Facts

Foremost and Reader JoR were delighted to participate in a four-man Charity Scramble recently at the outstanding Vanderbilt Legends course outside Franklin, Tn. The recipient charity was “High Hopes” , and while the charity itself is not golf-related, its name alone set an aspirational tone for the day at hand, as what golfer ever tees it up without his own “high hopes”?

The Rules format was interesting and designed to promote fast play and and, perhaps, a few more dollars … (1) maximum par on every hole (2) a two-putt maximum (3) multiple mulligans available for purchase. The format suggested low scores would rule the day. F and JoR were counting on their unknown partners to carry them!

Two great guys met F and JoR at their assigned first hole. Player A announced he hadn’t picked up a club in 15 years and promptly whiffed his opening drive. Player B confessed he hadn’t played much golf either, and hopped his drive 20 yards in the direction of the fairway, almost reaching the short grass. F and JoR hit nice drives, but the team-selected second shot as played caught a nasty slope and rolled just off the Par 4 green. The team faced a delicate approach shot up a steeply ascending bank. Player A made nice contact this time, but slammed his putt airborne over the green. Player B whiffed his attempted putt. JoR nestled his chipshot to 20 ft. F stubbed his chip shot which rolled back to his feet. In other words … easy par! The F team was off and running!

After several similar holes (all pars!), the F team finally made its first birdie! F ripped a middling drive (from the senior tees). JoR hit a prodigious 3-wood some 300+ yards to the fringe of a par 5. Player A made a brilliant down-hill 6-foot putt which, despite great velocity, fortunately hit the flagstick, climbed the pole, dropped, and rattled in. The F team was -1 for the day!

Player A’s unexpected and welcome contribution was celebrated by A and B with cigars and a couple of cold ones… not their first. (No worries… they advised …Uber). JoR, pumped up after his massive 3-wood shot on the preceding hole, took a mighty DeChambeauesque swing from the tee box on the ensuing hole. F looked ahead anxiously, shading his eyes with an extended palm, but never saw the ball in flight. JoR sheepishly pointed out the result. He had driven the ball straight into the ground where it was embedded. (F had to pry it out of the ground for photo purposes).

As this drive still had the possibility of being the best drive on this team, F pondered whether an embedded ball from the teeing area, if selected, could be reteed.

Ruling

Note that the teeing area by definition is two club lengths deep, and bounded by the line between the forward edges of the two selected markers to the front and the line extending from the outside edges of the two markers to the side. The teeing area does not include the closely mown grass prepared for other sets of tee markers, but only the two markers at which play was assigned for the player at hand.

The teeing area boundaries established by definition proved critical in reaching this important Ruling. Had JoR’s drive travelled 6-10 inches, the ball would have resided beyond the forward edge of the markers and outside the teeing area. The one inch drive, however, clearly did not breach the forward boundary line of the markers with the ball clearly remaining in the teeing area.

If a player’s ball in play is in the teeing area after a stroke, the player may lift and play that ball or another ball from anywhere in the teeing area, and the ball may be reteed. (R 6.2b(6).

Although the F team ultimately did not have to select this ball for play, all breathed a sigh of relief at the time knowing this option was available. In fact, F’s drive was selected although it had meandered into a fairway bunker. As Player B artfully scraped a tee tower in the sand for his shot, Player A dropped his cigar and a ball and played from outside the bunker (no more bunkers for him, he said).

F is pleased to report his team ultimately scored a par on the hole!

As usual, all comments or corrections are welcome!

Respectfully submitted,

F