Perhaps this would be day that Foremost could simply concentrate on his golf game?

Not a chance! Unfortunately, circumstances dictated otherwise.

Hole # 1

Facts

F split the fairway with a towering opening drive on Par 5 Hole #1 at BMCC. His partner, Reader PT, had pushed his initial drive into the rough right, and then seemingly pulled his opening hole mulligan drive into the trees left. F who was, of course, driving the golf cart, quickly identified his own ball in the fairway, and then spotted PT’s mulligan about 30 yards past his “towering drive”, also in the middle of the fairway.

F drove to identify PT’s ball, then drove to the right rough to pick up his partner’s original drive, and to assist opponents JS and RMcN locate their drives which were, also, somewhere in the right rough. After both opponents found their balls and played, F drove back into the fairway and ran squarely over his own ball, deeply embedding it in the soft fairway turf.

Opponent JS witnessed this accident, but held his tongue. F had to decide how to continue his play.

Issue(s)

-Was F entitled to free drop relief? (F vaguely seemed to remember that there was no penalty for accidentally moving a ball during a search)

-If relief, did he need to mark his ball before lifting?

-if relief, could he clean his muddy ball before dropping?( F had been very strict on recent opponents in prohibiting cleaning)

-if relief, should he “drop” the ball, or “replace” it on a spot?

-was he required to deem the ball “unplayable” and take penalty relief?

– or should he just grab a wedge, swing hard, and try to dig it out?

F’s head was spinning. Why didn’t he know what to do after running over his golf ball? Everyone runs over their own golf ball…don’t they?

F couldn’t remember ever seeing a penalty assessed in this instance, and he had been involved in a wide-ranging general ball search, so he took a free lift, clean, and drop. His kindly opponents lodged no protest, perhaps assuming F knew what he was doing. Was this the correct result?

Ruling

Well, not exactly.

Indeed, there is no penalty for accidentally moving a ball when “trying to find” it. (R7.4). As F noted, however, he had already found and identified his ball, and was simply in transport at that time, unengaged in a search. “Trying to find” means “actions reasonably considered part of a search” and not “walking to the area where the ball is expected to be” (Int. 9.4b/2 referencing R7.4).

F was, therefore, subject to one penalty stroke for moving his ball (R9.4), which goes on to say one should “replace” the moved ball in accordance with R14.2 . Under 14.2, F would have been assessed another penalty stroke for failing to mark his ball before lifting (R14.1a), and another penalty stroke for dropping instead of replacing the ball on a spot (Since the original lie was altered F should have placed the ball within a club-length. (R14.2d)).

F thinks he was ok cleaning his lifted ball (R14.1c) as none of the exceptions to cleaning applied.

So F, who had started this lovely day with a single shot down the middle of the fairway, should have been lying 4 instead of 1 after adding 3 penalty strokes for moving his ball, failing to mark, and dropping instead of replacing.

But, then, F remembered a bit of a rules reprieve! Under the “Bargain Bin” Rule (R1.3c/4), a player gets only one penalty stroke for related acts. F believes his true penalty stroke assessment should have been one Penalty Stroke (PS) for the act of wrongly moving his ball, and one PS for the two related procedural acts of failing to correctly return his ball to play….failing to mark before lifting, and failing to replace instead of drop.

So with the benefit of hindsight, F finds only two PS’s and that he should have been hitting 4 instead of 2. He deeply regrets this error.

Hole #2

Facts

F actually won Hole #1 with what we have learned now was a tainted par, and he led his team to the tee on the difficult 180-yard Par 3 Hole #2. Briefly, F hit it in the left bunker. His partner PT hit it 10 feet just above the pin. Opponents JS and RMcN hit it in the right bunker.

As RMcN, who hit last, walked off the tee he turned and pointed at the tee markers and said, to F, “You know, don’t you, that we all hit from outside the teeing area, It’s your fault.” Indeed, F had started play outside of the area marked by the tee markers, and the other players had followed suit.

RMcN (Readers may remember … the same player who confirmed after the conclusion of a recent round that he had played the entire round with the wrong partner, and who had then requested, in hindsight, that the bets be adjusted accordingly) now demanded that, in hindsight, all players should hit again from between the tee markers … a seemingly appealing solution for a team with both balls in a bunker.

Hindsight’s partner, JS, chimed in at this point in support — but with a minor modification of Hindsight’s proposal. He stated that while he didn’t care whether F hit again or not, but he must demand that PT cancel his shot. (JS had perhaps noted that PT was next to the hole with a short birdie putt.)

Issues

What happens in Match Play if all the players play from the wrong tees? May a team demand that the mistake be corrected? When is this request timely….after play by each player? Before a second shot? May a team single out a single opponent and demand that he replay his shot?

F’s head was spinning again! He was mentally rules-exhausted on the day already, and standing only on the 2nd tee!

Ruling

In Match Play a player can cancel the stroke of an opponent who plays outside the teeing area. This must be done “promptly” before either player makes another stroke (R6.1b(1)).

In Four-Ball the Rule has an extra twist….if both Players on a team play outside the teeing area, only the shot of the player who played last can be cancelled, and even this cancellation must be made “promptly”. (See, Int. 23.6/3).

So, yes, JS and Hindsight could have asked PT to cancel and replay his shot into #2, had they not followed his shot with shots of their own first. Sometimes, the Rules of Golf hold no sympathy for a Mr. Hindsight. To underscore this point, F and PT should have caught and cancelled the stroke of JS as well…he got up and down from the bunker to halve the hole!

As usual, all comments or corrections are welcome! (Criticisms would be well-deserved and not at all surprising!)

Respectfully submitted,
F