This is about hypocrisy, and what should be done about it. The USGA has recently sent out a message stressing the importance of keeping a good pace of play, but then in the same message it states courses or committees cannot waive a rule for pace of play. Well, I guess it must not be that important after all. To them it makes more sense to follow illogical rules than to have good pace of play. The message says courses or committees should not allow a drop area near a water hazard that happens to be closer to the green than the point where a ball would enter the water. Nor should it be allowed to establish a stroke limit on a hole. Well I guess some poor hapless soul who is having trouble getting the ball airborne is going to have to stay there all day until a shot clears the water hazard or he runs out of balls, too bad about the pace of play for everyone else. Then the message said wooded areas should not be marked as a water hazard because it does not fit the definition. So if you lose a ball in the woods and did not hit a provisional, you must march back to the spot where the original stroke was played and hit again, instead of just dropping where the ball entered the woods, which would save a lot of time. So what should be done about this? Revise any rule that hurts pace of play. For example, create a new rule called Ball Out Of Play, which would replace the separate rules for water hazards, out of bounds, unplayable lies, and lost balls. Think about it, if a ball is out of play, and you are already getting a penalty for that, why should it matter how or the ball went out of play or what color the stakes are? In all those cases, just drop at the nearest point where the ball went out of play, one stroke penalty, and play on. So what if the drop has to be a little closer to the hole, you already have suffered a penalty so big deal, it is not going to affect anyone’s score. This would help pace of play because there would never be a need to replay a shot or to hit a provisional.

Joe,
I am right handed and I have read and heard so many times that the putting stroke is supposed to keep the right hand out of the stroke. I do not understand why. That is like telling me if I want to roll a ball, not to use my right hand. Please explain.
Tony

Hi Tony,
I like your analogy, you raise a good point, why should you not use your dominant hand? Because the back hand supplies power to a swing, this power sometimes creeps into the delicate touch needed to putt on very fast greens. That is why you see some pros use the claw grip so there is no chance that the back hand can overpower the other hand. This does not mean you cannot roll the ball with the back hand. Look at the way Zach Johnson putts. He leans the handle of the putter back behind the ball. This does two things for him. It allows a better view of the clubface to square it up to the target line, and it also reduces the tendency to flip the back wrist, because it is already in a flipped position. This allows a feeling of rolling the ball with the back hand without extra power creeping in to ruin the stroke. By the way, I also use this method and it seems to work well. Good luck and roll on.
Joe