your ball are just common sense and should have been in place years ago. Moving loose impediments in bunkers is nice, though it doesn't go far enough, IMO.

The modernization and consolidation of the terminology are also welcome. "Penalty areas" instead of the various types of hazards makes knowing how to handle the situation much clearer. "General Area" over "Through the green" makes a lot more sense intuitively.

Other favorites:
  1. Embedded ball anywhere in the general area. For anyone who's ever lived in the PNW this is an absolute requirement.
  2. Allowing the committee to put a cap on the strokes taken in tournament play. For anyone who's ever been in a men's/women's club and had to watch that 30 cap hit his 13th shot across the green while the whole course backs up, this is a godsend. Caps at double-par or quadruple bogey should speed things up nicely.
  3. Simplifying drops. Drop from any height either within 80 inches (penalty/GIR) or within 20 inches (all others). Ball that lands outside of the 80/20 gets re-dropped no matter what. No more watching dudes pull out their drivers and tees and taking 3 drops to get it right. Hold it an inch above where you want it and move on.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with these changes.
 

Doug Beerabelli

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I like! Really simplifies things, and will speed up play for sure.

I have a friend who lost a hole and a match because an opponent called his partner out for touching green in showing putt line in a tournament. That's the kind of thing always remembered, makes for ongoing negative impressions going forward, and active seekers of revenge in a later match. Glad to see that rule is gone.
 

FL4WL3SS

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I bet they're not even thinking about that change, honestly. To me, that's the biggest change they can make that would have the most impact on speed of the game and enjoyment. White stakes = out of bounds = forced lateral drop/penalty stroke, enough said.

If they are keeping the yellow stakes, I'd like to see them simplify how that is handled as well. Keeping the spot where you crossed the hazard between you and the flag can make for some very awkward drops that put you in a worse spot and further back than simply re-teeing the ball. However, if you have to re-tee, then you're basically getting stroke and distance. I don't like seeing people be penalized twice by having to either take a shitty drop or be forced to re-tee.

It's interesting to me that they're considering spike marks on the greens (which is HUGE), but not considering divots in the fairway. That's a big miss.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Yes, divots is another big miss. And agreed on your points regarding drops.

Edit: I guess I also don't understand the one regarding a provisional. If I'm playing a provisional, presumably the ball is far enough away that I'd be doing it to save the effort and time of returning to replay my stroke. I'm failing to think of a scenario where I would start looking for it before hitting a second ball?
 

4 6 3 DP

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For any of the CT guys - I need to be near Hartford next Saturday morning - are any courses open? Anyone looking to play?
 

Byrdbrain

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A guy I know lost a couple of strokes in the club championship because one of the other guys in the group had a brain fart and replaced the flag during the putt and it hit it. He went from 2nd place to 4th, cost him $100 I believe. Mr Brain Fart does have to buy him drinks pretty much forever so he'll probably make it back in time.

I like most of the proposed changes though I do agree they should eliminate stroke and distance and allow you to lift out of divots.
I expect most water hazards will get red staked eventually and many other areas will as well.
 

jercra

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You can listen to music if you want to, but its against the rules if the music relaxes you...kind of a tough one to prove.
The intent of the original provision was to prevent people from listening to things like metronomes or other tempo assisting sounds. It's also meant to prevent people from blocking out distractions and adding relaxing or meditative sounds. It kind of made sense but it was draconian in implementation. The new rule is fine. There are lots of things that are hard to prove in golf that are left up to honor. I don't mind honor being part of the game still.

I think the provisional rule is just so you can walk a couple of steps off the tee and someone in your group can say, "hey, I don't want to wait for you to come back to re-tee. Hit a provisional before we get up there". Seems like a corner case but it must have come up a lot.

I think the rule about allowing the committee to decide what's yellow and what's red stakes will all but eliminate yellow stakes at most courses (at least I hope so) and that will handle the bad drop/re-tee scenario.

Good call on the divots. That was proposed years ago and should have been passed then. It's a stupid rule. The object of golf is not to hit it where the least people hit it.
 

LogansDad

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I think my favorite one is:

If your ball accidentally strikes you, your caddie, your opponent or any equipment, there is no penalty. Play it as it lies. But you cannot deliberately try to carom a shot off your equipment.
Because playing the Larry Bird nothing but net game was a huge part of my pace of play problem.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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I was wondering if that one eliminates the Tin Cup hooded five iron off the shitter shot? I guess technically no, it wouldn't be considered your equipment unless you just took a dump.
 

jercra

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I've been hit by my own ball (bounce off the face of a bunker) and by a fellow player's ball (bounce off a tree). Never in tourney play but I'm glad the rule is fixed in case it happens again. I also once hit a lady's cart in the group in front of me at PGA West. She was pissed and threatened to have my membership pulled. I was 27, broke as shit, in the desert on a work trip with no idea people owned their own carts. That was a fun conversation. I didn't take the 2 stroke penalty.