Padraig Harrington has suggested that the worst rule change that has ever been made in golf concerns how long players have to find their ball.
While amateur golfers usually have a good idea of whether they are going to be able to find their ball after a wayward tee shot, everyone knows the feeling of being left completely baffled by the disappearance of a golf ball that seems to have barely missed the fairway.
Advertisement
Off the tee, you feel as though you have a good understanding of where you need to look. In fact, you may have seen the ball come down and be absolutely certain of where it has gone.
And yet, by the time you arrive at that particular area of the golf course, the ball is nowhere to be found.
In that instance, players have five minutes to look for the ball. Or they used to have five minutes.
Padraig Harrington names the worst rule change ever made in golf
From 2019, the amount of time allowed for a search was reduced to three minutes. It was designed to help with pace of play.
However, speaking on the Life on Tour podcast, Padraig Harrington suggested that he still cannot understand why the change was made.
Advertisement
“The worst rule change I’ve ever seen is the three minute rule change for a lost ball. One, they changed it for the wrong reason. So, they changed the rule because amateur golfers were taking 10 minutes, nine, 10 minutes, instead of five. So they decided, well, if they’re taking twice the time, let’s cut it back to three, and then they’ll probably look for five. That’s the logic behind it. There is zero logic in that,” he said.
Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images
“The fact of the matter is, it should be five and a strict five. It’s up to the amateurs to look for five minutes. The professionals, we all look for three minutes. You know, the minute we hit the zone to look for the golf ball, my caddie will start a stopwatch. That’s it.
“And if I’m playing with somebody that doesn’t start a stopwatch, I’m not happy. As in, you start your own stopwatch and you know three minutes is up. It’s not three minutes, five seconds, but three minutes goes incredibly quickly.
Advertisement
“You walk down there and you could be a minute, minute and a half looking for the ball on your own because obviously if you’ve hit it in a bush, everybody knows you’ve got to look for it. But if you hit it in the rough, a lot of times people go, you’ll be all right. They go down to their own, and then all of a sudden, by the time they arrive to look for your ball.”
When a search for Padraig Harrington’s ball led to a spat with a television reporter
It is interesting to hear Harrington talk about the procedure when it comes to looking for a lost golf ball.
Many will remember an incident during last year’s US Senior Open when Harrington was upset with reporter Roger Maltbie for not helping him look for his ball.
Advertisement
Maltbie was standing aside having been told that he was soon going to be needed on air. But that did not sit right with Harrington who felt that he should have joined the search instead.
Harrington was not happy about Maltbie’s explanation that he could not give a report from the trees.
However, it was hard to not have sympathy for Maltbie in that instance given that he had a job to do and had little time to make a decision.
Read the full article here
