Curiosity raised from Tiger's round yesterday where he was in the wrong fairway a couple of times. On one of the holes, his approach shot came within 8 feet of the pin and of course, everyone went crazy.

It may be a little tougher to see the pin and you may have a somewhat disadvantageous line (or a better one...) but the lie is perfect.

So if you hit a drive 10 yards off you are likely to be severely punished in the trees/rough/bad lie, but if you hit a drive 40 yards off there's a good chance you'll be minimally penalized, in that all you need to do is pace off the yardage since most courses have holes placed side by side.

Do you think there should be a penalty for being in the wrong fairway?

Not unless you cross the white stakes...

I see where you are coming from but I dont think a penalty is warranted or necessary.

tiger also played from different fairways in winning his early green jacket(s)...

given the equipment rule changes to rein in the grooves on wedges, and Jack Nicklaus' call for new rules on the golf ball...all in an effort to combat the crazy distances on tour now, perhaps a rule change to penalize you if you play from the wrong fairway will achieve more than any new equipment rule amendment. it almost brings in the "links golf" element to the parkland courses...i.e. it forces you to think on the tee, and to even hit irons off the tee instead of driver. very interesting thought this...very...i'll vote for a YES on this.

LOL..funny how it only becomes a poll question if it's Tiger..as if he invented hitting from wrong fairways LOL..

Isn't there no such thing as "in-course" out of bounds according to the USGA? I know some courses will use a local rule making fairways on another hole OB to keep players from purposely hitting into another fairway. I can't imagine the PGA Tour ever adopting such a local rule.

Sure, and we should lift clean and place from the woods

Hitting another fairway is just the breaks - sometimes your bad shots end up crappy, sometimes they end up great. Ever hit a skanky little toped shot that ends up perfect? Should we penalize that?

Luck is just part of the game (and life). On another course or hole the same shot ends up in the water or the woods.

so many courses here in Florida don't have the fairways running next to them. I watched that when Tiger did hit the wrong fairway and thought how nice that would be. Most the courses I play run through neighborhoods. If you hit it off the fairway too far you are OB on just about every hole.

+1

I live on the wrong fairways. As long as it's still in play, you can keep lashing away.

how about the wrong hole's rough, do you get penalized 2 shots?
if someone is consistantly hitting it so wayward that they're getting on the wrong fairway on a regular basis chances are they're going to pay for it more times than not during the round

I see your point, but I don't know if I necessarily agree the fact that its luck due to the fact that the player is aware that there is a fairway there. If there was water or woods, the probability of taking an iron off tee and having to play the disadvantage of a shorter tee shot becomes much higher.

The little topped shots that end up perfect are indeed a lucky part of the game, but how often do you see the pros doing that? "These guys are good" right? If their approach shot is 10 yards off target, they're in the sand or over the green. If their drive is 15 yards off line, they're in the rough or near the trees. So accordingly, if they're 40 yards off line, shouldn't they be classified as OB or something? Lucky would be bouncing off a rock in the other fairway and back into your own, no?

Isn't that the point to the game? If the designer of the course wanted the player to have to make that choice he would have designed the hole differently. Remember, its still a bad shot. It has to actually make it to the fairway, not the woods, not the other hole's rough, not any number of other ugly things that might happen.


I have seen approach shots 10 yards offline and be in the water, and I have seen them be 15 yards off line and hit a rock in the water and bounce up. Should the player have to toss the ball back into the water because he was lucky? Lucky is hitting shot so badly that it ends up 40 yards offline rather than 25 and in the woods. It isn't as if the players try to hit the ball badly. You're talking about being 40 yards offline on one hole where it becomes and advantage... what about the other times the same player has hit it 40 yards offline and had to simply punch out (or be lost in the rough at the Open)?

If you are going to punish a player for a stroke of luck, then you need to find a way to make all luck equitable - both bad and good. When a player gets a bad kick, you'll have to return it to the line it was on, when the player skips across the water you'll need to pick up and toss it in the water, when the ball hits a sprinkler head and bounds over the green instead of rolling up and on you'll have to place the ball on the green, when a player hits a ball 40 yard offline and it hits a tree and it bounces out of the woods and onto the fairway you'll have to throw it back.

Luck is part of the game. You can't punish a player because it happens to go in his favor on a particular hole or try and sort out which luck is acceptable and which isn't. Tiger was lucky the fairway was where it was on that particular hole, and the fairway was in the same place for the rest of the players in the field. It wasn't some special advantage that any single player received.

I think it is just how the course is designed. And and in this instance, Tiger had to hit a great shot to get to the green to overcome his terrible drive. If the trees are taller, more dense etc etc who knows how the holes would have played, whether he would have been caught up on the drive or the 2nd shot back over. Anyway, for the average golfer, being in the wrong fairway is a 1 stroke penalty in general.

I played golf recently and was in the wrong fairway 3 times and managed to make par 2 times, and bogey on the other. I think that just because you arent in the designated fairway, doesnt mean you should be penalized as long as you are in bounds.

and there is a ton of luck involved in golf, hitting rocks and bouncing one way or the other, etc etc, just part of the game.

I agree with the above post, you can't penalize luck. The only way it would be enforceable is if people were intentionally hitting the other fairway to cut a dogleg or something, but even that is no good because I like to do that

For you to say that at least 1 of 2 things must be true
1- Getting into a ball to you means you hit it 225 yards downhill
2- You hate how good Tiger Woods is and no matter how good he is, it pains you so much that you search all you can to try to find a flaw
JUST ENJOY WHAT IS POSSIBLY THE BEST ATHLETE OF OUR LIVES!!!!!!!

YES, YES, YES, YES!! YOU GOT IT!!!!!!!!

Funny thing... I am a teaching professional, and play golf with my 5 year old daughter often, maybe 3 -4 times a week on HER request... Just the other day she was watching with me when TIGER the GREAT slammed his club and started his famous "GD it, Tiger." My daughter new to this world, and new to this game asked me... "daddy, why does Tiger throw his clubs?" YEAH, GREAT ROLE MODEL!!!! As good as he is IN this sport is as BAD as he is for the youth of this sport. You can give and give, but kids don't see that, they learn by actions, and imitation! I played with a fresh faced 14 year old boy full of talent who flung his club after he hit a poor tee ball. I asked why he felt it necessary to throw his club and he told me he was just leting out frustration like Tiger woods does so he could move on to the next shot without it in his head... MAN, How did JACK, ARNIE, the HAIG, the HAWK, or BYRON EVER GET BY??? GIVE ME A BREAK ON TIGER

Not that it has anything to do with this thread, but you do realize that you are her parent, right? You're the role model, not Tiger. It's your job to explain right and wrong, not Tiger's.

Why don't you take it to any of the other dozen or so threads on this very topic? We can discuss it there.

where did you come up with such a crazy idea ??????? the next time you hit a wayword shot give yourself a 2 shot penalty just for principle , and as always this is becoming a what's wrong with what tiger did today , i guess it is just another thing im over here is stupid rule change requests and hating on everything that Tiger does, says ect , i know i sound like a broken record but in my lifetime here on this site i just wish some of the people who write things on this board to trash people should look in the mirror and ask if they ever swear of do anything in a quick moment of anger or any thing that someone else would call questionable , remember NO ONE is perfect , especially you or i

Not that it has anything to do with this thread, but you do realize that you are her parent, right? You're the role model, not Tiger. It's your job to explain right and wrong, not Tiger's.

Why don't you take it to any of the other dozen or so threads on this very topic? We can discuss it there.
[/quote]


HeadonaStick- You are my MVP today!
Im 27 years old- Grew up idolizing #56 LT- I dont use coke because my parents taught me it was wrong.

BallzOut - You as a teaching professional should know that the popularity of Golf without Tiger Woods would severly hurt your pocket. EMBRACE HIM for who and what he is- I promise he won't be around forever!
Anytime Tiger tees it up in a PGA event, a camera is in his face for every shot. Is he the only hitting fairways on other holes? Is the only one tossing clubs? Is he the one taking someones spot in a tournament and shooting an 88?

I wouldn't have any problem having a penalty tied to using a parallel fairway, for what ever the reason, but the rules of golf don't support such a penalty stroke. So, I don't' see a debatable subject since what's said here makes no never mind when it comes to playing golf by the rules.

Sir,
My point is not that IM NOT her role model, of course I am, SHE doesnt throw clubs. My thread is in responce to the remark of "For you to say that at least 1 of 2 things must be true
1- Getting into a ball to you means you hit it 225 yards downhill
2- You hate how good Tiger Woods is and no matter how good he is, it pains you so much that you search all you can to try to find a flaw
JUST ENJOY WHAT IS POSSIBLY THE BEST ATHLETE OF OUR LIVES!!!!!!!"

of the previous thread.. But thank you for your advice, Ill try harder to be my daughters ROLE MODEL... DOLT!

And I repeat
You hate how good Tiger Woods is and no matter how good he is, it pains you so much that you search all you can to try to find a flaw

If i were to show you pictures of Nicklaus throwing his club in frustration, would it shock you? or perhaps just par for the course?
Stay a teaching pro..but hold on advise to your students about how to compete..you might just curb their enthusiasm.

Yikes, easy turbo, I don't hate how good Tiger is at all, he's one of my favorite players! This isn't a Tiger bashing thread, I only started this thread because seeing all the coverage about his shot from the next fairway got me curious as to what people's opinion on the matter was, hence the poll.... It was simply the easiest and most recent example is all. calmmmmm

Glad to hear you're going to take my advice. You might start by teaching her not to call people names when they don't have anything intelligent to say...

Have a nice day.

You are already penalized. You have to hit a career shot to get back into birdie contention, and probably 99% of the golfing public in no way could hit over those 40 foot trees with a wedge, let alone a 6 iron onto a green with water to the side. And more often than not the birdie turns into a triple.

LOL...

I'd like to withdraw Tiger from the conversation for a moment.

At a lot of the courses I play, like someone above has already said, there isn't another fairway to land in. It's an OB. So landing in another fairway is getting lucky in my book and I'm not ever going to complain about getting lucky.

The only problem I have with it is that, if I'm playing golf on any particular hole, it's my hole to play. I get tired of guys hit hit horrible tee shots over into the fairway I'm playing, and then just riding over to play their ball. I'm not talking about fairways that are 20 yards apart- I'm talking theirs so much room and trees between them you can barely see through it. This also goes to the thread about other players picking up your ball. Since these guys hit it over the trees they have no idea which one is theirs so they ride around looking (and some times lifting) all the balls they see. Now I have to wait for them to play out so that I can continue my round.

I guess I just look at it like this. There's a big fairway out in front of me. It's lined by a thin rough, followed by thick rough, followed by trees. If I hit it so poorly that I clear those trees and end up in the next fairway, it wouldn't kill me personally to have to take a penalty stroke or the ball even be OB. Many of the holes I play are naturally set up like that anyway.

I think it would discourage some of the guys out there who are new to the game and just try to destroy the ball off the tee.

If the course designer wanted areas to be out of bounds, he could have marked them that way. It's not as if it never occurred to him (or her) that players might hit an adjacent fairway unless he was simply TERRIBLE at his job.