Apparently Lake Jovita is gobbling up balls again due to tall muddy grass. If you you can't find a ball and there is no OB around... is it a free drop?
Nope.
We technically do not have a free drop rule. If a free drop is given, it better be some extremely rare circumstance where the entire group feels it's warranted.
This is from our Winter Board meeting in 2023:
Rule 8.2
Per
Buchert's request, we discussed (for a long time) what happened at Lake
Jovita (South) between holes 2 and 3... specifically in regards to Rule
8.2.
Quick recap:
- Ball was "lost" in a collection of trees with overgrown grass between holes 2 and 3.
- No OB or Hazard lines anywhere near this location.
- No bushes in the area, so the ball was legitimately lost in the tall grass.
A one-stroke penalty definitely applies here, but where the drop happened was a subject of debate. We settled on letting the group deem the overgrown grass to be a "hazard," and allowing the player to drop outside of that area. The same way you would if a ball was presumably lost in a large palmetto bush. Be sure to keep your search to 3 minutes or less.
As with most rulings, it's up to the group to use common sense.
We
also want to remind everyone there isn't a "free drop" rule for a lost
ball. But we brought up two situations that have happened during our 12+
years as a Club:
- Ball landing in flooded fairway and getting swallowed up by the Earth.
- Ball running into a flooded bunker. The ball can't be seen but everyone knows it's in there somewhere.
I'm
sure something will come up down the road that'll test our
determination, but Rule 8.2 has been updated and Rule 8.3 has been added
for clarity.
I had a brain fart on this whole conversation/decision when playing with Ho on Saturday, which I’m sure is the impetus for this post. I always think of the times where the whole group saw it land in the fairway but nobody can find it.
ReplyDeleteYeah Geoff tried to get a free one on Monday so it came up.
ReplyDeleteWhen in doubt... add strokes to Geoff's score!
I did not try to get a free drop… it was Ho’s ball that was lost and eventually found OB, when this conversation came up. I said we have given free drops in the past when the entire group agreed the ball was lost in play, but I also said this particular case should NOT be a free drop because it was in the vicinity of OB.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't trying to get a free drop either at that spot (even though Chandler swore it was In-bounds and we found it OB)... I was just mentioning then, and the same when I chatted with Faz on Saturday that we've run into this situation before (Jovita south between 2 and 3 is a perfect example) and it seems like half the people will tell you it's a free drop where the group decides it should be.... and the other half say it's a 1-stroke lost ball. Just wanted some consistency. This ruling clears it up
DeleteWhat’s the call? Your ball runs into a packed bunker, rolls across the bunker and settles in a hole under the front lip of bunker. The hole it’s in was created by obvious rain washout. What’s the call here? Free drop outside of bunker no closer to hole? Free drop in bunker no closer to hole? 1 stroke unplayable penalty with a drop in bunker or something else?
ReplyDeleteHo and Geoff… I was talking about #11 not #2
ReplyDeleteCasey… free drop in bunker. It’s obvious ground under repair.
Yep, remember that, was just saying hole 2 is a perfect example, Jovita has a few holes that are good examples of this but can think of plenty more where the rough can eat a ball enough where you can't find it, and no OB for 100's of yards
DeleteSounds like you need to take a push mower out there and fix your club!
ReplyDeleteIf this is a concern we could do the event at feather sound. It’ll either be too flooded to play or it’ll be great.
ReplyDeleteJovita is just fine. Unless you’re telling us Feather is going to charge us $55
ReplyDeleteWe're also playing the north course where there should be very little possibilities of having this issue... especially in a scramble.
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