Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion
The bunker rule was a pain in the ass. After you hit your shot from the sand golfers were encouraged to use their feet or wedge to smooth over the area they hit from. Problem is most didn't and you had to move your ball to a smooth place to hit from.
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How much of a problem was this really? Even if they did smooth it with their foot, you're still not hitting from there. It takes literally less than two second to move the ball.
I really like the Covid rules. They've sped up the game dramatically at my course. Before this year if I played by myself I never took the flag out. There is so much wasted time to take it out, then line up your putt, miss it, then go get the flag, put it back in, and then walk off the green. With foursomes keeping the pin in, no one is having to wait around to put it back. My guess is it saves at least 10 minutes per round for the average foursome, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more. I played a round last week at 2:00 pm and we were done in 3:45, with a full tee sheet in front of us.
Our holes are full sized and they have the gadget on them where you use your putter head to lift the contraption. It's very similar to these:
https://www.golfadvisor.com/articles...se-coronavirus
The not raking bunkers saves time too. It takes 5 seconds to smooth out your spot instead of 30-60 seconds to rake. Depending on how much your group is in the bunkers, this could save 5 or so minutes each round.
I played both days this weekend. It's cool enough for pants, but I'm still in a short sleeve shirt, occasionally having a short sleeve windbreaker on. Last Sunday was pouring after nine, so every on the course left except me. I played the back nine in 70 minutes, with 10 of those looking for balls that plugged a couple feet off the fairway.