”Strokin’ to the East, strokin’to the West…”

I. Facts

Foremost was on the driving range at HCC honing his swing. A ball whizzed by his left knee apparently struck by the lady hitting on his left. Moments later another ball whizzed by his left knee. F decided to move over to the next spot on his right. It wasn’t long before a third ball whizzed by his left knee…in fact, this one might have gone between his legs. F decided to head to the putting green.

Soon thereafter, the lady who had unknowingly chased F off the range loaded up her bag and headed to the parking lot . Sensing no further immediate danger, F took this opportunity to return to the range.

Minutes later the lovely KMc (wife of Reader BMc) approached F with the perpetrator, her lovely friend MS, who introduced herself as a beginning golfer, and said KMc had told her F was a rules guy, and she had a question. F promised to give it a try.

The question seemed simple. MS said she had played earlier and missed a ball from the tee. She wanted to know if that counted as a stroke, and whether she was then hitting one or two. F asked if she had intended to hit the ball, and she answered in the affirmative saying, yes, she had tried to knock the hell out of it (ok, something like that anyway).

KMc then told MS that was the wrong answer…that she should have said it was a practice swing. F chided KMc with a short speech about integrity in the game of golf (citing R1.2a as to honesty in applying strokes and penalties … even to oneself, etc.) KMc nodded her head in agreement and laughed as , of course, she had only been kidding.

The problem F had with the simple question of the “whiff” was that he had been half-listening to the Golf Channel on the way into town, and thought he had heard the announcers reference a situation in which a golfer was entitled to retee his ball in the teeing area without having to count the previous stroke as a stroke, even when the golfer had made a stroke at the ball with intent. F wasn’t sure what he had heard, or what the announcers had been talking about.

Issue

Is there a situation where a golfer can hit the ball from the teeing area and then retee without having to count the first stroke as a stroke?

Ruling

No. But,

F was fortunate at the time to spot rules official and Reader JH on the practice range, and have him sort out the “whiff” question for F and the ladies, and to explain to F what he had heard on the Golf Channel. (JH, of course, gracefully complied, although he directed F to R 6 and F had to find R 9 on his own). JH was insightful as usual.

A “stroke” is “the forward movement of the club made to strike the ball” (See, Def., which goes on to say a stroke is not made if the player deliberately decides not to hit the ball by stopping the club head before it reaches the ball, or if unable to stop, by deliberately missing the ball). So, a “whiff” (a miss after a strike at the ball accompanied with the intent to hit it) counts as a stroke. MS was, indeed, hitting two from the the tee box after her whiff.

The scenario F heard on the radio involved a ricochet back into the “teeing area” (the area defined as a rectangle two club-lengths deep from the tee markers set be the Committee). If after a stroke, the ball comes to rest within the “teeing area”, it is in play, but the Player may retee his ball or move it anywhere in the teeing area without an additional penalty for touching or moving his ball (See, Exception 1 to R9.4b(1), which says a player incurs one penalty stroke if he lifts, touches, or causes a ball at rest to move).

In other words, if the ball comes to rest in the teeing area, the player is still hitting two (the first stroke counted), but he has the option of picking up and reteeing his ball without further penalty. (This situation could apply if the ball falls off the tee after a whiff, or if it is nudged sideways by slight contact, or if it returns via a ricochet).

F is delighted to know this Rule. Although a highly accomplished golfer, he once hit a tee ball off the apple barrel adjacent to the teeing area at H#1 and, in truth, the ball might have even ended up back in the teeing area.

II. Facts

While we are on the subject of “strokes”, F would note that in rare instances the club-head flies off during a swing. The general rule in this scenario, is that there is no stroke if the departure is during the backswing, but a stroke if the departure is on the downswing.

Reader LR had this happen to him on several occasions. He would take a mighty swing with his two-iron and the club-head would fly off and end up forty or fifty yards down the fairway, a situation somewhat similar to a broken bat although without the contact.

As I recall, opponents EC and the Yank never penalized LR by counting his swing as a stroke — first, because none of us ever knew the rule, and; second, because LR swung so fast no one could ever tell whether the break was in his backswing or his downswing!

Ok, let’s incorporate the first set of facts into this scenario. If the shaft breaks during the downstroke and the club head strikes the ball and it rolls off a few feet, note the player may retee if the ball came to rest within in the teeing area, but he must play it as it lies if it is an inch out.

As usual, all comments or corrections are welcome! And a special thanks to the ladies for their contribution!

Respectfully submitted,
F

Note:

Title …from Clarence Carter hit single, Strokin’