Are Preferred Lies (Pick and Place) the Answer?

[Paul Gray]

Before anyone gets too upset, let me just firstly say that I have always opposed the very notion of year round preferred lies. Accepting a bad lie in the fairway and having the skill to deal with it has always been part of the game and, in my Golf Utopia, it always would be.

Nonetheless, playing my home course today I looked yet again at a stupid bit of maintenance where, following a forced carry over some dunes, you are met by ten yards or so of first cut rough, rather than what should blatantly obviously be fairway. In its current state it both looks and plays stupid.

Before dismissing the whole thing as pure ignorance, I got to thinking how the green keeping staff would fair if they did the right thing and converted the relevant land to fairway. The land in question is essentially the down slope of a dune and would probably take some TLC to resemble the rest of the fairway, meaning the complaints might abound the moment it was cut short.

So, in an age where everyone expects a perfect lie on every fairway, would preferred lies all year round not possibly be a way of getting the average player to accept what he or she is currently programmed to think of as less than ideal? Think of all the time, money and effort that could be redirected if only we could get the average player to focus less on an artificial notion of perfection.

[Ken Moum]

Where I live, the "average" player moves the ball for EVERY shot whether it's in the fairway or rough.

It's STUPID, and unnecessary.

One of my friends, a 2 handicap, is often the first guy to suggest "playing it up" and it's the dumbest thing he could ever do.  One of his primary advantages over the double-digit handicappers he plays with is his ability to hit the ball our of crappy lie.

Last year I spent a full month in Scotland and several times I had discussions with Scots about this.  I usually started it by saying how much I liked playing there, and how generally unhappy I am about American golf and golfers.

When I finally got them to understand that playing it up meant not playing it as it lies, they invariably said, "That's na golf."

And they're right.

These days almost everything about the golf played where I live either makes me sad or pisses me off.

But to answer your question more directly, there's no need for a rule, I'm betting most everyone would move the ball out of a bad lie anyway.

K

[Paul Gray]

Ken,

In Britain, I think I'm right in saying, we play a bit more competitive golf than you do. Too much for my liking but, nonetheless, competition rules won't allow a player to 'pick and place.' The outcome, it seems to me, is the somewhat inevitable drive for a misguided idea of perfection, because apparently loosing the Monthly Medal by one shot because of a crappy lie on the 18th fairway is just too much for any one human to handle.

So, with a heavy heart, concluding that this is one battle GCA junkies can never win, is 'pick and place' a necessary evil which would allow revenue to be directed to more productive causes?

[Keith Kirkendall]

People do it all the time anyway, just like they play OB as a lateral hazard.
Personally, if doing these things speeds up a round, I'm all for it.  I doubt it does, though.

[mike_beene]

The only time I notice anyone playing preferred lies is on PGA tour.Dont think I have seen it otherwise in years.

[BHoover]

I played my home course today for the first time since it was aerated. The fairways were still a bit sloppy after a week of rain and cold, damp weather. I'll readily admit that my playing parfner and I played preferred lies. It was difficult enough navigsting the wind and dealing with the cold, we didn't feel like playing mud balls on top of that.

[Tom_Doak]

If preferred lies being an accepted alternative for club golfers would enable clubs to spend less on maintenance, I would happily just look the other way, as I generally do now. 

On the other hand, if clubs are going to continue to spend $$$$ on their courses so they LOOK PERFECT -- and in many places, the motivation seems to be as much about the appearance as the playing surface -- then it's ridiculous for people to bump the ball into a better lie.  But I see it all the time.

[JMEvensky]

If preferred lies being an accepted alternative for club golfers would enable clubs to spend less on maintenance, I would happily just look the other way, as I generally do now. 

No you wouldn't,you have too much respect for the game.

In my experience,maintenance has very little to do with whether guys roll the ball. They do it because they think their scores will be lower. Blaming it on bad lies just makes it easier for them to justify doing it.

[Bill Brightly]

Paul,

To answer this question you really have to narrow the question to what type of golf course we are talking about. I am going to leave out all courses outside of the US; I'll let other debate that.

But in the US I think you have a very large number of private courses and high end public facilities that spend a great deal of money to produce great fairways where the ball can be played as it lies almost every day. I belong to such a course, and it irks me when guys ask "are we rolling it today?" on the first fairway after a day or rain. (I agree Ken's comment that it is an advantage to a good player who knows how to figure out how to play from a lessthan than perfect lie.)

But on lower budget private and public courses, I like the idea of preferred lies. The golfer is assured of a good lie when he hits it in the fairway. This, in turn, takes the pressure off the grounds crew if their budget does not permit a higher level of maintenance. 

[Jon Wiggett]

As long as it is not in a competition who cares? If it makes the game more enjoyable and speeds it up why not. If it is in a competition then of course not unless its in the locale rules.

Jon

[Paul Gray]

If preferred lies being an accepted alternative for club golfers would enable clubs to spend less on maintenance, I would happily just look the other way, as I generally do now. 

On the other hand, if clubs are going to continue to spend $$$$ on their courses so they LOOK PERFECT -- and in many places, the motivation seems to be as much about the appearance as the playing surface -- then it's ridiculous for people to bump the ball into a better lie.  But I see it all the time.

You've really hit the nail of my question no the head:

Would preferred lies actually deter golfers from focusing on that perfect LOOK or would it have zero effect? As you say, is the focus simply about appearance and not actually about the playing surface at all?

PS: Not wishing to hijack my own thread, if that's even possible, but moving the ball by a clubs' length, as currently on display at the World Matchplay (there are two such events, America), is absurd. There are perfectly reasonable local rules available which negate the need for such cheating. 
 

[Ed Brzezowski]

Play the ball as you find it, play the course as you find it.

I agree with the Scots ,in golf as in life you get some great lies and some crappy ones too.

[jeffwarne]

Given that I generally choose not to play with people who play in this manner, I'd say no.
A slippery slope when you start changing the rules.

Moving the ball because conditions are not "perfect" would only drive the need for courses to be more "perfect".

There's barely a blade of live grass at  the Goat, most lies are cuppy, and what occasional grass that's there is crabgrass, and we've NEVER moved the ball there. Figuring out how to hit the shot is a great part of the game.
Amazingly EVERY person who has been there has a blast, and returns.

There's golf, and there's some other version that many choose to play.

[Sean_A]

Paul

It depends.  I don't mind pushing the ball about to save the course a beating and regularly push balls into the rough during the winter...without asking the other players as I don't really care much what they think.  Its not like I am playing for big money    That said, I try to replicate my lie as best I can in a reasonable time frame.  At Kington I don't like the idea of pushing the ball about because the oddball lies are on of its few defenses.  Generally though, I don't care much what other golfers do.  As I said, I don't play for a lot of money so there is no need to get bother much.

Ciao