Soft conditions and plugged lies...

[Bigvivec]

So it has been raining a lot lately, and I was faced with a situation today that I have faced in varying degrees over the last few months, but not as severely as today…
There was a tremendous tropical storm last night, and apparently the course was flooded (telltale signs like mud on the grass in the middle of the fairways…the tops of the grass that is…also random garbage like parts of chairs and old vases scattered in the rough…), so needless to say the course was playing “soft”…it would have been a pick and clean day if it was tournament play, and even though the local rules allow it, I still dig it out…which leads me to my issue…

I had a ball plug to the equator about 2 yards off a green today…annoying to say the least as it would have normally been a “good miss” with the hole a good 10 yards away straight uphill from the lie…I wound up doffing the chip trying to finesse it out of the ground with a pw…what would have been your play? I practiced the shot on the edge of the tee box on the next hole waiting on the group ahead to clear the fairway, and I found that hooding the face a bit and playing the ball closer into the body so that the heel of the club is clear of the ground and the toe area is where the ground contact is made spooned it out pretty well…

How do you guys play this on a longer shot? Until I practice it, I would play it the same with increasingly longer irons with a knockdown setup and swing with a supposed max distance limit of around 150ish…

Thoughts?

[JPsuff]

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Well, if it was a fairway lie, I would have simply lifted it and dropped it according to the rules and played on.

25-2. Embedded Ball

A ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in the ground in any closely mown area through the green may be lifted, cleaned and dropped, without penalty, as near as possible to the spot where it lay but not nearer the hole. The ball when dropped must first strike a part of the course through the green. "Closely mown area" means any area of the course, including paths through the rough, cut to fairway height or less.


However, if it is in the fringe or another part of the course other than a fairway, I would hit an explosion-type shot using a wedge with little bounce and striking the ground before the ball similar to the way in which one plays a bunker shot.

I've had this lie a few times because of similar conditions on one of the shoreline courses I play. If the ground is soft enough, this explosion method works well (with some practice). Don't plan on a follow through, but play it with the same force as if you were anticipating one.



-JP

[Bigvivec]

...and bring a change of shirt.....I started with a white shirt today and came back with polka dots (courtesy of yet another tropical soaker overnight)...

Hmmm...it was in the first cut of fringe, but it was at least as short if not shorter than the fairway...

[Darth Fader]

Our greens and the run offs around them are so wet and spongy underfoot that we have a local rule allowing us to move the ball from its plug mark no nearer the hole without penalty