With OB/Lost now more penal than S&D...

[Simonko]

...might this encourage players who haven't found their ball after 2 minutes heading quickly back to play S&D before their 3 minutes up?

With some women being able to shoot a 9 on par 4 and still get a point, I see lots of incentive to take S&D.

Also a player whose ball is just outside the boundary stakes gets zero points, yet his mate clearing the boundary by miles and can't be shown to lie OB could take S&D and go on to score.

[DavidHayes]

Simonko,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our intent was that Rule 21-1 would apply for balls lying on the course and with a known location (including the "broad" location of in a water hazard, obstruction, or abnormal ground condition).

Your interpretation (above) is reasonable yet not what we intended so we have revised Rule 21-1 for clarity. The revised first paragraph of Rule 21-1 and the added Note are highlighted with a dashed border.

I have also created a sub-page in our News section in which I have listed this revision. I'll will edit that file with any future revisions as they occur.

(I have a recollection that John expressed some concern that this would be an issue and that I talked him into thinking it was okay as originally written.)

[Simonko]

The change reads well. I like the concept of 'known location'.