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Golf Etiquette – Playing Through
Many new golfers tend to play slower than experienced golfers which means that if you’re one of those slower persons a group is likely to catch up to you and be held up by your play. Sometimes the group behind you will ask if they can play through. Other times they will hope that you will ask them to play through. Either way letting the faster group to play through; that is good etiquette.
One of the things that you can do is to go ahead and tee off and then either wait at that tee and ask them to tee off or you can continue down the fairway and wave them to tee off and pass you on the fairway. That is often the best thing to do especially on a busy course as that keeps play moving.
Golf Etiquette - Repairing your Divot on the Green
When ever a golf ball lands on a green it leaves a mark, called a divot. These divots are easy to repair and if repaired immediately the green will "heal" itself within hours.
Click here to see a You Tube Video on the correct repair procedure.
Lost Balls – Rule 27-1c
The Rules of Golf allow you 5 minutes to search for and find a ball that is lost. If, after five minutes, you have not found your ball the rule states that you are to declare it lost, drop a new ball back along its line of flight, adding a stroke for doing so, and then hit and continue to play.
The way you would score that is if it was your second shot that went into the rough and wasn’t found, it’s your third shot to drop the new ball and you will then be hitting your fourth shot when you play the new dropped ball.
Unplayable Lie - Rule 28
If you were watching the 2009 US Open you may have seen Phil Mickelson declare his ball unplayable at which point he was able to pickup, clean and then drop the ball getting a decent lie while incurring a 1-stroke penalty. He did that under Rule 28 and used clause C: dropping within 2 club lengths, no nearer the hole.
You may have also seen several other players not invoke that rule and attempt to strike their ball, not moving it an inch yet they also added that stroke to their score cards. One could say that they should have taken the route Phil did as they were still left with a ball in an unplayable or nearly unplayable lie.
Swinging wildly through deep rough may give you a sense of satisfaction but it often adds many more extra strokes to your round then wise use of Rule 28.
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