Okay, so today I wanted to try and really understand this “penalty lost ball” thing in golf. I’ve heard the term before, but honestly, I wasn’t 100% sure what it meant in practice. Time to hit the course and figure it out!
Getting Started
First, I grabbed my clubs and a bunch of old golf balls – I figured I’d be losing a few! I headed out to my local course, nice and early to avoid the crowds. I warmed up with a few practice swings, feeling pretty good.
The Experiment
- I picked a hole with a decent amount of rough and some water hazards – perfect for potentially losing a ball.
- On my first attempt, I sliced the ball way right, straight into the thick stuff. Yep, that’s definitely lost.
- Okay, so now what? I remembered reading something about a penalty.
- I dropped another ball near where I thought my first ball went out of bounds, adding a penalty stroke to my score.
- I played the second ball and kept going.
I repeated this process a few times, deliberately hitting balls into tough spots to see what would happen. Sometimes I found the ball, sometimes I didn’t. When I couldn’t find it within a reasonable time , I took the penalty and dropped a new ball.
What happen in the end
It was a pretty humbling experience! My score definitely took a hit, but I learned a lot. I realized how important it is to not only know the rules but also to manage the course strategically to avoid those penalty situations in the first place.
It’s one thing to read about the rules, but it’s another to actually experience the consequences on the course. Definitely a good learning day, even if my scorecard didn’t look so pretty!
