Kevin Na's 16 at the Texas Open

If you get a spare 5 minutes and want confirmation that your game is just like a tour pro's then check this vid out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWTXoNzuk8c

Wow, at least he seemed able to laugh about it.

He did, his caddie didn't!!

yay, beats my record 13 in competition. i seem to remember that involved 2 OBs off the tee and another off the fairway. vicious bloody hole...

In social games I've picked up long before that point but in medals the worst I've ever done is a 10. Though I did manage that TWICE in my very first ever medal round

i had a 15 once in the junior open at inverness golf club a few years ago. 14th hole i think, about 470 yard par 4, i hit 3 balls o/b from a fairway bunker with a 5 wood. had a score going to add to the misery - ended up shooting 3 or 4 over handicap.

I've never had my handicap as low as 16 (19 was the very best) but I've never carded as high as a 16 either

Maybe I should dig out those clubs this summer after all; when I get them over here that is!

GMac has tweeted about this, and I see it is being discussed over on BBC 606.

The main gist of GMac's comments are as follows...

There should be some change in the laws that allow a "get out" from an unholy mess like this. He had already played 3 off the tee I believe and was in deep do do. His mistake was to attempt a shot from where his ball lay instead of going back to the tee and hitting 5 off the tee.

Once he had taken a swoosh at the ball as it lay, then the "back to the tee" option was no longer available.

Now we can all say that he was stupid to attempt that first shot from nigh impossible conditions, but once he'd taken one attempt he really had no get-out. Unplayable lie would have meant replaying the shot (he was already in deep trouble) ; two club length drop (nowhere to drop); or back in line from the flag (into deeper trouble)

So - given he had made one catastrophic error of judgement, he had NO WAY OUT and could only do what he did which was hack and thrash until he reached a palce where he could lay a club properly on the ball

GMac's suggestion is that one should ALWAYS be able to go back to the tee adding one penalty shot to however many shots you've played up to that point.

I can't really see any better alternative to that. The only other course of action is to pick your ball up and go home

Can anyone see any other way out?

Looking at the fact that he's not making the cut now option

The only other course of action is to pick your ball up and go home

looks to have been taken anyway

Davie, I agree with your post no. 1000.
What happened to Na doesn't seem fair with all the crazy drop rules otherwise available.

Whenever you have a ridiculous number on the card, it means your course management needs tweaking. Like his caddie said, there was rock in that bush making it harder to chip sideways thus go back to the tee

Surely once he has found it, you can't go back to the tee.!???

SetupDeterminesTheMotion wrote:Surely once he has found it, you can't go back to the tee.!???

If found he ALWAYS has the option of declaring unplayable - and one of the options for an unplayable is to replay previous shot (i.e. back to the tee)

Once he's had a swoosh that option no longer applies

The rule states:

If the player deems his ball to be unplayable, he must under penalty of one stroke:

Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5); or

Drop a ball behind the point where the ball lay, keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind that point the ball may be dropped; or

Drop a ball within two club-lengths of the spot where the ball lay, but not nearer the hole.

So in this case you can return to the tee.

You can always declare it unplayable and take your two club lengths. Then repeat until you can get a stick at it.

Setup.

I think you're referring to this point.

Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5);

The problem with that is that the original ball refers to the point at which the ball was previously hit. If you have a swipe and miss it (or fail to get out) then the original spot is exactly where you are already.

Hence the problem for our bingo number creating friend.

LJ's suggestion seems to be the only one available under the rules at the moment. Keep taking 2 club length drops until you get a place you can play from. That could quickly add up to big numbers too

I think i may be duplicating Setups point surely even after the first go at it he could have declared it unplayable and taken a line back between his ball and the tee all the way to the tee itself??

Davie wrote:LJ's suggestion seems to be the only one available under the rules at the moment. Keep taking 2 club length drops until you get a place you can play from. That could quickly add up to big numbers too

Not if he had a long putter!

MustPuttBetter wrote:I think i may be duplicating Setups point surely even after the first go at it he could have declared it unplayable and taken a line back between his ball and the tee all the way to the tee itself??

No. The dropping back is inline with the flag and where the ball lies. So he would have been going deeper into the Poopie. Although it must be mentioned there is nothing in the rules saying you can't go back far enough that you get to another fairway. And then just flip it over whatever is in your way. Thus saving shots.

As he put into the right hand side of the fairway, and to keep him between the spot & the hole, he would have ended up behind all the trees. maybe there was another fairway out there. But there is no way you could end up at the tee doing that.

He should have under rule 20-5 went back to the tee when he found the ball & declared it there & then that it was unplayable.

Thus playing 5 off the tee as he had already lost one ball.

MustPuttBetter wrote:I think i may be duplicating Setups point surely even after the first go at it he could have declared it unplayable and taken a line back between his ball and the tee all the way to the tee itself??

That, in my experience, is one of the most misunderstood rules in golf.

Many times I've been playing with people who should know better, where there is (for example) thick bushes and trees down the left hand side. A ball is hit off the tee with hook or draw and goes into the bushes.

The ball is found but is more than two club lengths into the rudey poo. Going "as far back as you like" keeping the ball between you and the flag only takes you deeper into the woods. Instead of going back to the tee they think they can go back on a line the ball took INTO the woods.

Pretty simple rule I think but it's amazing the number of experienced(?) players that get it wrong

Ah ha

Cheers guys

Davie

I'm aware of the differing rules but do in honesty get them mixed up as to which applies to which situation.
A deficiency in my golfing knowledge (one of many!)

Can't find a map of this place but looking at google earth I can see that on one of the tracks there is nowhere to go when taking an unplayable backwards.

So basically he had nothing.

Idiot for not recognising he wasn't moving it from there.

Very bad course management....

At the end of the day does it really matter?

He's the archetype of a journeyman. Not won anything and probably never will.

He's out for the money and looks to do pretty well at it. But he's hardly going to set the world on fire playing golf. Unless he goes back to that patch of ground with some matches and a can of petrol.

Am a visionary?

I did bring this very scenario up nearly two years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A57180594

I would say the obvious thing missed in our previous discussion is that you should always play it is it lies and maybe in some very rare cases this means picking up and going home.

I think the rules should be changed in respect of this. G Mac hit the nail on the head, he should have just walked back after declaring an unplayable, but once he went for it .....

In bounce matches with mates, when this happens, rather than mess around and waste time, we just put it down as a 10. Playing your tee shot 3 times or more will probably be a 10 anyway, so why not have a slight rule change that states 3 balls hit from the tee into the cabbage means the player scores a 10 for that hole. Yes I appreciate Na went down for 16 but its hardly fair and is a freak. The John daley situation a few years ago was pure idiocy and he deserved his 15, for doing a 'Tin Cup' over the water.

McLaren wrote:Am a visionary?

I did bring this very scenario up nearly two years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A57180594

Interesting read Mac - I didn't realize 606 kept articles that long.

Your article was from before I started reading/post on the old 606 golf but I'd say you nailed that situation pretty well

"Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5);"

My interpretation of this isn't strictly a "return to the tee". Return to the tee box, yes, but in this situation would a player be able to place the ball back on a tee peg, or does he just have to play it from the same spot from the ground? Does the player have to perform a traditional "drop", or does he replicate the lie?

If the previous shot was played from the 'teeing ground' then you can play it again, and tee it up if you want to. You don't have to tee it up if you don't want to.