I don’t think the have the ‘call through’ part of etiquette in the US Mashie! 
Makes perfect sense RR 
Rats have always preferred their holes humid and dark…
(Settle down CaptainChaos )
Seeing this a RULES THREAD and not just TRGA talk, I want to pose 2 rule situations I have observed up close and personal.
- Myself at Riversdale Cup 1987 (Big amateur event)
I was in 2nd place in the event going into the final round so we had a bit of gallery being in the last group. The 6th hole at Riversdale, A par 5…VERY TIGHT driving hole, thru a chute that looks like a thimble for about 100 yards from the tee before it opens out a little. They have marshals in place to watch the tee shots. I hit my ball a shade right from the tee. I get up there and ask the marshal if he saw my ball… He says “Yep…that’s it right there stuck up in that tree”… I look up about 10 feet and my ball is lodged in the tree. … So I ask him “Are you sure that’s my ball?”…which he replies “Yes, I caught it in flight and watched it smack into the tree there and drop down a few branches and get stuck right there in the fork of that tree”… to which my playing partners all agree seeing we had first hand recognition of what happened.
So I take a vertical line downwards from where the ball is and take a penalty drop with my clublength and play on, chipping it out then eventually making a bogey 6.
As I make the turn a rules official comes up and says that ‘an off duty official/referee’ !!! was watching me play that hole and didn’t think I really deemed that ball to be mine because I didn’t climb the tree or use binoculars 
to identify the ball…so I should have taken a lost ball and gone back to the tee… Now as I had finished the hole and teed off on Hole 7 without rectifying the drop I am now DISQUALIFIED.
FAIR RULE? Yes or No
- Greg Norman 1989 Palm Meadows Cup
I was playing 2nd last group on Saturday with Mike Harwood. Norman and Curtis Strange were final group. As I was on the practice green word comes in that Norman was getting disqualified for taking a wrong penalty drop during the second round and since he signed his card without rectifying he was now DISQUALIFIED.
Apparently on Hole 1 (his 10th) of the 2nd round he hit his approach left of the green into the hazard. he took his drop and chipped onto the green and made a bogey 5. However someone on television called in (that night!!!) and said the back of his right heel was standing on the hazard line so he hadn’t taken full relief from the hazard with his drop and should have re-dropped…
So now he is done- disqualified and finished for the event because his heel was touching a piece of grass that had red paint on it
FAIR RULE? Yes or No
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Thats crazy, all you had to do was point out to him what steps you had taken to confirm it was your ball and what the marshall said. I don’t see how any tournament director would DQ you under these circumstances. What age were you? Pretty sure the same off duty guy would not DQ you these days!
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No, completely unfair and due to what has happened recently with Villegas and Porridge, something the R&A and USGA need to do something about. There should be room for ‘honest mistakes’ and armchair fans should not be able to get players DQ’ed. As has been said, penalise the players appropriately and let them play on, do not kick them out of the tournament.
I would say the worst example ever was when Parnevik and Mark Roe were DQ’ed from The Open for forgetting to swap cards. They had recorded the cprrect scores but on the wrong cards. For journeyman pro Mark Roe, it mean’t he failed to play in one of the last groups with Tiger which would have been one of the highlights of his career
On 1) To me if there is no “on duty” rules official with the group the players in that group should be regarded as having the authority to agree the ruling by consensus.
On 2) My main issue is with the DQ after the incorrect score is signed. Either the signing of the card should be final and no issues can be introduced subsequently or if issues can be introduced (before the next round starts say) then a penalty shot can be added rather than the DQ coming into effect.
Just my two penneth.
Cheers, Arnie
Just a query, how many of us actually carry a copy of the rules when we are playing?
Personally, I do. Its not often it has to be brought out, but it is there just in case. In addition, our pro is a qualified referee so whenever there is doubt I whip out the mobile phone and buzz him for help.
Not me!
Ian Poulter on Twitter about the Harrington DQ incident:
‘Rules of Golf Book Rule 22-4 paragraph 3 line 7, “the rules of golf are complete bollocks and are stuck back in 1932”. Couldn’t agree more’
Common Ian say what you really feel! 
Ron Sirak has been in inspired form on twitter today
What every golf bag needs… a portable periscope. Sorry Two, couldn’t help myself.
Yep…I can’t remember the last time I carried binoculars in my bag to get myself out of a ball in tree episode…although now they “LET” you use Bushnells and such also as amateurs in most events, I may have had a way out by zooming in on the ball
I was about 19, maybe 20… the guy in question was a New South Wales golf official who was helping with the tournament in a rules capacity… he was watching in an ‘off duty’ capacity… I was neck and neck with another player who happened to be from New South Wales…I was from Victoria… he stood there and watched as we went through the drop and discussion…said nothing…and then walked back to the clubhouse and reported it… you read whatever you want into how that was played out
Yep…that’s sort of what we are talking about here… more often than not the penalty doesn’t fit the crime in this bizarre incidents which in my mind means the rules are ridiculous and need serious looking at
Yes…that was stupid too. Two scorecards - two separate scores put down- two different signatures… makes little sense
Add Harrington to this group now. Just tuned in to the HSBC Euro event to see Harrington has been DQ due to an overnight viewer call in. Apparently he replaced his marked ball on the green but it didn’t settle exactly into the same depression. The viewer claimed it moved 1-2 dimples. Harrinton wasn’t even looking and said his alignment marks looked the same when he looked down but he didn’t disagree in the end after reviewing the footage. His comment (paraphrase): “It would have been pointless to call an official over because the official would have just asked me where the ball was and I would have said ‘there’ (the spot it was currently sitting)”.
Drop it right back in the bag and go have a drink at the 19th hole. Rules threads always end up long drawn out affairs. At least this one is civil.
My 2 cents. I like the keep the pin in rule because when I do go out for a quick 9 alone…I don’t pull the pins. The scorecard rule is a keeper too. Like hell if I’d let my opponent keep my score…with some of the scurrilous jack-a-napes I’ve played with in the past - I wouldn’t trust them to clean my clubs let alone be my marker!
I do not like the tap down spike marks rule only because I know some worthless golf equipment vendor will come out with a spike mark roller to put in your bag along with the ball retrievers and PING Chip-O!
Cheers,
Captain Chaos
God only knows how many rounds “Hoganut” and I have played together…I think the only time we ever pulled a flag stick was when joined by another player…
We may have been playing TRGA rules without knowing it! 
bent
Here is another line of sight issue.
Suppose you are on a hole that has water from tee to green along one side similar to 16 at Augusta.
One player lands it on the front of the green right at the pin, a great shot really, but backs it back into the water.
The second player cold tops it into the lake right off the tee.
Should they really both be dropping it in the same place because of "point of entry line of sight?
The TRGA version would at least reward the forward progress made by the first player. Better rule in my opinion.
Here is another topic for debate at the next TRGA rules meeting.
Nothing nicer than being able to carry 4 shining persimmons in the bag with both a 1 and 2 iron.
Use of exacting yardage booklets and pin placement sheets will also be discussed because it should be argued that sighting distances should be an integral part of the game. Camouflage bunkering was an integral part of old school course architecture which has now been basically made irrelevant with laser scopes and yardage books.
Much of the intent of TRGA is to help protect the golf course itself so that par remains a reasonable yardstick for a proper round of golf.
I agree it was a generalization… as I got the impression you were generalizing that NO ONE who plays where you do takes an incorrect drop, hits (and uses) a mulligan, doesn’t move his ball back if it was put back down on the green within 1 dimple of where it was originally marked, uses a 460 cc driver (whoops, that’s right, those are legal), etc.
I didn’t use the word “cheating” as I believe the majority of the time the golfer does it out of ignorance of the rules, or the golfer simply is out to “enjoy the day”. I also don’t think it happens AS MUCH in comps or in tournament golf because it’s a different setting and every player has a duty to “protect the field”. But I’m certain it happens as I’ve seen it (and had to call it) and have heard from others (amateurs AND pro’s). At the same time I’ve had golfers call penalties on themselves that no one else in the group would have known about.
robbo
BTW - I couldn’t attach a copy of “Decisions on The Rules of Golf” as they apparently haven’t put the 752 pages in PDF form yet.
This is crazy going on about this! As I have already pointed out, in those circumstances, the player has 3 options, line of sight is an option not a rule!!!