New Starter, confused with some rulings

Hey, having only picked up a club at the start of last month im not exactly clued up on the rules.  Ive been playing with some guys who lets just say dont exactly pay much attention to the finer rules.  Could some of you guys help me out a little bit. 

The biggest problems im having is with the lost ball rules.  Ive read the rather large thread about it, so im a bit more clued up on it now.  But just to clarify, is there no rule that allows you to drop the ball in the region that you lost it? 

Another rule i was stuck with was the GUR.  A lot of the course i play on is GUR, and i think im right in saying that when the ball lands, or is lost in GUR, you can still drop it without penalty yes?

Thing is i hated golf when i was younger, even worked at a golf course and hated it even more, thinking how the hell could ANYONE play this game.  Then a few years ago, ended up playing Tiger Woods on the xbox, got me hooked and ive been looking for a group to play with since then.  The guys i work with, and one of them feels like me and would love to know the exact rulings for some of the more commons problems we come up against. 

 Cheers for any help

If you have lost your ball then you should go back to the place where you took your last shot and drop there for a 2 shot penalty. Ie if you lost your first you should go back to the tee and hit another for your 3rd shot. Often though people adopt a stoke&distance rule where they drop in the vicinity of where the lost ball should be and take that as there 4th shot (a lot of people play it as there third but i believe they are wrong)

GUR = Ground under repair and you should drop outside the area no nearer the hole or in the marked drop zone and play your next shot without penalty.

I carry a tin of white paint around with me and if i dont like the lie of my ball i draw a cirlce round it and write GUR on the ground and hey presto free drop

Colin

Chris,

I thought under local rules that you have to drop if you land in GUR? Or is this just because, quite obviously, that the greenkeepers would prefer the ground to return to normal as quickly as possible therefore asking you to take a drop to avoid stunting the repair?

im sorry, i meant to write must drop the ball without penalty.  As i previously said, the only trouble is that about half of the rough is GUR so it makes playing rather difficult because most of the time your putting your ball back towards the fairway because the fairway mostly runs straight into GUR lol