What did you make of the LPGA Q-Series rules row?
Christina Kim witnessed an exchange between Kendall Dye and Dewi Weber’s caddie when the former asked what club her player had hit on a par 3.
Kim told referees and the players concerned were hit with two-shot penalties for breaching Rule 10.2a.
That covers advice and states that, during a round, a player can’t give any advice to anyone in the competition playing the course, ask anyone for advice other than their caddie.
Rules are rules, but is this too strict? Does it make a difference if you know what club your playing partner is toting?
‘We strike the ball completely different distances. The club you hit means nothing to me’
I learn more when given the number from a distance measuring device than if I was straining to see what’s written on the sole of someone’s club, writes Steve Carroll
One is an absolute – it is 174 yards to the flag – one feels uncertain.
It was only at the start of the year DMDs were enshrined in the Rules – until then you needed a Local Rule in place to get one out of your bag. These days you can even look at weather forecasts and wind speed.All of these things help me select a club more than knowing my partner is hitting a 6-iron. We strike the ball completely different distances so what they’re using means nothing to me.
I’ve enough maths to get through, trying to work out what a ball will do when it lands and how the breeze will affect it, without scratching my head to figure out if my partner is two or three clubs different.
Rules are there to be obeyed and I’d never contravene one on the course. But of the hundreds of pages of regulations, this one seems less relevant to me than others.
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‘Even if I have never played with someone before, after a few holes I can ascertain how far they hit it’
Part of the skill is analysing conditions such as distance, wind, slope, temperature and using that information to make an informed decision on what club to take, says Hannah Holden.
If my playing partner can tell me they’ve hit a 7-iron, that’s definitely going to help my decision-making and, ultimately, make the game less skilful.
Even if I have never played with someone before, after a few holes I can ascertain how far they hit it relative to me and work out the difference in how we hit it and what club we should both be using. A player can hit it two clubs further but I can still get information from knowing what club they hit.
Just seeing the ball flight, and how the shot they hit reacts to the conditions, can assist with club selection or height of shot.
The real skill is watching another player’s shot, learning from it and using that information to make an informed decision.
Such a large part of the game is picking the correct club. Think about how many times in a round you hit the shot you wanted only to come up short or fly the green?
If you had someone telling you what club to hit, how many shots could you save?
Who is right and what do you think? Have your say in the comments below.