Last
week during the Associate Club Championship we had a few interesting situations
that occurred, not to mention some pace of play situations that led to
penalties.
Wrong Ball
In
an event with handicaps ranging from 0 to about 25, you’re bound to have a few
mishaps. During the first round
between the fifth and seventh holes one player accidentally played another
player’s ball. The ruling is simple,
the player who played the wrong ball must correct the error by playing the
correct ball and incurs a two-stroke penalty. But now we have to get the fellow-competitor’s ball back
into play. Rule 15-3 says, “if the
wrong ball belongs to another competitor, its owner must place a ball on the
spot from which the wrong ball was first played.” If the original spot is known and the lie has not been
altered this is pretty simple, and in this case that’s what happened.
Touching the Green
While
speaking with our timing official between the 9th and 18th
holes of Spyglass Hill during the 2nd round, a player walked up and
stated his problem, “Before my partner’s putt I touched the putting green in
pointing out a line for him. I get
the penalty right, because I touched the green?”
On
one hand, he was correct that there was a penalty. On the other hand, the penalty actually went to his partner,
or really he should be considered the player for this situation. Rule 8-2b states, “When the player’s
ball is on the putting green, the player, his partner or either of their
caddies may before, but not during the stroke, point out a line for putting,
but in doing so the putting green must not be touched.” The Rule doesn’t limit or penalize the
people who touch the green, but the person who is having the line indicated for
him. So even though the partner touched
the putting green, the player received the penalty.
Ball on a Rake
Another
Rules question arose while at the turn as a player wanted to clarify a
situation that had occurred several holes back. His ball had come to rest against a rake. When he removed the rake, the ball
moved. “So I was supposed to play
it from where it came to rest right?”
Unfortunately for the player, the answer is no. He had played the ball from where it
came to rest, and unfortunately that meant he incurred a two-stroke penalty for
playing from a wrong place in breach of Rule 24-1a. Rule 24-1a states, “if the ball moves, it must be replaced
and there is no penalty provided that the movement of the ball is directly
attributable to the removal of the obstruction.” In this player’s case, he had every right to remove the
obstruction and when the ball moved as a result of moving the obstruction he
had to put it back. Since he
didn’t put it back he played from a wrong place. He took the penalty well and added it to his score card on
the spot.
Pace of Play
During
the final round we had two pace of play penalties stick, including one to the
final group of the day. We had 6
pace of play appeals throughout the day.
The reason these two penalties did not go away is because there was
nothing that warranted waiving the penalties. They were both18 minutes or more behind the group in front
of them. They were 4 minutes and
13 minutes behind the pace of play.
Nothing occurred on the final hole or holes that caused them to miss
their time. Although we look for
every reason not to penalize a group, there was nothing in the appeal that
warranted rescinding the penalties.
Because of the 2 best ball of 4 format, the penalty actually had no
effect whatsoever on the final pairing, and the earlier penalty had no effect
on the competition as they were nowhere near win, place or show.
(For
those following this is under the NCGA Pace of Play – Two Checkpoint Policy in
the Pace of Play section of the blog)
Interesting
to note is that 5 of the 6 groups that missed a checkpoint and were subject to
a one-stroke penalty had caddies. There were few other groups in the field that used caddies,
if any. In net championships, it is clear that players do not know how to
properly use caddies and that caddies do not care about pace of play whether
they say so or not.
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