Whose divot is it anyway?

Golf Monthly blogger Phil Churchill discusses the ins and outs of the St Andrews rule book, and argues the case for universal free lifts from divot holes located in the centre of fairways

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I hate blame culture. If you trip up over a paving slab, then, rather than picking up your mobile to dial your solicitor, the only picking up you should be worrying about is doing just that with your feet. Instead, people think of who they can sue.

And suing someone has never been easier. Type "sue someone" into Google and it returns over 16 million results. The top return reads: "How to sue someone. Are you thinking of claiming something from someone?"

And someone, or rather something did come into my mind. Something for which I am repeatedly punished for no fault of my own - being in someone else's divot! Google then offers three easy steps to suing someone.

Not so easy. However I see becoming club champion as merely the first step on my road to golfing greatness. The club championship would have been swiftly followed by a call up to the county, then the national team, Tour qualifying, a run of Majors, Ryder Cups and then a best-selling biography and film rights. I'm happy to round down to a cool £10 million.

But of course my tongue is firmly in cheek. Suing other golfers for leaving a divot is ridiculous, my gripe is with the rules. Play the ball as it lies. Poppycock! Why on earth, when I have safely found the middle of the fairway, should I be punished for someone else's carelessness? Surely the stupidest rule in the book.

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