Rules question on the green
 

So I played my first 9 holes last sunday and on the first hole I hit driver down the left just off the fairway and then landed a real nice 7 iron on the green. I was about 20 feet maybe from the hole but I had a huge swath or patch of dead diseased grass between my ball and the hole. Is there relief in this case? It really affected my putting as I ended up 4 putting for a double.

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And thats too bad, because it probably was ground under repair and they haven't got to marking it. Some courses jump right on every flaw in the course and have it marked
or fixed immediatly and some are slower, not even marking GUR.

Thats true Diane, I never know what certain courses look like at this time of year in the states, so I just keep assuming they are all nice and green and ready to go for you guys.

That's why our club won't even allow you to enter scores for rounds played before April 1.

That's not a club rule Claire. It's your state rule. CT opens handicap season on April 1 as well.

Those little aereation holes will bite you in the butt on the greens.

Definitely especially when you add the sand to it.

That's actually not a bad rule that Claire's club has then. The putting on those greens is so ridiculous is can really not give you a true score.

But thats different. "Brown" greens or dead greens are one thing but what Im talking about is a normal green but with a huge spot of almost NO grass. Probably should have a white circle around it IMO.

Our course just started aerating the tees, rough and fairways on Monday. They do the greens next Monday and Tuesday, with half of the course closed each day. Our handicap season started 2 weeks ago.

As to the OP's question, by the rules the player is not allowed to decide if an area is GUR. If it wasn't marked then no relief is allowed under the Rules of Golf. If you weren't playing for anything except bragging rights with your buddies, then you probably could have ruled it as GUR and taken relief to the nearest point not closer to the hole where the abnormal ground did not interfere with your line of putt.

If you want to get technical, a group of golfers playing only for their own pleasure and not part of a competition is its own committee, so they could rule on such an issue and still be within the rules. That doesn't mean that they can do anything they want and still be ok. There are very specific guidelines as to what the committee is allowed to do. Declaring an area to be ground under repair is one of the rights of the committee.

I was looking for another thread to post a response I got from the USGA today, and ran across this one. I think it is something that everyone could benefit from in a casual round.

Good call, we've used that before in our group from time to time. It's nice to know it's available if you need it!