Shes the lpga equivalent of DJ. A bit harsh but you cannot fix stupid.....what you can fix is getting a caddie who isn't.
LEXI DOEES IT AGAIN...
It sucks that she returns from a few weeks off and does this to herself right off the bat! It's an understandable mistake, but it sounds like it was made clear that the rule only allowed the action within the hole being played.
SVonhof That's odd, I was going to say the exact opposite. I've never heard of anyone ever playing lift, clean, and place where you didn't have to be on your own fairway to get this relief. In fact, I was going to ask how long Lexi's been playing this game that she wouldn't know this. However, I guess I have to give her more benefit of the doubt since this rule is obviously more variable than I thought.
kelco9 I agree with kelco9. Surely the players don't get to lift, clean, and place when they are in the rough, right? So why would we effectively penalize people for hitting their tee ball slightly off line, but reward them when they hit it WAY off line? It doesn't make any sense at all.
My guess is that she's not dumb, but was just in the habit of lifting, cleaning, and placing on fairways all day and just did it out of habit without thinking about the fact that she was in the wrong fairway.
rsvman
Apparently, the tournaments I have played in where we have used this rule either hasn't needed it (some courses, there are no two fairways next to each other), or the tournament directors failed to bring this up.
We have had lift-clean-and-cheat (that's what I call it) rules during tournaments where you could do that in the fairway or the rough (through the green), as long as it isn't tall native grass and you cannot improve your lie (move it from the rough to the fairway). We have had others that specify that it only applies in the fairways.
- Edited
That's just mind boggling. Why would she assume that she could lift and clean her ball and place from a different fairway?
It is just assumed that when lift-clean-place is instituted that it's in the fairway of the hole being played. There is no reasonable explanation for why she would assume otherwise. If 15 handicappers understand this rule, why on earth doesn't she?
Did she not play amateur club golf growing up? She obviously has no effing clue about the rules.
In my 25 years of playing it was understood that lift-clean-place only pertained to balls hit in the fairway of the hole that is being played.
Again, mind boggling.
I think the issue of lift clean an place is allowing players to clean mud off of the ball in the fairway. They gain no advantage with the lie. The rough is different because they could improve their lie if they pick the ball up in the rough and carefully hand place it in a better position. What diff does it make it she picked it up in different short grass?
Rickochet If she replaced the ball in precisely the same spot without cleaning it there would possibly be no real difference. If she cleaned and replaced it she would be rewarded for hitting a shot more wayward than normal beyond just the rub of the green gained by being far enough off line to land in another fairway. One could reasonably argue that just picking it up may have removed some soil and perhaps improved the lie if it were bonded (plugged) with the surface.
I'm a little fan, so would cut her slack here. I'm thinking she's playing a little bit unfocused with the tough personal stuff she's facing. Trying to cope with it while performing at that high level is challenging. Wish her well.
Guys, I've played competitive amateur tournaments at my various golf clubs over the past 20 years. On the rare occasions when there's been an enormous amount of rain prior to the tournament, when lift-clean-place has been instituted - it was always accepted that lift-clean-place only pertained to the fairway of the hole being played. And the head professional always pointed that out. "Your fairway only."
There's no excuse for her breach of the rules. If my weekend group understands that rule, there's no logical excuse for Lexi, a professional, to not understand that rule.
There seems to be a serious disconnect here.
This is a penalty more befitting a 20 handicapper than a touring professional.
My only question would be where the heck was her caddy. That is something that the caddy should have helped with at that point. The caddy needs to know the rules as well especially for something like what happened.
letthebigdogshunt
My thoughts exactly,she needs a caddy who knows the rules and is not afraid to speak up!
Tar and feathers!!!
I'm pretty sure that lift, clean and place is ALWAYS in your own fairway. How could she NOT know this?
If she continues down this road of being penalized for breaching the simplest of rules that most amatuer players know, then at some point her "ignorance" involving these situations will be called into question, and what would otherwise be seen as a brain fart situation will morph into one of willful intent to gain an unfair advantage.
She needs to clean this part of her game up, otherwise she's gonna earn a bad reputation imo.
She just seems aloof to the rules on occasion, but this is her career, her livelihood. She's competing for a lot of money. At some point people are gonna stop assuming she just simply had a brain fart.
johnnydoom I like Lexi and will continue to root for her, but I felt the ball marking violation she was once cited for was a willful attempt to avoid some imperfection in front of, or under her ball. This one I think was a mistake, but still worthy of the penalty since it would have potentially given her an unmerited advantage.
I like her too. But I think the rules snafus she's run into are not of the typical complicated variety. I mean, if she's getting penalized for dropping in the wrong area and not exactly sure where her ball crossed the margin of the hazard, or perhaps something similar... I would be less critical.
But the ball mark incident, and then this.... I mean - how does someone who has played the game as many years as she has, at the level she's played, not know that lift-clean-place only pertains to the fairway of the hole she's playing?
It's just mind boggling to me.
This ain't a Saturday morning playing with friends for a $5 nassau... this is the big leagues. Lots of money on the line, and it's expected that the players either know the rules, or check with a rules official for clarity before doing something that might otherwise have them potentially running afoul of the rules.
She's a professional. The onus is on her to know the rules. These rules infractions aren't that complicated. So if the common theme continues - at what point does someone stop assuming she's not trying to get away with something?
sdandrea1 iirc reading about this, it was a slip up on her part as she realized what she had done as soon as she did it. Said something to her caddy immediately about it, and put the ball back in place, as I read it. The official was johnny-on-the-spot and came right over and let her know.
If the above is correct, surely she intended to mark the penalty for touching the ball.
People always want to make something of nothing. Just look at TIger and his cheating/whoring ways.
This would be akin to rolling the ball in the fairway during a tournament when the ball is being played down. A brain fart? Perhaps. I can't pretend to know her intentions.
But she's gone through two major rules gaffes now in the past couple of years. And again, they've not been overly complicated as it relates to what is expected of a touring professional.
She's human, for sure. But nevertheless she needs to address her inability to understand the most basic of rules before she starts getting a bad reputation. And you can't blame the caddie for either one of them.
