Dave Lee

I was playing the other day on a familiar course and had a 4i hybrid second
shot into a longish par 4. There was a maintenance guy on the green doing
something and then he stepped aside. As I watched the flight of the ball (a
very mediocre shot - pulled a good 15 yards left of the pin) I saw him
sprint across the green. I couldn't imagine what he was doing but I yelled
'FORE' and he headed on across the green (my shot couldn't have missed him
by more than a couple of yards).

Then when I was driving up toward the green I noticed a HUGE stream of water
gushing out of a greenside sprinkler head, shooting a good 15-20 feet in the
air (and a BUNCH of water - they've got ample water pressure in that area).
That was what the guy was sprinting toward but he had no prayer of fixing
the thing until they shut down the pressure in that area.

My ball ended no more than 5 feet from the offending geyser but a breeze was
blowing so that I was not getting wet at all. However the sun was bright and
opposite the geyser creating a cascading shadows of flowing water all over
me and the whole area that I was to putt through (a tough, breaking,
downhill 50 footer for birdie). It was REALLY distracting and it didn't
matter what I did I just couldn't get "into" that putt. I made this
miserable stroke and left the ball a good 8' short of the cup, 3 putting for
a bogey when a par would have won the hole for me and my partner.

Damned sprinkler - at least that is my excuse :-)

dave

ps. I assume that there is some rule somewhere that would have allowed me to
move the ball if it had ended up in the middle of the waterfall, but I have
no idea what rule it is - possibly it isn't any more complicated than casual
water. You could probably see water "squish up" if you had been standing in
the middle of it. You certainly could have seen water "squish down".

Cja

On Oct 1, 10:08 am, "Dave Lee" <DaveLe...@ix.netcom.RemovE.com> wrote:
> ... the sun was bright and opposite the geyser creating a cascading
> shadows of flowing water all over me and the whole area that I was
> to putt through ...
>
You could at least have said you saw a vision of Sarah Palin in the
showering water and dancing shadows ... something to make this story
on-topic for the current RSG ... :-)

Seriously, though, I always want to find golf content here, keep it
coming. I find as I get older I'm becoming less affected by minor
distractions on the course. People in my group talking or walking
around when I'm ready to hit, players in other groups or maintenance
people doing strange things, etc., just don't bother me much these
days. I'm getting better at focusing on the shot, and blocking out the
other stuff.

- cja