2009 Rules Archives

2009 RULES ARCHIVES

Previous Rules Questions/Tips from 2009

September 15, 2009

During the Match Play Championship,
Peter plays his 2nd shot out of the rough and it ends up on the green 3 feet from the hole. Eric, lying 5 on the green, concedes the hole to Peter. Peter picks up his ball and
discovers that he has played a wrong ball to the green.
What is the ruling?

	The concession stands - Peter wins the hole.
	Peter incurs a 2 stroke penalty for playing a wrong ball and must correct before teeing off the next tee or he loses the hole.
	Peter incurs a 2 stroke penalty for playing a wrong ball and must correct before teeing off the next tee or he is disqualified.
	Peter loses the hole for playing a wrong ball. The concession is irrelevant.

The correct answer is D, Decision 2-4/9 - Peter lost the hole (Rule 15-3a) before Eric conceded it to him. Therefore, Eric's concession was irrelevant. There are no two stroke penalties in match play - any penalty that would be a two stroke penalty in stroke play is a loss of hole in match play. Rule 15-3a states that if, in match play, a player makes a stroke at a wrong ball, he loses the hole. Since Peter hit a wrong ball before the concession by Eric, he loses the hole.

September 8, 2009

Paul and Henry are playing in their Match Play Championship.
Both reach the par 4 hole 5th hole in regulation.
Paul putts and his ball comes to rest near the hole. Henry concedes Paul's next stroke.
Paul says: "No, I haven't holed out yet." Henry says: "OK. Go ahead and putt." Paul
putts and misses. What is Paul's score for the hole?

	3
	4
	5
	6

The correct answer is B, Rule 2-4 - Paul completed play of the hole in 4 strokes - on in regulation (2), 1st putt left near hole, 2nd putt conceded. When Henry conceded Paul's next stroke, Paul had completed the hole. Concession of a stroke may not be declined or withdrawn.

September 1, 2009

A player, unable to find his ball, puts another ball into play.
He then discovers that his original ball is in the hole.
What is the ruling?

	The substituted ball is in play under penalty of stroke and distance.
	The score with the original ball counts.
	The score with the original ball counts, but he must add 2 strokes for playing a wrong ball.
	The substituted ball is in play - no penalty.

The correct answer is B - Definition of "Ball in Play"; Decision 1-1/2 The score with the original ball counts. The play of the hole was completed when the player holed that ball.

August 19, 2009

The phrase "Through the Green" means:

	the area of the golf course beyond the putting green.
	the entire area of the golf course except for hazards.
	the entire area of the golf course except the teeing ground and putting green of the hole being played and all hazards.
	the entire area of the golf course except for all of the teeing grounds, putting greens and hazards.

The correct answer is C - Definition of "Through the Green". On a side note here, it's important to understand that the Rules of Golf do not distinguish between "fairway" and "rough". If a ball does not lie on the teeing ground or the putting green of the hole being played, or it does not lie in a hazard, then it lies through the green. This is an important distinction because if the Local Rules allow for relief of an embedded ball "through the green", this means that if your ball embeds in the rough, you are entitled to relief. This also means that if you are taking relief, say from casual water or ground under repair in the rough and your nearest point of relief plus a club length happens to put you in the fairway, then you are entitled to drop the ball in the fairway. This is a good example of how knowing the Definitions and the Rules can help get you out of a marginal lie into a much better lie (of course the opposite is true as well)!

August 10, 2009

Which answer is FALSE?
A "wrong ball" :

	is any ball other than the player's ball in play.
	includes an abandoned ball.
	includes another player's ball.
	includes a ball incorrectly substituted.

The correct answer is D - Definition of "Wrong Ball", Rule 15-2. If a player substitutes a ball when not permitted under the Rules, the substituted ball becomes the ball in play under penalty of 2 strokes and the player MUST continue play of the hole with the substituted ball.

Here's another example of where simply knowing and/or understanding the Definitions in the front of the Rules Book will go a long way in helping you with any Rules situations you might encounter during a round of golf.

August 4, 2009

Which of the following statements is FALSE with respect to
"Out of Bounds"

	The out of bounds line extends vertically upwards and downwards.
	If the ball is in bounds, but the stakes identifying out of bounds interfere with the player's stance or area of intended swing, they may be moved.
	A ball is out of bounds when all of it lies out of bounds.
	Stakes identifying out of bounds are not obstructions and are deemed to be fixed.

The correct answer is B - Definition of "Out of Bounds" - Objects defining "out of bounds" such as walls, fences, stakes and railings are not obstructions and are deemed to be fixed. When both stakes and lines are used to indicate "out of bounds", the stakes identify the "out of bounds" and the lines define the "out of bounds". Stakes identifying the "out of bounds" are also deemed to be fixed and are not obstructions.

Therefore, there is no relief from the stakes that identify (or define) out of bounds. If the ball is in bounds, but the stakes interfere with the stance, area of intended swing, or line of play, the player gets no free relief. The player may play the ball or declare it unplayable. If the player removes a stake that interferes but replaces it prior to playing the shot, the player is still penalized 2 strokes. The player was in breach of Rule 13-2 the moment he moved the stake and there is nothing he can do to avoid the penalty. Replacing the post prior to playing the shot is irrelevant. (Decision 13-2/25)

July 21, 2009

Which of the following statements is TRUE with respect to a
"Immovable Obstruction"

	An immovable obstruction is anything artificial that cannot be moved without unduly delaying play, without unreasonable effort or without causing damage.
	A movable obstruction can never be declared an immovable obstruction.
	There is no relief from an immovable obstruction in a water hazard.
	There is no relief from an immovable obstruction in a bunker.

The correct answer is C - Rule 24-2b - "Except when the ball is in a water hazard or a lateral water hazard, a player may take relief from interference by an immovable obstruction ...."

An obstruction is anything artificial, including the artificial surfaces and sides of roads and paths and manufactured ice, except:

objects defining out of bounds, such as walls, fences, stakes and railings
any part of an immovable obstruction that is out of bounds
any construction declared by the Committee to be an integral part of the course

An obstruction is a movable obstruction if it may be moved without unreasonable effort, without unduly delaying play and without causing damage. Otherwise it is an immovable obstruction.

The Committee may make a Local Rule declaring a movable obstruction to be an immovable obstruction - good example - bird houses used to mark 150 yards at the sides of fairways. (see Definition of Obstructions)

July 15, 2009

Which of the following statements is TRUE with respect to a
"Provisional Ball"

	A player may play a provisional ball at any time.
	As long as 5 minutes has not passed, a player may always go back and play a provisional ball while others continue to search for his original ball.
	If the original ball is found in an unplayable lie, the player can opt to play the provisional ball.
	If the player plays a provisional ball for a ball that is known or virtually certain to be in a water hazard, the "provisional ball" becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance and the player must abandon the original ball even if he finds it and can play it.

The correct answer is D - See the definition of "Provisional Ball" and Rule 27-2.

A provisional ball may only be played for a ball that might be lost outside a water hazard or out of bounds. If it is known or virtually certain that a ball is in a water hazard, a provisional ball may not be played. If the player plays a provisional ball in this situation, that ball is not a provisional ball - it becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance, and the original ball must be abandoned even if it is found and playable.

If a player properly plays a provisional ball and then finds his original ball and it is not out of bounds, he must abandon the provisional ball and proceed with the original ball, even if it is in an unplayable lie. If he continues play with the provisional ball when the original ball has been found in play, then he has played a wrong ball and must correct the error as provided in Rule 15-3.

A player must play a provisional ball before going forward to look for his original ball. What is considered "going forward"? Basically, if the player leaves the teeing area and goes more than 10 yards or so in the direction of his original ball, he is considered to have "gone forward". If the player searches for his ball for 2 minutes, doesn't find it and returns to the tee to play a "provisional ball" while his friends continue to search, that "provisional" ball (once he puts it in play) is not a provisional ball and becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance, even if his original ball is found within the 5 minutes.

Another thing to remember about a provisional ball is that the player must announce his intention to put a provisional ball into play. Simply saying "I'm going to hit another" or "I'm going to re-load" is not good enough. If a player were to use those words, the "provisional" ball is not a provisional and becomes the ball in play under stroke and distance. The reason for this is that under Rule 27-1, at any time, a player, under penalty of one stroke, may put another ball into play at a spot as near as possible to the spot from which the original ball was last played, i.e. proceed under penalty of stroke and distance. Therefore, if the player wishes to play a provisional ball, he must be certain to make his intentions clearly known!

June 29, 2009

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A ball is deemed "lost" if:

	It is not found or identified as his by the player within 5 minutes after the player's side (or his or their caddies) have begun to search for it.
	The player declares it "lost".
	The player has put another ball into play under penalty of stroke and distance.
	The player has made a stroke at a substituted ball.

The correct answer is B - See the definition of "Lost Ball". There are two more situations in the definition of Lost Ball in which a ball may be deemed lost.

A player cannot verbally declare his ball to be lost. He must take one of the actions listed in the definition of Lost Ball for the ball to be deemed lost.

If a player declares his ball lost and that ball is found within 5 minutes of searching for it and the player has not taken any of the actions listed in the definition of Lost Ball, then that original ball is in play and the player must proceed with that ball.

June 16, 2009

Steve's ball ends up in the back of a long fairway bunker. The rake is up in the front portion of the bunker.
Before Steve plays his shot, he walks forward through the bunker to retrieve the rake
and as he walks back to his ball, he lightly drags the rake behind him to smooth the footprints he's made.
George, his fellow-competitor, tells Steve that he just incurred a 2 stroke penalty for testing the conditions.
Steve argues that he is entitled, in equity (Rule 1-4), to the lie which his stroke gave him.

Who is correct?

	George is correct - Steve adds 2 to his score for the hole.
	Steve is correct - he is entitled to the lie which his stroke gave him.

The correct answer is A - Rule 13-2, Rule 13-4; Decision13-2/29 - Steve incurred a 2 stroke penalty for raking/smoothing his footprints behind him after he walked forward to retrieve the rake prior to playing his ball which lay in the back of the same bunker. This is covered by Rule 13-2 (Improving Lie, Area of Intended Stance or Swing, or Line of Play) and Rule 13-4a (Ball in Hazard; Prohibited Actions).

Let's start with Rule 13-2 - When Steve smoothed his footprints, he improved his line of play - he had to play his next shot over or on that line that he smoothed - 2 stroke penalty. But he claimed that he is entitled to the lie that his shot gave him and the area in front of his ball did not have footprints when his ball landed there. Well, yes, that is true if the lie is altered by someone or something other than the player (without the player's authority). There is a Decision - 13-2/29 - that states that if the player worsens the lie of his own ball, the area of his intended swing, or the line of his play, he is not entitled to restore that area to its original condition! Steve also breached Rule 13-4 because by smoothing his footprints, he is deemed to have tested the conditions of the bunker, also a 2 stroke penalty.

It appears as if Steve should get a total of 4 penalty strokes since he breached two different Rules; however this would hardly be fair. In equity, there is a Decision - 1-4/12 - that covers what happens when a player breaches the Rules more than once prior to making a stroke. When a player breaches two Rules with one single act, then only a single penalty is applied. In this situation the penalty was the same for each breach - 2 strokes. In a situation where one single act breaches two different Rules and the penalty is different for each Rule, then the more severe of the two penalties must be applied.

June 11, 2009

Peter is playing in a stroke play event and on the 9th hole, he misses
a 2 foot putt coming and going! The ball ends up on the lip of the hole. In disgust,
he picks up the ball and walks off the green. His fellow-competitor advises him as they
walk toward the 10th tee, that Peter is probably disqualified for failing to hole out.
They decide to head to the clubhouse to ask the Pro what the correct ruling is.

	Peter incurs a two stroke penalty for failing to hole out.
	Peter incurs a one stroke penalty and must replace his ball and hole out or he is disqualified if he doesn't correct this before he tees off on the 10th hole.
	Peter is indeed disqualified for failing to hole out.
	No penalty.

The correct answer is B - Rule 18-2a; Rule 3-2. This is a 2 part/2 Rule answer! When Peter picked up his ball from the lip of the hole in disgust, he incurred a 1 stroke penalty under Rule 18-2a for lifting his ball in play. Rule 18-2a states that if the ball is moved or lifted, it must be replaced. If Peter failed to replace the ball and hole out, then under Rule 3-2, he would be disqualified if he did not correct this mistake before he made a stroke on the next teeing ground. If this had happened on the last hole of the round, then Peter would have been disqualified if he didn't correct the mistake before he left the putting green.

In this situation, we are assuming that when Pete goes back to replace the ball, he replaces it on the correct spot. If he replaced the ball in the wrong place and holed out from there, he would have incurred the general penalty of 2 strokes under Rule 18-2.

May 26, 2009

John hits his tee shot into a water hazard. He opts to drop a ball approximately 15 yards behind
the water hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard
directly between the hole and the spot on which he drops the ball. When John drops the ball, it lands
and rolls about a foot closer to the hole from where it hit the ground. John lifts the ball and drops it again
and this time the ball hits the ground and doesn't roll forward. John proceeds to hit the ball and it lands on the green.
How many penalty strokes has John incurred?

	0
	1
	2
	3

The correct answer is D - Rule 20-2c(vii)(c). John incurred a total of 3 penalty strokes - 1 stroke when he opted to take relief from the water hazard and proceed under Rule 26-1b. John proceeded correctly when he dropped the ball approximately 15 yards behind the water hazard, keeping the spot where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard between the hole and the spot on which he dropped the ball. When John dropped the ball the first time, the ball was in play, even though it rolled closer to the hole than the spot on which it was dropped. Under Rule 20-2c(vii)(c), John was not required to re-drop the ball because 1) it did not roll more than two club-lengths from the spot where it first hit the ground and 2) it did not roll closer to the hole than the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the hazard!

So, when John lifted the ball in play, he incurred a penalty of 1 stroke under Rule 18-2 and when he dropped the ball a second time and played it from the new position, he played from a wrong place and incurred the general penalty under Rule 20-2c which is 2 strokes, but no further penalty under Rule 18-2, so in other words a total of 2strokes for breach of Rule 20-2c. This is one of those situations where 1 + 2 = 2. He still incurs the penalty for taking relief from the water hazard, so the total number of penalty strokes he incurs is 3.

The ball that John hit onto the green is now the ball in play, unless by playing from a wrong place, John committed a serious breach. If he had committed a serious breach, he would have been required to correct the error before teeing off the next hole. If he failed to correct the error, he would have been disqualified. However, in this particular instance, John did not commit a serious breach. Even though he played from a wrong place, it was fairly close to the spot where he should have played from and he did not gain a significant advantage.

May 11, 2009

Henry is getting ready to start his round on the first tee. He tees up his ball, swings at it and
misses it completely. He pushes the tee further into the ground and hits the ball down the middle
of the fairway. How many strokes does Henry lie at this point?

	Four - the stroke (whiff) counts, plus the shot down the fairway. Since the ball was in play after the whiff, Henry incurred a one stroke penalty under 18-2a for moving his ball when he pushed the tee further into the ground and he was required to replace it. Since he didn't replace the ball, he incurs the general penalty of two strokes for a total of four.
	Three - the stroke (whiff) counts, plus the shot down the fairway, plus one penalty stroke under stroke and distance.
	Two - the stroke (whiff) counts, plus the shot down the fairway.
	One - the ball was not in play and since he didn't make contact with the ball, the stroke (whiff) doesn't count.

The correct answer is B - Decision 18-2a/1. Henry lies three in the middle of the fairway. When he made a stroke at the ball, even though he missed it completely, the ball was now in play (see Definition of "Ball in Play"). By pushing the tee further into the ground, he moved the ball and incurred a penalty of one stroke under Rule 18-2a and was required to replace it. However, when Henry made a stroke at the ball without replacing it, he played under penalty of stroke and distance (see Rule 27-1a). This procedure overrides Rule 18-2a and, therefore, the penalty under Rule 18-2a does not apply. This Decision was revised when Rule 27-1 was clarified. At any time, a player may, under penalty of one stroke, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (See Rule 20-5), i.e., proceed under penalty of stroke and distance.

Prior to this clarification, Henry would have incurred the general penalty of two strokes under Rule 18-2a, for moving his ball in play when he pushed the tee further in the ground and then failing to replace it prior to playing his next shot. This would have meant that he would be lying four in the middle of the fairway after having made contact with the ball only one time! Since this seemed unnecessarily severe, the Decision was revised with the clarification of Rule 27-1 (proceeding under stroke and distance).

May 5, 2009

Peter is playing in a State competition that has adopted the Local Rule allowing players to obtain distance
information using devices that measure distance only. His wife gave him a brand-new range finder for
his birthday that has all the bells and whistles - including the capability of measuring gradient or slope.
Peter knows that he cannot use that function, so he turns off function and uses the range finder
to measure only distance. What is the ruling?

	No penalty since the gradient function was disabled.
	1 stroke penalty.
	2 stroke penalty.
	Peter is disqualified.

The correct answer is D - Rule 14-3 - See "Note" at the end of Rule - The Committee may make a Local Rule allowing players to use devices that measure or gauge distance only. In Appendix I, Part B, Specimen Local Rule 9 states that "...If, during a stipulated round, a player uses a distance measuring device that is designed to gauge or measure other conditions that might affect his play (e.g., gradient, wind speed, temperature, etc.), the player is in breach of Rule 14-3, for which the penalty is disqualification, regardless of whether any such additional function is actually used."

April 28, 2009

Jeremy has been having a tough day on the golf course playing in his club's stroke play championship.
He has three putted 6 of the greens and when he gets to the 14th green, he is again
faced with a difficult 40 foot putt. He leaves his 2nd putt on the lip of the hole and in disgust,
turns his putter upside down and taps the putt in with the grip end of the putter.
What is the ruling?

	No penalty provided he took a normal stance and addressed the ball properly.
	Jeremy incurs a 1 stroke penalty.
	Jeremy incurs a 2 stroke penalty.
	Jeremy is disqualified.

The correct answer is C - Rule 14-1. The ball must be fairly struck at with the head of the club .... Believe it or not, this ruling actually occurred in the Big East Conference Championship this past April!

February 5, 2009

Bob and John are playing a singles match. Bob knocks his putt to within a foot of the hole.
John's ball lies 4 feet from the hole. Instead of marking his ball and letting John putt,
Bob knocks his ball into the hole.
What is the ruling?

	Bob incurs a 1 stroke penalty for putting out of turn.
	Bob incurs a 2 stroke penalty for putting out of turn.
	Bob loses the hole for putting out of turn.
	Bob incurs no penalty. John may ask Bob to replace his ball and putt again when it is his (Bob's) turn to putt, provided John makes the request before he (John) plays his next stroke.

The correct answer is D - Rule 10-1c. If a player plays when his opponent should have played, there is no penalty, but the opponent may immediately require the player to cancel the stroke so made and, in correct order, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played.