Elimination of drop

[John Morrissett]

Dennis -

Great to hear from you. We thought you might be interested in this project.

I think the public would be willing to accept this change, perhaps in part because many/most would not object to receiving the occasional better lie themselves (just as many would not object to a tax cut for themselves).

The elimination of dropping certainly moves away from the philosophical point that luck (good and bad) should be part of the game. However, it also removes a source of great confusion from the Rules (When do I drop? When do I place? How do I drop? Who may drop? When do I re-drop? When do I drop twice and then place? When do I keep dropping until I get it right?)

Given the improved conditioning of courses these days and the more uniform conditions, the impact of dropping (with regards to the type of lie a player will receive) is perhaps less significant than it was decades ago.

David and I retained the area in which the player is to place a ball (i.e., he is not required to place the ball AT the appropriate reference point) as we could envision endless arguments over whether the correct reference point is there or a couple of inches away. The retention of larger area (one or two club-lengths) should remove those arguments.

The "most similar lie" approach you suggest would seem to be a happy middle ground, but it would introduce a wrinkle and a somewhat subjective decision. For the sake of simplicity (the overriding theme of the project) we did not add that element.

This issue is perhaps the best example of our point that significant simplicity can be achieved only through the acceptance of different results.

I hope you are doing well, and we look forward to your further comments.
John