[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

No way. It's a nice idea for an emergency such as this as it allows us to keep playing. I realize that there are a lot of golfers here that don't care about the rules or their scores but there are many of us that do. Hitting a out with the correct speed so that it goes into the hole is a skill. Simply banging the ball so hard that it simply hit the pipe takes away a big part of the game.
If you simply play the game for fun, exercise or to get some fresh air. Or as a woman once told me, "The most important thing about golf is where we're going to lunch afterward." Fine, but don't take away a challenge for those of us that take the game seriously.
I realize that there are not many that take the game very seriously but there are people that play for a few dollars. There are some that play to compete in the higher level competitions we have in The Villages and there are some like me that simply enjoy the various challenges that golf presents. One of those challenges is the ability to hit a putt with the correct speed and the pipes in the holes take that away.