Playing from the practice area

[Mike Sweeney]

Jack Nicklaus agrees:


http://golfweek.com/2017/07/24/jack-nicklaus-says-spieth-made-unbelievable-decision-to-drop-on-driving-range-at-british-open/

[Bill Seitz]

Exactly. In many cases you have to take your stance after the drop to determine if further free relief is available.

This happened in my group in a Publinx local (or pre) qualifier years and years ago.  The last hole had an interior fence that separated the 18th green from the first tee, an immovable obstruction.  There was a hedge that ran along the 18th tee side. The ball came to rest against the fence and under the hedge.  If the player had taken relief from the fence on the 18th green side of the fence, the hedge would have rendered the ball likely unplayable.  Instead, he took relief on the other side of the fence (first tee side), which was the nearest point that gave him an unobstructed swing.  Problem was the fence was about 15 feet high, and the nearest point of relief was too close to get the ball over the fence.  Solution: that point also happened to be on a cart path.  He then took relief from the cart path, and played from the first tee, giving him enough room to get the ball over the fence and onto the green.  He two putted, saved bogey, and advanced by one shot.

[Wayne_Kozun]

I would like to have seen Jordan's reaction if he took the drop behind the trucks and they then said that they will move the trucks.

[Garland Bayley]

Jerry
 
According to Sky Sports, Speith was 120 yards off line and he still didn’t land on the practice area....

Never trust what you hear on TV. If you measure it on Google Earth, you would be hard pressed to find the practice area there over 100 yards off the fairway.

Yeah, yeah, I know Greg Norman is right and it really is 11 miles to walk and play Chambers Bay. 

[Garland Bayley]

Our driving range at NSWGC is immediately left of the 18th fairway and is in play. Can be an absolute bastard trying you find your ball almongst all the artillery, but if you do locate it then play away.

Get yellow range balls. Duh!

[ward peyronnin]

Ted

That was exactly what i was saying; you just took 20 minutes ( far too long) to say it.

Ward

[Matthew Petersen]

Jerry
 
According to Sky Sports, Speith was 120 yards off line and he still didn’t land on the practice area....

Never trust what you hear on TV. If you measure it on Google Earth, you would be hard pressed to find the practice area there over 100 yards off the fairway.

Yeah, yeah, I know Greg Norman is right and it really is 11 miles to walk and play Chambers Bay. 

Comparing the aerial shots from the broadcast with Google Earth aerials, where he played his third shot from was roughly 130 yard from the middle of the 13th fairway. His drive had actually finished maybe 75-80 yards right of the center of the fairway (though with a bounce off a spectator to get over the dune apparently). Also, Jordan was;t aiming down the middle of the fairway off the tee he was aiming slightly into the right rough.


Still and all, a massive miss.

[Tyler Kearns]

Jerry,


My home club has its range running parallel to our 1st and 5th holes.  Range balls are yellow, range is in bounds.  I can think of one other course in the city with a range that is in play, the majority of the others are played as OB.


TK

[Garland Bayley]

Jerry
 
According to Sky Sports, Speith was 120 yards off line and he still didn’t land on the practice area....

Never trust what you hear on TV. If you measure it on Google Earth, you would be hard pressed to find the practice area there over 100 yards off the fairway.

Yeah, yeah, I know Greg Norman is right and it really is 11 miles to walk and play Chambers Bay. 

Comparing the aerial shots from the broadcast with Google Earth aerials, where he played his third shot from was roughly 130 yard from the middle of the 13th fairway. His drive had actually finished maybe 75-80 yards right of the center of the fairway (though with a bounce off a spectator to get over the dune apparently). Also, Jordan was;t aiming down the middle of the fairway off the tee he was aiming slightly into the right rough.


Still and all, a massive miss.

We now can compute the golf announcer hyperbolic inflation factor.

If the Chambers Bay walk really is 6-6.5 miles and Jordan's shot was 75-80 yards from the center of the fairway,  The inflation factor works out to be about 40%.

Please adjust future reports from golf announcers appropriately.

[Ryan Coles]

Ryan


You could always go back to the tee or where ever you hit your ball from originally. The option of going back to play the ball again ensures you don't have to take additional relief.


Niall

That'll quicken the game up. Good thinking.

Actually in this instance it would have, wouldn't it. Choice is go back to the tee or take straight forward drop and get on with it with a net saving of what, 10 or 15 minutes ? Make it straight forward, stop the fannying about and get on with it.

The rules are like golf courses. They shouldn't solely be designed for professionals.


Club players going back to the see because of your absolutist position will slow the game down.

[Niall C]

Ryan
 
I was thinking as much about the amateurs as anyone. Making the rules simple leads to quicker decisions, less fuss and ultimately a quicker game. Walking back to the tee is likely to be the last resort in most instances but I bet in the vast majority of instances you wouldn’t have to do that.
 
And even if they did have to, do you really think they’d take as long as Speith did to play there next shot ? My arthritic 83 year old mother could have gone back to the tee, played another ball and played up on to the green by the time Jordan eventually hit his shot from the practice ground.
 
Niall

[Ted Sturges]

Ted

That was exactly what i was saying; you just took 20 minutes ( far too long) to say it.

Ward

So...what you're saying is...by taking far too long, it is yet another justifiable comparison between my golf and Jordan Spieth's golf.

TS

[Mark_Rowlinson]

The practice ground at Birkdale is big and wide. There will have been few balls in the vicinity of Spieth's because they would have been pretty lousy shots to finish there. Spieth carried his ball with him, he didn't have to find it on the practice ground. It was, however, an achievement to have found it in the rough.

[Thomas Dai]

The practice ground at Birkdale is big and wide. There will have been few balls in the vicinity of Spieth's because they would have been pretty lousy shots to finish there. Spieth carried his ball with him, he didn't have to find it on the practice ground. It was, however, an achievement to have found it in the rough.

JS wasn't that far off taking his drop in the temporary Sky Sports covered practice studio complete with it's mat and TV cameras! That would have made a pretty interesting mid-round interview! "Now tell me Jordon........"!

atb

[David Lott]

At Fox Chapel the practice area used to be in bounds. I think they changed that though. Safety and liability mostly probably. The PG was just a routine slice on #8.

[Carl Nichols]

I would like to have seen Jordan's reaction if he took the drop behind the trucks and they then said that they will move the trucks.

Why do you think that would've been problematic?  The ground/lie looked pretty good to me behind the trucks--or he could've picked a good spot.

[Jerry Kluger]

Watching the Canadian Open and DJ hit his ball where it is next to cars in the parking lot - he asked if the cars could be moved as he likes the lie. Decision will be made after the weather delay.

[William_G]

there is no doubt that the spectator he hit should be infamous

like a lightning strike

as without the carrom off his head, there would have been a different story or no story

[Ally Mcintosh]

We all saw Spieth play from the driving range and it was explained that the members play the practice area as part of the course so the R&A decided that they would allow it as well.  I was wondering if anyone has seen this at any other course.  I have always seen the driving range marked as out of bounds if for no other reason than safety.  Was the location at RB a driving range or a practice area that they used as a driving range?

Portmarnock has a practice area to the right of 17 & 18 that is inbounds. It also has a more official driving range which - I think - is also inbounds (will check next time).


Can't recall specifics but my gut feeling is quite a lot of old, traditional links in GB&I have the same setup.

[Garland Bayley]

Perhaps a criteria that sometimes is used is the shape of nearby holes. My home course and Bude and North Cornwall have doglegs around,  OB. Others playing parallel, no OB.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Agree.  Ted Sturges' post was superb.


I believe that Spieth won the Open because of everything he had to go thru between finding his drive on 13 and hitting the 3 utility.  Obviously, his mind was a mess from his first drive through his drive on 13.  When his ball was found, he immediately had to go into a problem solving mode...and as good as a player as he is...his mind is even better.  That got him focussed and for the next 20 minutes he was the most focused I have ever seen a golfer...equal or better than Tiger in his most focussed moments.  And when he worked out the solution, that put him in a great frame of mind as he directed the whole show.  That got rid of the bad karma and out his mind in a place where he could execute like he did the rest of the was.


BUT...no one is focussed on the most important question.  Supposedly his drive hit a woman on the head.  Sooo, what was that woman doing on the right had side of that dune at that point in time!!!

[Erik J. Barzeski]

"What happens if your nearest point of relief or two two club lengths leave you in casual water?"

Ryan -

If the "nearest point of relief" lands you in casual water, than it is not really the nearest point of relief. I believe you would be able to take a drop beyond the casual water, even if you a greater than 2-club lengths away.

(If I am wrong, I am sure the rules mavens will let us know!)

DT

You're wrong, yeah. If you're taking relief for a cart path (obstruction), you can drop the ball in casual water. You then have the chance to take relief from that condition as well. There is a Decision that addresses the situation where you'd basically keep dropping back and forth between two such conditions.

The rules require complete relief… from the thing from which you're dropping, not from any and all things that allow a free drop.

[Pete_Pittock]

The situation isn't an outlier. I remember a US Women's Open at Pumpkin Ridge's 18th hole that took 15+ minutes that involved two different TIOs and a cart path with a lot of potentially unplayable high grass near all the potential droppings.