I’d like to impose a 2 minute rule on amateurs looking for a lost ball and a 25 second rule for putting. The 5 minute allowance for Tour players who have lost their ball shouldn’t apply to a weekend player. It’s as if stomping around in bushes and high grass for 5 minutes significantly improves one’s chances of finding a lost ball. It doesn’t and the people in your foursome helping you are likely muttering to themselves, “why doesn’t he just drop one?!” The other practice that pisses me off and delays the game occurs on the putting green where some people thing they’re putting for the U.S. Open Championship rather than a $5 Nassau. Regardless of whether you’re “away,” you should be sizing up your putt, determining the line and, thus, when it’s your turn, you can just take one more careful look, put your ball down, take one practice stroke and putt the damn ball.
