Joe,
if you are not sure if you hit a ball out of play, if it is a yellow stake you cannot take a provisional, you have to take a drop and play on, but if it is a white stake you are allowed a provisional or else you have to go back to the tee and play it over. Since the ball may be out of play in either case, why is there a difference? Why is it you cannot take a provisional for a yellow stake?
Answer: For the same reason in North Dakota, it is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on. It is dumb but true, you can look it up. This means if you are not sure that your shot cleared a pond with yellow stakes, you have to walk all the way around the pond to see if you can find your ball. If you cannot, you must walk all the way back and drop behind the pond, no provisional is allowed for yellow stakes, only white ones. This means if you are in North Dakota, you can possibly get arrested for falling asleep due to the slow play this dumb rule can cause, unless you remember to take your shoes off first.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Joe,
I read somewhere that the rule makers are thinking of reducing the number of clubs allowed in your bag from 14 to 10. What do you think of this idea?
Tanaka
Hello Tanaka,
I like the idea because it adds another level of skill required to adjust your swing with the same club rather than using the same cookie cutter swing for an entire set of clubs. However, I do not think the club manufacturers will allow this, they want to sell more clubs, even if all of them are not necessary. I would like to see the limit even lower than 10. Francis Ouimet used only 7 clubs to win the 1913 US Open, and Richard occasionally suggests during the off season you might do just as well playing with only 8 clubs. I put this to the test myself and found Richard and Francis were right, you can play just as well with half a set. Driver, putter, sand wedge, pitching wedge, 8 iron, 6 iron, and a hybrid 4. Whenever my distance to the green was in between clubs, it was not a problem to compensate by either swinging a little easier with more club, or adjusting the grip to a little weaker or stronger position and playing for a fade or draw. You can learn a lot about your swing this way. Walking is good exercise. No need for a pull cart, the bag was much easier to carry, in fact I was able to use a tiny Sunday bag, as light as a feather like a quiver for arrows. You might ask, what about the lob wedge? Well, for most people, unless you are really good with the LW, it can cost you more strokes than it can save you. Most people can pitch just as well or better with the SW. What about fairway woods? Based on what I have seen, most people can hit a hybrid 4 as well or better than any fairway wood or long iron. What about the missing irons? Not very many people hit all their irons equally well anyway because even in a matched set the shafts are all different lengths. If you carry only your favorite irons, and they happen to be either the even numbers or the odd numbers, you might have more confidence in each shot. Those of you who have the guts to try this might be in for a big surprise. For example, the next time you have a mediocre front 9 with all 14 clubs and your total score will not be important, use only the half set for the back 9 and put some excitement back into the round to see if you can beat your front 9 score with that half set. Have fun with this experiment.
Joe
I read somewhere that the rule makers are thinking of reducing the number of clubs allowed in your bag from 14 to 10. What do you think of this idea?
Tanaka
Hello Tanaka,
I like the idea because it adds another level of skill required to adjust your swing with the same club rather than using the same cookie cutter swing for an entire set of clubs. However, I do not think the club manufacturers will allow this, they want to sell more clubs, even if all of them are not necessary. I would like to see the limit even lower than 10. Francis Ouimet used only 7 clubs to win the 1913 US Open, and Richard occasionally suggests during the off season you might do just as well playing with only 8 clubs. I put this to the test myself and found Richard and Francis were right, you can play just as well with half a set. Driver, putter, sand wedge, pitching wedge, 8 iron, 6 iron, and a hybrid 4. Whenever my distance to the green was in between clubs, it was not a problem to compensate by either swinging a little easier with more club, or adjusting the grip to a little weaker or stronger position and playing for a fade or draw. You can learn a lot about your swing this way. Walking is good exercise. No need for a pull cart, the bag was much easier to carry, in fact I was able to use a tiny Sunday bag, as light as a feather like a quiver for arrows. You might ask, what about the lob wedge? Well, for most people, unless you are really good with the LW, it can cost you more strokes than it can save you. Most people can pitch just as well or better with the SW. What about fairway woods? Based on what I have seen, most people can hit a hybrid 4 as well or better than any fairway wood or long iron. What about the missing irons? Not very many people hit all their irons equally well anyway because even in a matched set the shafts are all different lengths. If you carry only your favorite irons, and they happen to be either the even numbers or the odd numbers, you might have more confidence in each shot. Those of you who have the guts to try this might be in for a big surprise. For example, the next time you have a mediocre front 9 with all 14 clubs and your total score will not be important, use only the half set for the back 9 and put some excitement back into the round to see if you can beat your front 9 score with that half set. Have fun with this experiment.
Joe
