Irma's winds 'find' dozens of lost golf balls at Bobby Jones

Update, 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21:  The city of Sarasota announced that the American course at Bobby Jones is expected to open for play Saturday, Sept. 23. The British and Gillespie courses were already open for play.

In golf, the cardinal rule is simple: Play it where it lies.

In the sand, in the mud, in the long grass. Just take your medicine and hit it. And hit it again, if necessary.

Except in the case of a palm tree on the par-5 sixth hole of Bobby Jones Golf Club’s British Course. And a few more similar palms around the course.

When Hurricane Irma struck over the weekend, that particular palm gave up at least a dozen reasons for violating golf’s most basic tenet -- they had been stuck there after errant shots. Plenty of other balls turned up similarly below other palm canopies around the course, as they often do after high winds.

“It’s kind of like an Easter egg pick-up out there,’’ said Sue Martin, the golf manager at the city-run course, adding the staff probably collected 150 balls that tumbled from the tightly packed palm fronds atop the trees that line the fairways.

The course on Fruitville Road came through the storm fairly well, according the city of Sarasota.  Martin said 17 trees fell, but none of them are in play. Crews are in the process of removing them and clearing debris from around the property.  Martin said the course’s 6-inch rain gauge filled up between Saturday and Tuesday, so at least that much rain fell, but the water is receding.

She said she hopes the British course will be ready by Friday morning, but the American might take a little longer.

Oh, and the penalty for hitting a ball semi-permanently into a tree?

It’s either a lost ball (if you can’t see it) or an unplayable lie (if you can). Either way,  It’s one stroke.