The Greatest Shot you have ever hit.....

First topic message reminder :

Played 9 on Monday evening with a friend. The 16th (played the back 9) is a long par 5 with about a 20 yard wide fairway lined by huge trees either side (meaning it looks like you are playing down a tunnel) a pond which runs from 150yds out all the way to the green on the left and the right handside of the green has a sharp run off with 2 deep bunkers.
I always play a long/mid iron off the tee - lay up with a mid iron and then have a short iron or wedge 3rd shot in.
My playing partner (a 3 handicapper to my 4) were playing matchplay and I was one up on the tee. I hit a solid 3 iron down the middle which meant that unless I 3 putted or hit a terrible 3rd from 100 yards the worst I was really going to do was par. Knowing he needed a birdie to get back into the match he hit driver and pulled it slightly into the trees leaving himself about 230 out of rough over the pond with a large oak tree blocking his view of the green. Sensible shot would be to punch out to 150ish. But he went for the green with a 2i. He struck it pure, started over the pond and cut back about 10yards before pitching just short and running up to about 10feet. he turned and said to me "That's the greatest shot iv ever hit"

It got me thinking... whats the greatest shot iv ever hit? Personally I would go for a shot in a more pressured situation than a matchplay 9 holes with a mate for a few quid. eventually I cam3 up with 2 but for different reasons..
1.) A holed Gap Wedge on our 13th in the final round of our club champs 9 years ago. I was 2 behind at the time with the trophy being between me and playing partner who had both shot 69s to be 5 clear of the field after day 1. I had bogeyed the previous 2 holes and was starting to fall away with holes running out. Playing Partner hit it to 40feet beyond the pin which was cut on the front of a green that slopes back to front. I remember saying to myself "this has to go close" I had 130 no wind from a nice lie, hit a full GW which never left the flag, one bounce and in. I made eagle to his 3 putt bogey and went on to win by 3 in the end. I think it was my greatest shot because despite it being a GW from 120 from the fairway to an easy pin, I hit the ball absolutely perfect (line distance) and it was in a pressure situation with everything (at my level) on the line

2.) A 5i out of heavy rough to about 10feet in a friendly sunday morning game last summer. I blocked my tee shot on 17 and had 180ish to the green blocked out by trees on the right with more trees left of the green and jungle long. Really a pitch out and a wedge on was the shot but I didn't really have a score going so went for it. Ball at the back of my stance I drilled a low stinger out under the branches started the ball about 40 yards left of target and cut it back towards the green, it pitched on the front and rolled up to about 10feet.
I think this was one of the greatest because of the difficulty... horrible lie, had to move the ball miles in the air and had to keep it low for the first 50 yards. If I played it 100 times I would probably not hit the green again.

I cant pick which is my best shot because they were both for different reasons and under different circumstances. (That's probably another thread about "what makes a great shot!"

Anyway.... lets hear them then.......... What is your greatest shot!?!?

Roller_Coaster wrote:In equity (Rule 1-4) the provisional ball becomes the ball in play as soon as A picks it out of the hole, provided his original ball has not already been found in bounds within five minutes of B starting to search for it."

As far as decisions go I find that very sloppily worded as I can see a couple of different interpretations

To me though it means if player A sprints down the hole and picks the provisional out of the hole before his opponents even have chance to start looking for the first ball, then the provisional becomes the ball in play.The 5 minutes seems to be a secondary clause in the argument

Others here see to read it the other way that the five minutes still takes precedence. Not the way I read it but I can see it's still open to interpretation

I saw on a ball commercial it being said "All golfers make great shots, we (professionals) just make more." Even a crap golfer like me has thought to myself on rare occasions 'even Tiger would have been proud of that one.'

Davie wrote:

Roller_Coaster wrote:In equity (Rule 1-4) the provisional ball becomes the ball in play as soon as A picks it out of the hole, provided his original ball has not already been found in bounds within five minutes of B starting to search for it."

As far as decisions go I find that very sloppily worded as I can see a couple of different interpretations

To me though it means if player A sprints down the hole and picks the provisional out of the hole before his opponents even have chance to start looking for the first ball, then the provisional becomes the ball in play.The 5 minutes seems to be a secondary clause in the argument

Others here see to read it the other way that the five minutes still takes precedence. Not the way I read it but I can see it's still open to interpretation

I don't see any possible misinterpretation of the rule. It is 100% crystal clear.

The clause starting with "provided" is an adverbial clause modifying the verb becomes. Similarly to adverbs, adverbial clauses usually answer questions such as: Why? How? When? Under what circumstances?

Perhaps if it was worded in a slightly different order you would have no difficulty. ie

Provided his original ball has not already been found in bounds within five minutes of B starting to search for it, in equity (Rule 1-4) the provisional ball becomes the ball in play as soon as A picks it out of the hole.

Yours in pedantry

I'm with Davie - I read the rule as written to be saying there are two conditions that trigger the provisional ball to become the ball in play:

1. the original ball is not found in bounds within 5 minutes of beginning to search for it.
OR
2. the player picks the provisional ball out of the hole.

Am I wrong? I'll only accept yes or no answers

yes  

Eyetoldyouso wrote:
I don't see any possible misinterpretation of the rule.

You do now .. at least two of us have misinterpreted it - or you have   

The key word is 'provided'. The ball in play (yes I know it's been holed out, but you know what I mean) is the one in the hole PROVIDED that you haven't found the first one in the five minutes allowed. Rushing up to the hole to pick the ball out isn't going to help. If you find the first one, that's the one in play. If you don't then the holed out ball is the one that scores.

Davie wrote:

Eyetoldyouso wrote:
I don't see any possible misinterpretation of the rule.

You do now .. at least two of us have misinterpreted it - or you have   

I'll content myself with knowing that at least two people have learnt something new