Updates are going to be slow this week due to a bunch of other projects... and celebrating the Bucs win (the only NFL team I've ever known) all night Sunday didn't help.
But Troy picked up his 5th victory and 3rd Major on Sunday, winning by two thanks to an impressive six pars and nine bogeys. Any time he can limit the doubles and triples, hes going to be a factor.
Falling just short was Dave (who figured out his driver just in time for the Black tees), John (who unexpectedly figured out his entire swing?), and Katie (who was headed to Pitcher Zone until she finished +4 gross on the final eight holes!).
That +4 final stretch by Katie (holes 11 to 18) actually tied the lowest gross score in the Club on the day (with Dave, John, Gary, Chandler). Remarkable.
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Some chatter about the conditions out there. It's funny that whenever anyone talks about "conditions," they almost always just mean "greens." But fair enough... greens are by far the most important condition to get right... since 50-ish% of your strokes happen on or around them.
Greens were consistently... weird. Way slower than they looked. Could roll out downhill sometimes, and seemingly not other times. And lots of large dead sand-filled chunks, mostly toward the edges. At least they were receptive?
I personally didn't feel like they were bad enough to complain about. But that's because I'm objectively comparing them to some other places that shocked me to the core (RIP Tarpon Woods). If we look at them based on what we feel "World Woods" should represent... especially if they're attempting to charge people $120... then yeah they were complete shit.
For $69 dollars... eh. That's a decent price for a beautiful "winter" day... and the rest of the course was fine.
I do agree that WW has lost some luster. Which is a shame because we can't stop going there. We are literally surrounded by terrible golf courses.
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Let's talk about bunkers. Technically we didn't change our policy on bunkers due to COVID.
Club Rule #9 has always stated you can fix the sand if your ball is in an un-raked footprint/area. But you could never remove a plugged ball unless you were taking a 1-stroke penalty (as our rule also states). COVID just caused some courses to remove rakes... so you were more likely to find disturbed sand on non-plugged lies.
So to be clear... we're only picking up balls and smoothing sand if you're in an area that is obvioiusly messed up due to another golfer. And you have to put it back as close as possible to that spot. You only get
to "move" it two club lengths if you're taking a penalty.
Speaking of...
If your ball is "plugged," you either have to play it, or take an unplayable (1-stroke) and drop it in the bunker within two clubs. That rule has been around for... you know... 2,000+ years when Jesus first started golfing.
But wait! There's more! As part of the 2019 USGA "rules simplification," they do allow you to drop your ball outside of the bunker. But it's going to cost you two strokes (USGA Rule 19.3b). I can only imagine someone doing this if they're stymied up against the face of a Scottish sod-stacked bunker. Or a bulkhead.
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Let's talk about the rough. Unless otherwise told (usually due to cartpath-only conditions), you can't touch your ball in the rough. Don't clean mud off it... don't pick it up... don't blow kisses at it. Just hit the ball toward the hole, presumably on the way to a max +5.
In the fairway, we allow you to pick up your ball and clean it (Club Rule #11).
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We're off this week. A few people asked why we aren't playing... and I reminded them we have built-in makeup weeks to use for rainouts. Outside of that... it's important to have time off for WAG-maintenance.
Next event is The Concussion on Super Bowl Sunday. I'll have details hopefully soon. It'll be an early-ish and quick round. Update your RSVP now (Feb 7th)!
Update: Going back to The Groves in Land-O-Lakes. Group rate is $28 (after tax). 9am tee time. We'll be done by noon.
See you then.
Good point about the greens being oddly slow. I’m not sure I ever fully adjusted to how slow they were playing because normally if you have a big breaker or a downhill slider you need to be super careful out there. I don’t think anyone in my group was consistently hitting bad putts but man we were not making much.
ReplyDeleteBased on your bunker explanation I didn't make a mistake by dropping behind the bunker on #1. My ball was buried under the bunker lip and dropping close to it was still unplayable. My error was only taking a one stroke penalty.
ReplyDeleteAs the post says:
ReplyDelete"If your ball is "plugged," you either have to play it, or take an unplayable (1-stroke) and drop it in the bunker within two clubs."
So you also could have moved it back 2 clubs (still in the bunker) for one stroke, and not been near the lip.
In a case like Darren's where the ball is plugged at the top of the bunker and let's say it is a very deep bunker, would the two club lengths be calculated by imagining a straight line from the ball back two club lengths or do you have to take a two club length drop by actually putting the club on the ground?
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining a scenario where putting the club on the ground and measuring twice from the plugged ball could leave a situation where you are still dropping the ball into the face of the bunker (i.e. you have moved your ball two club lengths below the spot where it plugged, but it didn't really move back at all).
I can't imagine that scenario.
ReplyDeleteI get Brian's scenario, but since you don't how about this one.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't Darren have taken a 1 stroke unplayable and dropped near the top of the face where he plugged (the steep part but still in the bunker), knowing it would likely roll back down in the bunker more than 2 club lengths away?
I didn't fail to "get" the scenairo... it's just nonsense.
ReplyDeleteDon't overthink it. Two club lengths to either side of the ball... sweep a half-circle arc between them. That's the drop area. If a ball rolls outside of that area twice, you can place.
Eyewitness accounts confirm Darren could have easily dropped two club lengths back from his plugged ball, still in the bunker, and would be left with a straight-forward bunker shot to get up-and-down for 5. For whatever reason, he thought he could drop outside the bunker in the grass for one stroke. That is false. Always has been... since Jesus.
Streamsong Blue Course, Hole #4. I hit it into the face of the greenside bunker where the top of the bunker is probably 15 feet higher than the base of the bunker and it drops down at a very severe angle.
ReplyDeleteI took a one stroke penalty and dropped at the bottom of the bunker. It probably was within a two club "arc" if you take a 6 foot radius from the unplayable lie and allow a drop within that "arc." However, the dropped ball was definitely more than two club lengths away from the unplayable lie spot if you took out a tape measure and measured from the dropped ball to the unplayable lie position while keeping the tape measure pressed against the ground.
I shot horribly that day anyway, so the course record is safe either way.
Alright, you people forced me to look it up. From the USGA website you also have the option of "back-on-the-line" relief, leaving it in the bunker. I assume staying on the line of the pin and where the ball was deemed "unplayable." Here's their actual text:
ReplyDeleteBunkers
Unplayable Ball in Bunker
Q. I don’t think I can play my ball as it lies in the bunker (unplayable) – what are my options?
A. If you don’t want to or decide you can’t play your ball as it lies when your ball is in a bunker, you may decide it is unplayable. If you do this, you have four total options, and two will always require that you take relief inside the bunker. You have three one penalty stroke relief options. (1) You may play a ball from the spot of your previous stroke (if this spot was out of the bunker, this option gets you out of the bunker; but if your last stroke was from in the bunker, you must stay in the bunker) (see Rule 19.2a). (2) You may take back-on-the-line relief in the bunker (see Rule 19.2b). (3) You may drop in the bunker within two club-lengths of where your ball lies but not nearer to the hole (see Rule 19.2c). (4) Your fourth relief option comes with two penalty strokes – you may get out of the bunker using the back-on-the-line relief option (see Rule 19.3b).
Wow...I never consider Option #1 after I chunk one into a greenside bunker that's difficult to hit out of. I will now.
ReplyDeleteOption 1 is ALWAYS an option after any shot. If you putt a ball off the green and into a bunker... you might consider Option 1.
ReplyDeleteYou managed to learn something new about the rules of golf and didn't even have to spend hours of your life listening to an obscure podcast. That's a win.
ReplyDeleteI already knew that rule because I listen to obscure podcasts as well.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of winning... forgot to mention that Buchert was 8-inches short (or I guess 8-inches long, technically) of a $666 payout on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteIs that measured on the ground or in the air level to the ground?
ReplyDeleteWhether measured by ground or air, it won me a grand total of $3 and I have to continue living with the knowledge that Gorecki has a hole in one and I do not.
ReplyDeleteBased on the ball mark, the slope of the green, the approximate distance that the ball spun back toward the hole, and the final resting position of the ball, I needed the greens to be approximately 18.67% faster than they were on Sunday to win that hole in one money.
ReplyDeleteNice! Which par 3 was that on? That pool is starting to reach a $ amount worthy of a hole in one
ReplyDeleteGlad I asked about my scenario. I knew about the place after two drop attempts portion of the rule but never thought about the two club length distance because it's never really been a factor.
Thanks for the refresher.
It was on hole 8.
ReplyDeleteThanks for my shoutout Chandler. I’m gonna break 80 this year.
ReplyDelete