Not talking about obvious shots that are screaming towards the woods or OB stakes next to 1-foot tall native grass or water.

I mean the ball that you drive off the tee box, goes off line towards a very open, but thick rough area and when you get there simply cannot find the ball. You should be able to find it, but it's just disappeared.

In my league play last night that exact situation happened to me. Pulled my drive a little left, saw it come down just over a rise past a few trees (did not hit the trees - it went over them) into some thick rough but a very open area (no way I hit it far enough to go OB - that would have been a 300+ yard drive). Our league 'rule' is that if you're looking for more than a minute or so, to keep pace of play moving drop in where you think it landed and keep playing. Do return to previous spot of play and take a penalty stroke. So basically no penalty. I hit on a two putted for par.

The real reason I'm asking is b/c I shot a personal best 9-holes last night of 4-over par (did 3-putt 3 times so f-golf!). The rules say I should have taken stroke/distance, or local rule 2-strokes and drop no closer to hole in that situation which means I'd be 6 over.

I know others who will say "If I had spotters like the pros then I'd score like the pros because that ball would have been found" - so they just drop and play with no penalty.

Also, I need a new putter!

Agreed, follow the local rule, but I don't think you can count it for a PB.

Now head on over to the F GOLF!!!! Thread and complain about your luck.

i kind of like this. in fact, i wonder how many strokes the gallery is worth in a tournament.

DannyDuberstein said:

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For casual rounds, we play "imaginary gallery" rules, which basically means it depends on where it disappeared. If there is even a slight chance it went into some sort of hazard, bushes, etc, then drop, penalty stroke, and play on (play it as you would a hazard or an unplayable lie). If it is a totally open spot and likely just rolled under a tuft of grass (ie a ball that a gallery would have located - hence the name of the rule), then no penalty but you gotta sink that drop deep into the grass.

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This is pretty much how my buddies and I play. If the consensus is that the ball did not dart into the woods/lake/OB and should/would be found in a reasonable time frame, just take a free drop in the approximate area of the rough and keep moving. Otherwise, penalty drop and hit from where it went in.

Furlock Bones said:

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i kind of like this. in fact, i wonder how many strokes the gallery is worth in a tournament.

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Or spotters. The worst is when you bomb a drive cutting a corner, and you know it's solid but falls blind behind a copse of trees or whatever. Losing that ball is just a kick in the nuts.

We play fast, so we are usually pretty easy-going and actually encourage to drop and play on in this situation. But again, if there is a creek, shrubs, gnarly knee high native grass, etc nearby, your ass is taking a penalty.

PGA tour rule if obvious it would have been found by a gallery, I.e. just off the fairway.

Way errant or hazards or trees etc. drop and take a penalty


Tourney, your walking your ass back.

MW03 said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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For casual rounds, we play "imaginary gallery" rules, which basically means it depends on where it disappeared. If there is even a slight chance it went into some sort of hazard, bushes, etc, then drop, penalty stroke, and play on (play it as you would a hazard or an unplayable lie). If it is a totally open spot and likely just rolled under a tuft of grass (ie a ball that a gallery would have located - hence the name of the rule), then no penalty but you gotta sink that drop deep into the grass.

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This is pretty much how my buddies and I play. If the consensus is that the ball did not dart into the woods/lake/OB and should/would be found in a reasonable time frame, just take a free drop in the approximate area of the rough and keep moving. Otherwise, penalty drop and hit from where it went in.

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We call this the "Gallery drop"

If there was a gallery there, someone would have seen the ball...

Gallery drop is a great idea. I believe a gallery is worth at least 2 strokes per round. For me it would be 3-4...my bad shots are usually from the tee and can't find them. I rarely miss approaches or 3 putt.

In my group we play by the rules. It's a b***h, but if you can't find it, it's a lost ball. Stroke-and-distance or follow the model local rule.

But, I don't care if anybody that I'm not playing against comes up with a rule for their own group. It's just not what my group does.

DannyDuberstein said:

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So with a group on the tee behind you on a busy day, you'll hoof it 250+ yards back to the tee and say "Sorry guys, gotta make it official"?

I very rarely see anyone actually do this

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At my club I probably would if the group behind isn't on the tee or has just arrived. Might not if they've been waiting awhile while we looked for the ball.

Otherwise, or if I was playing somewhere beside my club on a busy day, I would follow the model local rule. Drop where I think it was lost. Laying 3, hitting 4.

I just personally wouldn't ever take a free drop (edited to add: where a penalty shot would normally apply). Sometimes golf isn't a fair game. Again, I don't have a problem with others choosing to do it if I'm not playing against them.

No matter how I score it, it's still a personal best for 9-holes on this course. 6 over (local rule), 5 over (lateral hazard or red stakes) or 4 over (gallery or league rule).

I don't think I've hit my irons this good for 9-holes in a row in a long time. I mean I had zero fat, blade, shanks, skulls, chilly dippers, whatever. I hit every iron shot solid as can be. I hit 7 GIR's. One par 3 that I missed I chipped it on and hit a 25-foot put for par. Even my bad drives I found (except that one I lost in the rough) in a nice clear spot and made good shots onto the green. I think I only hit 3 of 7 fairways but recovered every time and got on the GIR except once (and that was just 2-yards short). On nine I hit my drive right down the middle 270+ yards (that's a long ways for me!) chipped on from 60 and lipped out my birdie putt.

At the end I had to distract myself with thoughts of just about anything but golf b/c I was kept thinking the inevitable double followed by a triple bogey was coming and I didn't want to psych myself out of a good 9-holes.

My personal best for 9-holes is 2 over, but it was a ridiculously easy, short course with I think one sand trap and one water hazard for the 9 holes and I one putted 4 times and had no 3 putts.

Guys on tour get free drops all the time, like Rory and his "embedded" bunker ball at the US Open last month.

If it's obvious a tee shot was inside a cart path and it's not found, everyone should play the "gallery rule" and take a free drop on the agreed upon area.

Where it can get tricky is if it's a wayward shot, whereas a stroke (no distance) makes the most sense as Danny described.

_lefraud_ said:

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Guys on tour get free drops all the time, like Rory and his "embedded" bunker ball at the US Open last month.

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For the context of this thread, I'm talking about free drops where a penalty shot would normally apply. Not free drops allowed for in the rules.

Concur

Lost ball we play same as OB. You can drop with a two stroke penalty on the fairway in an arch from where you think it landed. So if it's your tee shot then you're hitting 4 from the fairway.

Watching life golf on tv you can often see a ball bounce or hit a limb and go way off line. This happens when we play golf too. Often times your "it has to be in here" is not the case.

This all assumes we're playing money games. Casual round you can count the hole as an eagle for all I care.

Yep, we call that a gallery ball. Agreed upon, of course.

Gallery drops in the rough must end up in a crappy lie. If it was sitting up nice and fluffy you'd be able to see it. Wherever it is, it's obviously sitting down.

With the recent addition of the option to drop in the fairway with a two-stroke penalty for lost ball or OB, don't see any reason to go back to the tee.

Duckhook said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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So with a group on the tee behind you on a busy day, you'll hoof it 250+ yards back to the tee and say "Sorry guys, gotta make it official"?

I very rarely see anyone actually do this

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NM. Wrong thread.

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Well said. Couldn't have put it any better.

bagger05 said:

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With the recent addition of the option to drop in the fairway with a two-stroke penalty for lost ball or OB, don't see any reason to go back to the tee.

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Doesn't this require a local rule?

I typically will hit a provisional if any possibility of lost or OB.

Yea it does require a local rule. I've seen it posted in several pro shops but if I'm playing a casual round I consider myself to be "the committee." So I always play it posted or not.

casual group depends on how suicidal the player is by that point...every once in a while, we'll throw the guy a bone if it's one of those days and not for money

thankfully my group is cool about free no penalty drop for those balls that magically disappear when it's fairway or short rough and everyone saw the ball in the air and even landing sometimes and you pull up and it's just mysteriously gone. We've all lost so many of those and it's always so weird. Sure, there's the occasional ones where it's likely another group picked up the ball, but I'm talking about the days when course is wide open and ball simply disappears.

I'd still argue they get free drops. Spotters aren't something everyone gets, at the first Houston open I was a spotter on 16 and had to go find Dylan fritelis ball in the woods. Not a single non pro would have found that ball from the tee box but he found it and was able to get it out without a penalty

terradactylexpress said:

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I'd still argue they get free drops. Spotters aren't something everyone gets, at the first Houston open I was a spotter on 16 and had to go find Dylan fritelis ball in the woods. Not a single non pro would have found that ball from the tee box but he found it and was able to get it out without a penalty

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So he was able to pick it up and drop it out of the woods w/o penalty? What rule applies there?

bdgol07 said:

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Some of you guys are really hung up on trying to beat a game that is truly unbeatable.

Enjoy the round, don't hold up pace of play, you're not breaking a course record once your ball goes OB anyways, so who cares if you drop in the fairway because it isn't a local rule?

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It's like I told my pro one time, "I thought I had a shot at the course record until my second shot on hole no. 1."