Local Rules

We played golf this morning and made an unusual discovery. In the middle of the fairway on the 18th hole was an 18 inch large mouth bass. This fish was lifeless, but uninjured, leaving us to speculate how and why it had been relocated from the nearby water (too far to jump) to the middle of the fairway. My drive had gone into the water but was unlikely to be the cause of this displaced fish - anyway it was long dead - but not smelling yet.

I dropped a new ball not far from the large mouth bass and couldn't help noticing that the ball could have easily fit in the open mouth of this fish. On top of this the fish was facing the tee with its mouth open. Turning to the back of the score card I could find no local rule as to the action that should be taken if this had happened. On arriving at the clubhouse of Legends at Arrowhead the staff were of no help either. I hope that this did not bugger up anybody's game today.

This should be a reminder to golf clubs that they should take these sorts of events into account when publishing their local rules. Like a southern African golf club that has the local rule: "If there are lion lying on the fairway, players may skip that hole and more on to the next hole without penalty."