Hi Ladies:
It seems like the sun is finally coming out to stay so I’d better dust off my Rules quiz book. Here’s the first one for this year. Enjoy.
A. Here you are on the green of hole number one and while taking your practice strokes preparing to putt you strike your ball.
What penalty, if any have you incurred?
ANSWER. Although you certainly did not intend to strike the ball, and have not therefore made a stroke, you do incur a one stroke penalty under Rule 18-2a for causing the ball to move except as permitted by a Rule. You must replace the ball to where it was when you hit it accidentally.
B. After you are forced to take a drop as your ball goes into the lateral hazard on hole number 9, you find the nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole of course, and drop your ball according to the Rules. On the drop, the ball rolls approximately 25 feet from the place where it first struck the course when dropped. The ball didn’t roll closer to the hole.
Is a re-drop necessary?
ANSWER. Rule 20-2 requires a ball to be re-dropped if it rolls more than two club-lengths from the spot where your dropped ball first touched the golf course.
You must re-drop the ball.
C. During a round in a team play event you witness a Rules breach by your opponent in match play.
After completion of the round, you go to the Rules committee to inform them of the violation and seek a ruling.
Did you proceed correctly to receive a ruling on the violation?
ANSWER. Sadly no, you missed several steps.
According to Rule 2-5, the Rules committee can only consider a claim if the reporting player has informed his opponent that he/she is making the claim, the facts of the claim, and his desire for a ruling.
The claim must be made before any player in the match plays from the next teeing ground or, if the last hole, before all players have left the final green.
D. Anna and Maria are playing against one another in a match-play competition.
While both are on the putting green preparing to putt, Anna marks Maria’s ball and tosses it to her as a courtesy.
Is either person subject to a penalty?
ANSWER. Rule 20-1 states that a player’s ball may be lifted by an opponent with the player’s permission. Since Anna did not ask for permission to mark and lift the ball, she has innocently run afoul of the Rules and incurs a one-stroke penalty according to Rule 18-3(b)].
E. During a round played in a severe Discovery Bay wind, Sally’s ball comes to rest on the green. As the players approach the green, the ball begins to move, blown by the wind, away from the hole.
Sally says the ball was moved by an outside agency and she replaces her ball near the spot where it rested before it began to move.
Did Sally act correctly?
ANSWER. No, she did not.
Under the Rules of Golf wind is not considered an outside agency.
The ball must be played from wherever the wind blew it to, whether that was nearer to, or farther from the hole.
I hope this helps you, and the sun stays out!
Hilary
dbwgc.com 