Quote:
Originally Posted by cgkdisc
The problem with preventing TDs from overriding the Optional Rethrow rule is speed of play situations. On big downhill holes with a significant OB area far down the hill, I can see where TDs would want to have a required drop zone for the OB area for speed of play. Should the right of the TD to speed play with a drop zone override a player's option to trudge back up the hill for an Optional Rethrow? Or maybe the Optional Rethrow would have to be declared while the player is still on the tee and it cannot be a provisional based on whether the first throw turned out to not be OB. It would be the player's next throw with penalty no matter where the first throw landed.
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It seems to me that this is, or should be, a non issue. All the TD has to do is make sure the OB drop zone is such that no one in their right mind would trudge back up the hill to use the previous lie option. I think people are trying too hard to make sure the rules explicitely cover every imaginable situation regardless of plausability. I have rarely had situations where we couldn't come up with a reasonable interpretation of the rules on the spot and whenever there was a disagreement it was easy to take a provisional and ask the TD later. I also don't think that having different TD's make different rulings in similar situations is the end of the world catastrophe some people think it is. There are significant differences in the way different reffing crews call fouls in the NFL, NBA. and NHL and those sports seem to do just fine. And they have far more resources for not only writing the rules but training and paying refs.