BMCC

It was a crisp, fall day at BMCC where a full field of 64 players anxiously awaited the starting whistle in the popular Oaks Par Three Tournament… featuring a stroke-play partnership format with imaginative holes concocted and started from devious teeing areas created around the course.

Reader EC was calmly limbering up in the staging area near the practice chipping green. As he worked through his familiar yoga stretching routine, trying to set his intentions for the day, he noticed one player was practicing his putting on the nearby 9th green.

EC simply could not believe this effrontery, as such an action seemed to be a clear Rules violation. He approached the Committee, pointed out the practice in progress, and asked what the hell the Committee was gonna do about it.

The Committee scratched its chin, then chuckled. “Why don’t you call Foremost?” it suggested.

Foremost, however, was nowhere to be found as he had headed to the premier sporting event of the day — the Vandy football game.

Historic Dudley Field

In fact, F had arrived at the game to find 3 Temporary Immovable Obstructions placed adjacent to his long-time tailgate area. The TIOs were drawing a steady crowd who were lining up by and eyeing the generous buffet he had placed on the gate of his truck…a buffet of fried chicken, hot wings, veggies, fruit, and chips. F soon lost his appetite, however, as for some reason the the tailgate area began acquiring an unpleasant San Francisco-like odor.

Not seeing any Vandy fans he knew anywhere, F decided to invite all the porto-potty patrons to his tailgate. They were quite pleased with this invitation as they took their line even closer to the truck and began to dig in. One young lady said she was a VU graduate student, and saving every penny, and thrilled with a free lunch! She said the chicken was spicy, however, and wondered if F might possibly spare a beer?

F responded that, by this time, he had already given all his beer to the Missouri fans, but that he would be happy to uncork a bottle of fine chardonnay if that would work. She said it certainly would, but asked if F would mind bringing her the glass since she could not risk losing her place in line.

Wishing not to inconvenience anyone, F decided to move the remaining food items to the porto-potties so as not to trouble anyone. What a tailgate party!…new friends, and the best turn-out of the year!

F then sat alone awaiting kick-off, and found that his thoughts had to turned to golf, and a troubling follow-up “identification” question Reader JH had posed in reply to F’s last posting concerning the misidentification of yellow balls. (See, The Hidden Ball Trick!”)

A Putting Green

Facts

Two players mark their balls on the putting green with identical club ball-markers. Subsequently, they both admit that they have no idea whose marker is whose.

Issue

Now what?

Ruling

They cannot flip a coin, or guess. If they played a ball at this point, they would be playing from a “Wrong Place” and incur the General Penalty (Loss of Hole) in Match Play. A ball must be replaced on its “original spot”. (R13.1b referencing R14.2).

Since they were each unable to identify this “original spot”, they would each have to declare their balls “lost” and proceed under penalty of stroke and distance from the position of their prior shot.

BMCC Ruling

F expected to find in his research that the player who practiced on a hole prior to the start of the round would would be DQ’d (a “Dairy Queen” violation per Pro DA). The penalty for the first breach in stroke play, however, is merely the General Penalty (two strokes), assessed against the player on the first hole. A DQ follows for the second breach of the Rule. (R5.2b)

The two-stroke penalty would be assessed only against the player, and not his partner. (R23.8a).

Historic Dudley Field

The college football world is shocked and thrilled as 21-point underdog VU started its 3rd string QB and defeated the mighty SEC Eastern Division – leading Tigers. F stayed until the end, ultimately regretting he had given away all his chicken.

Back to golf: A Championship

And speaking of winners, congratulations to Reader, CC, a partner in the Alabama Senior Four-Ball Tournament!

…although condolences to CC and the Tide,  for giving up a moral victory to the Vols..

As usual, all comments or questions are welcome!

Respectfully submitted,
F