Lost or Out of Bounds Ball

[ColonelMac]

(08-20-2013 04:36 PM)aaa Wrote:  The problem would be identifying where you SAW or where it WENT out it in relation to the problem.
Ball struck over dogleg with OB and WH round the corner, out of site. Ball cannot be found. Just where did it go OB? Or did it not go OB but is lost in the WH or just 'lost. Where do you drop?
Where you last saw it may be where it last crossed the fairway towards the trees. I'll take my driver on the tightest holes and then the drop on the fairway, thank you.
Course management. What course management? Smash it and hope, with the safety net of a ball on the edge of the fairway.

That is exactly the problem we have on a number of holes on my home course, blind tee shots and can't see the landing area. We simply make our best "guess", drop it and hit it.

Seems as though the scenario you describe of hitting driver on tightest holes and "hitting and hope" is EXACTLY what the recreational golfer does. So what? As long as the rule affects everyone equally, there's no special advantage. You are still hitting from farther away than if you hit the ball straight down the fairway AND you've already been penalized a stroke.

But, that still doesn't answer the basic question of why you treat a lost ball in a hazard differently than any other lost ball. Why should losing the ball in a water hazard be penalized less severely than losing it in a forest?

THAT's what doesn't make sense to me.