With summer golf in full swing, it's important to get the most out of your golf swing and the best way to do that is through golf fitness and power. Download this FREE Power Golf Fitness pdf for 13 great exercises to enhance your game.

Download the FREE Power Golf Fitness PDF here

Sometimes, when playing a round of golf, you come across a ruling that you just think to yourself, Man, that is a stupid rule.

That is how I feel about the rule of having your ball fall into a divot in your own fairway.

See, my issue is that I don’t think you should be penalized for hitting a well placed shot, especially in your own fairway. Now, if you block it 80 yards right and into a parallel fairway, then sure, you should play it as it lies, but if you pipe one down the middle, perfect position, and your ball falls in a divot, it might be 1 1/2 inches below the fairway and nearly impossible to hit a good shot.

That isn’t fair. I know life isn’t fair, but with the hundreds of rules that currently exist in the USGA, you would think that you would be allowed a free drop in the case that your ball lies in a divot in YOUR fairway.

However, Rules 13-2 pretty much sums it up.

A player must not improve or allow to be improved:

  • the position or lie of his ball,
  • the area of his intended stance or swing,
  • his line of play or a reasonable extension of that line beyond the hole, or
  • the area in which he is to drop or place a ball,

by any of the following actions:

  • .moving, bending or breaking anything growing or fixed (including immovable obstructions and objects defining out of bounds),
  • creating or eliminating irregularities of surface,
  • .removing or pressing down sand, loose soil, replaced divots or other cut turf placed in position, or
  • removing dew, frost or water.

So, the rule will never change, but its one exception that I wish was implemented. I think it would help alot of golfers out.

Posted in: Rules

Trackback this post | Add a Comment