just wondering if it's cool to improve your lie in the fairway. i joined a fun bunch of guys that play once a week. their longstanding rule was "it's okay to move the ball in the fairway". i have always played the ball as it lies and continue to do so. i really don't think it would change scores much unless it was in a divot. should these scores be posted?

as the top flite gamer commerical says "CHEATING"

I play at a muni with really bad fairways.. So sometimes we play the ball up in the fairway...

wong, it's wrong... (Sorry, couldn't pass it up.)

If you are going to post your score for handicap purposes it is absolutely unacceptable to break ANY of the Rules. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

If you are going to roll your ball, you might as well just give each other all the putts within 10 feet, too. Oh yeah, and hit 2 or 3 off the first tee. How about hand toss from greenside bunkers? Hit the ball OB? Go ahead and just drop one up by where it went out and only take 1 stroke penalty.

Sheesh...

Okay, I'll calm down now...

Negative ghost rider.....i wouldn't post those scores. I second lebabnon on this.

Close the thread unless you like to read over and over that improving lies is absolutely lame.

enough said. that's always been my gut feeling. however, i'm not going to pipe up or they might kick me out of the group or bury me under an oak tree on the 6th hole.

During my Highschool meet when our course was in the best condition it could possibly be in we played winter rules a.k.a move the ball in your own fairway, put in mind the fairways are terrible. So now I always move the ball in what the greenskeepers call the fairway but it really contains any species besides pure weedless grass.

I will second that. I'd like some of you to come play my home course, most of you wouldn't consider teeing off; so don't judge those of us that are playing off dirt in the fairway and would like to find at least a clump of crabgrass to hit off of. FWIW, I do play it as it lies at all the other courses I play.

With all due respect to a number of posters in this thread (I understand your frustration, really), there is nothing in the rules of golf that suggest that we are entitled to a decent lie in the fairway. If the course condition is awful, then it's awful you have to deal with it. That's just part of the game.

FWIW, there is an option here. If the relevant authority (typically referred to as "the committe" in the ROG and USGA handicap manual) puts in place a local rule providing for preferred lies, you then most definitely have a postable score. Note that, by definition, these local rules would be of "a temporary nature". See section 7-1 of the USGA Handicap Manual (and 7-2 named "Pitfalls in Adopting Preferred Lies").

I certainly have sympathy for this situation. I did not carry a formal handicap as a kid in the 1960's. But I can't imagine playing our course under anything but preferred lies back then. The fairways were not watered and you often faced square yards of bare dirt with scattered dandelions. That is unless an all too rare rain had come through in which case it was square yards of bare mud.

dave

I say keep the thread open because I love to read over and over that improving lies is lame.

The problem with this is (and it may not apply to you) is that once you start this it would be hard to stop even if you are playing a great course, I know because my BIL (brother in law) does it all the time! Perfect lie and then looks at it and moves it even if it ends in the same place, so don't make a habit of it, it's wrong and a bad habit.