Watching the final round of the Nissan Open today, there was a situation on the 18th I can’t get an answer to.
Weir and Maruyama were both on the fringe (pretty near each other) when the announcer mentioned something I didn’t catch.
Maruyama used the one club length rule to move his ball, and Weir declined to invoke it. Now neither, of course, could move the ball closer to the hole, and I know there’s an exception for unnatural obstacles. It had been raining almost all weekend and everything was wet, but neither was in a mud pit that I could see.
So, what was the reason to allow either to move the ball? Or did I miss something?
When that abomination, the “lift, clean, and place” rule is in effect, the player whose ball is in the fairway is allowed to pick up and clean the ball and place it within one club length of the original lie, not nearer the hole.
[wag]I don’t believe that the rule is part of golf but is a special rule used so that scores will be lower because TV sponsers think low score increase the number of viewers.[/wag]
In my opinion it is not a good thing. After all, somebody wins the tournament by shooting the best score that week even if he or she shoots in the 80’s all four rounds.
The rule is intended to remove the element of bad luck: you could hit pure tee shots all day just to find your ball is covered with mud.
Also remember that golf events are played over several hours with changable conditions. While changable weather is part of the competition, here the tournament director knows it is going to be a miserable day and he can choose to invoke the lift, clean and place. If he doesn’t, the last groups could find themselves playing in a mud bowl.
Do you want the luckiest player to win? Or the best?
A) You’re entirely correct – it is not part of the Rules of Golf.
B) But. But. I’m a fan of “play it as it lies” and this “winter rule” stuff irks me, particularly among the pros (this makes me a very lonely person among northeastern golfers, as you’d imagine). But in this case the course conditions were particularly bad. This wasn’t a case of a damp course from morning rain – there was an “earthworm hazard” on one of the greens it was so bad.
So I’m inclined to be a (teensy, tiny, little bit) more forgiving of the PGA here. If this were their worst infraction on this subject (or even in their worst 10 in the past ten years!) I’d be inclined to give them a pass entirely.