Here I am, resurrecting another old theme.  But yesterday's events seem to make it timely.

I couldn't believe it when I saw Tiger dump his 3rd shot into the water at 15.  How could the world number one, who is also the best with his wedge, swing the club the way he did, on a shot where he is the top expert on the planet?

This morning I read the reason why.  TW's 2nd shot ended up in a divot, half buried under the back side of it.  The lie was so bad, Woods apparently thought about playing around the pond, and then chipping to try to get up and down for par.  

Almost surely this cost him two shots.  Maybe three.  

Change the rule.  If a ball stops in a fairway divot, give the player a free drop.  What is the downside?  

We can't make golf competely fair.  But when we can make it more fair, we should.

Will be especially telling if Woods ends up losing by a stroke or two.    

So the amateurs wouldn't get a free drop?  

game isn't supposed to be totally fair

then why shouldn't they be able to fix spike marks too?

all this also adds too much time

if you get a good break off of a tree, then maybe you'd have to throw the ball into the woods where it deserved to go

Luck has always been a great part of the game.

New clubs, perfect greens , consistent bunkers have changed this in many ways

Let's not advocate any more changes that further this trend.

Maybe he should have chipped it to the right of the green, what would Jack have done??

This morning I read the reason why.  TW's 2nd shot ended up in a divot, half buried under the back side of it.  The lie was so bad, Woods apparently thought about playing around the pond, and then chipping to try to get up and down for par.  

Almost surely this cost him two shots.  Maybe three.  

If he knew the lie was THAT bad, he could have easily putted his ball into a better position.

I can sympathize with this dilemma, as it's happened to me in tournament play as well, but that's golf and you deal with it.

Besides…where would you draw the line with the age of the divot?

Hey David, what am I missing? I don't recall that Nicklaus ever was called out for seeking too many freebies.

Tiger actually handled it very badly.  His swing effort was pretty poor.  In tournament golf and especially #15 at Augusta, his best play was into the stands for a free drop.  He did not take short out of the equation very well.

I don't get the initial

"He might lose because of this" atttitude.

Dominus vobiscum all bow before Tiger?

and I didn't hear Tiger moaning about the fact that it was in a divot, kudos to him

Golf's lack of fairness is like life generally, and is one of the things i like about the game.  Overcoming adversity makes the game better, not worse.

and like Tom Meeks likes to say, if you didn't want to play from there, then why did you hit it there.

If players abuse the new rule, then we can change it back.  I predict they won't.  But am interested to see how that tests out.

Not just for pro's.  For everyone.

I absolutely think you should be allowed to fix spike marks.

It also occurs to me that you are allowed to mark, clean and replace your ball on the green.  You are allowed to fix ball marks there, too.  If that line of reasoning applies on the green, why can't a far less invasive/less used rule apply in the fairway?

Slightly (!) highjacking my own thread, I believe soccer (football) should completely drop the offside rule.  Impossible to call right, mistakes are made every game, and sometimes matches are won/lost on blown decisions.    

I am stunned that someone who frequents this site would advocate a free drop from a divot. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I simply disagree.David W's slippery slope comment is right on, and the tree ricochet one was nice too.

Hey David, what am I missing? I don't recall that Nicklaus ever was called out for seeking too many freebies.

Archie,

What I meant was that Jack's glacial pace of play (And I am a Jack fan) would have become even worse if he was able to tap down spike marks (I envision him vacuuming the green between his ball and the hole and taking a drop from every marginal lie or demanding rulings over unrepaired divots.  Can you imagine what Gary Player might have done with this rule, given his far reaching interpretations of the identify and replace rule?

Didn't Payne Stewart bring this up to a USGA official after his incident?  The official basically said something like "guess you better practice hitting out of divots", which infuriated Payne...but the more he thought about the more he agreed, so he practiced it and eventually said it was the right call.  

Another reason to miss Payne.