Video: What A Bank Shot Ball Looks Like And Why The Practice Needs To Stop
The best part about the PGA Tour Twitter account fiercely targeting the 4th grade demo?
Posting videos that actually expose an underlying tour cancer! Yay golf! 😍😎♨️💯
Of course I speak of the peculiar unwritten tour rule that says if you hit a short game shot near the hole and your ball might help a playing partner, you leave the ball down instead of marking. We've spoken to this on ShackHouse and State of the Game, but it's rare to get examples shared on social media.
I don't like picking on this one involving Zach Johnson at the API because the kneejerk reaction is to focus on the players in on case when this goes on daily. Here Ben An, whose ball provided the back board for Johnson, is providing a service that I struggling seeing Hale Irwin, Lanny Wadkins or Ray Floyd providing.
In the spirit of #MarchMadness ...
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 19, 2017
Zach Johnson with the bank shot. #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/MMx8sPldpU
In this case, Johnson's ball in the bunker was plugged. He and An were stinking it up and apparently a little behind the group in front (imagine that!), so it's very possible this was all innocent.
What's more important: leave the names behind and focus on why the practice has to stop.
When players get to use their playing partners' ball as a backstop or bank board, fields are not protected. Integrity is thrown out the window. And most disconcerting of all, players who do not partake in such wink-wink behavior are said to be jerks by players and caddies.
Did I also mention is just feels dirty?
There is good news, however. The practice gets the week off at Austin's WGC Dell Match Play where you'll see players running to mark those balls near the hole!
Reader Comments (41)
(apply where needed)
smilingly knowing,
dig
Geoffs right, it’s collusion to defeat the law and spirit of the game. As they ‘all’ do it, they are playing to a different set of rules.
Rules need to applied or rewritten. I dont think there's anything in the new rules to say you can request another palyer to leave his ball where it might help you.
It's a joke...right?
What I am curious though, is what rule gets changed to what? My first thought was you don't replace your ball, but at what distance does this no longer apply? (ie., if a guy's ball gets knocked away from the other guy's chip is one thing, but what about a shot from the fairway from 180 yds?) Can you say you must mark or finish before the guy chips?
Can of worms, can of worms...
You are being tooled.
Sorry Geoff, I could smell brains roasting,
dig
There's a grain of truth to what Geoff has posted....just not nearly the amount of "collusion" he's inferring.
I'm surprised An didn't mark his ball in this case since it was short of the hole and blocking Zach's line a skoosh....those are always marked. If you didn't do it repeatedly, you'd be considered a dick. If the ball is behind the hole...it was rarely if ever marked. That's what I learned in my 3rd or 4th round ever as a pro many moons ago.
I think it has to do with playing for money because I never saw this practice playing amateur golf. It's not breaking any rule (at moment) so what's the BFD? Caddies lining up players is a much worse "spirit of the rules" infraction imo.
@johnnycz, could you explain further how you came to acquire this knowledge?
If you'd mark it in match play, mark it in stroke.
We count on people to play by the rules in society. Or we used to.
The above is not a "practice". It is a rule.
These blokes are playing within the rules.
The above is making the "participants" sound like cheats.They are not.
They are playing by the rules.
Nothing more - nothing less.
The United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth (USP Leavenworth) is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Kansas. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
"In stroke play, if the Committee determines that competitors have agreed not to lift a ball that might assist any competitor, they are disqualified." (from Rule 22-1).
Johnnycz says above that by his 3rd or 4th round as a playing professional he had learned that "If the ball is behind the hole...it was rarely if ever marked" which sounds, to me, like the "practice" is that players have an implicit agreement to leave balls in place.
1. My playing partners ask me to.
2. It's directly in the line of someone's shot.
3. Mudball
Otherwise, just putt the damn thing. Golf is too slow already with everyone marking every putt.
Just what we need...more grey areas in the rule book.
My understanding is that you cannot ask your fellow competitor to leave his ball and you cannot play on if he is intending to mark his ball.
What happens far more often at amateur competition level is deliberate lollygagging, which happens when both of you are scoring well, he has played first and his ball has ended up in the vicinity of your line of play. As there are no caddies there is a ready made need to relocate clubs to the next tee and this can take some time especially if combined with other faffing and foutering around.
Competitive juniors already understand this "practice". You play with a buddy in an AJGA event, you don't mark. If a guy you dislike, you mark. My son and I have discussed how prevalent this is.
I am not talking qbout from the fairway, I am talking about putts and chips, pitches....
I still call BS, sorry J/3n's, eh?
BTW- I get it- to stop non stopping possibilities- not to bank it in the hole. It is just not that big a deal.
I thought Kansas WAS/IS the prison, and unleavened- worthy was/is the safe haven.
# Kansas is a state of mind no one wants
dig
Here's the description: "Here's a screenshot of the broadcast. Wheatcroft has dropped (twice and then placed) his ball out of the hazard and is getting ready to hit (bottom of the pic). Wagner's ball is to the right and a little short of the pin; Wagner is looking on (right side of the pic)."
Here's the image: https://thesandtrap.com/uploads/monthly_2016_05/572d21d54cc83_WheatcroftandWagner.thumb.jpeg.04ac185415da6f3d22eed09662604cb0.jpeg
It's against the letter AND spirit of the Rules of Golf.
https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/88633-pga-tour-players-not-marking-balls-when-in-position-to-assist-another-player/
https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/92583-balls-in-a-position-to-assist-on-the-putting-green/
Geoff's not the first and won't be the last to notice. The practice irks, because again it's against the spirit and letter of the law.
Actually, the bank shots off of corporate suite structures are the most silly outs there is in pro golf.... rewards really bad shots.
If everybody does it, as the allegation goes, all evens out!
So what's the problem?
@Carl: No one told me anything...it was something I observed. Like an unsaid code. Noticed that when I'd ask to mark my ball after a chip and guy would say "naw...it's ok" usually if it was past hole for him...and have me mark it if it was short.