Is this The Worst Rule in Golf? When you hit the fairway, you can expect a good lie, but sometimes your ball ends up in someone else’s divot. Should you get a free drop from this position? The Rules of Golf state that you must play the ball as it lies, but is this unfair?

Let’s talk golf with Mark Crossfield, golf professional.

25 Comments

  1. My idea of a wild night now involves staying up past midnight to binge-watch a new series on Netflix. Who needs candlelit dinners when you have cliffhangers and popcorn🔥

  2. Can you imagine how many times the referee will be called to adjudicate,the game is slow enough as it is,just get on with it.

  3. Yes, no, no, get fucked you're in the rough 😅

    The argument about what is and isn't a divot is dumb though from the idiots that make the rules. If you cant tell what a divot is you've never golfed. Its very easy to define. Just have it so that all playing partners have to approve and be done with it. (Question 1). If they worry about cheating and people bending the rules, news flash they already do regardless of rules.

  4. No relief. At least for anything serious. You go play with your buddies, make your own local rule. We play a real event, everybody deals with it. Learn to hit from divots.

  5. If you’re in a grassy area and your ball is on non-grass in that area which is man made, you should get relief. If it was intended to be the rough then you should hit from the rough, not a patch of mud.

  6. Given that it’s therefore impossible to define a divot, what you’d be advocating for is allowing placing on the fairway in all circumstances.

  7. Just hire sand bucket kids to fill them in as they happen. PGA could certainly afford to pay them.
    As for normal play just move it, it’s not that important in the grand scheme of life.

  8. Relief in the fairway from a divot is a yes for me. Needs to be agreed with partner same as it is for other rules eg to define what is and isn't the nearest point of relief, what is and isn't an animal hole/mole hill etc. Loads or rules that need to be interpreted with help from playing partner so I don't see this as any different. In the rough, forget it. You're playing it as it is

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