In the photo above, the lie is so ridiculous that it looks like a joke. It’s not.
It actually happened during a recent tournament in which a friend of the etiquetteist was participating.
Talk about bad luck. Line a drive across the fairway, and your ball doesn’t go into a grass hole on the divot itself.
Not fair, right? But life isn’t always fair. And neither does golf.
Sometimes you get what you get and you have no right to get angry. In any case, you have no right to do anything about it. The game guidelines make this clear. Under Rule 9.1a, a “ball at rest on the course shall be played as it lies” except when the Rules allow relief.
Relieving is not permitted if a tuft of turf has become loose.
The same applies if your ball lands in a grass surface. Bad lie? Shame. Some people think that rule should change. Among them: Bernhard Langer. In a 2022 interview with GOLF.com, the Ageless One argued that “we should stop using divots” because “divots are made by us.”
Former longtime broadcaster Peter Kostis takes a similar position.
“If a sand-filled divot isn’t cut into repair,” he once said, “I don’t know what those words mean.”
The counterargument holds that changing the rule to allow divot relief would lead the game down a slippery slope. What exactly qualifies as a divot? On this issue, the thinking goes, certain golfers will undoubtedly disagree. Within a matter of time, players would seek relief from the smallest of imperfections. And from there: anarchy!
The etiquettelist agrees. He believes the rule should remain as it is. But that doesn’t mean it has to apply in every round we play.
To borrow from Bobby Jones, there is tournament golf and regular golf, and they are not the same at all. They should also not be treated the same. In regular golf we, together with our friends, have to do our best to play by the rules. But when downright ridiculous scenarios arise – like the lie in the photo above, for example – and there is no need to protect the field; reason must prevail.
Can there be disagreements about what counts as ridiculous? Sure, that could be possible. But in most cases, golfers playing in an informal match are able to reach an agreement. And if they can’t, they take the fight to the bar after the round, which is entertaining in itself.
If you’re determined to avoid these types of disputes, it’s best to determine the terms of your contest before you begin. Make it explicit on the first tee that no matter what happens, no matter how absurdly bad a lie is, you will play it the way it lies.
That also has potential advantages, because you never know what might happen next. You might end up with a memorable story.
That’s what happened to the man the etiquettelist mentioned above. He stuck to the rules, playing his approach from the loose toupee of grass and hitting it onto the green from 185 yards out.
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