How to Proceed |
- Question for Febuary 4, 2023 |
A player's 2nd shot goes into a penalty area. The player takes lateral relief and properly drops a ball. Prior making a stroke the player accidentally moves their ball. At the same time, the other players in the group find the player's ball in a different location in the water. The player picks up their dropped ball, goes to the new location, takes lateral relief again, and holes out in 4 more strokes. What is the player's score for the hole? A. 6 B. 7 C. 8 D. The player has played from a wrong spot and in doing so they have committed a serious breech. If the player doesn’t correct this error before teeing off of the next hole they are disqualified from the event. |
Answer: B |
Narrative |
Determining the spot where a
ball has last crossed the margin of the penalty area often happens during a
round of golf. Rule 1.3b(2) deals with how a player should proceed and what is
expected of a player when applying the rules. 1.3b. Applying the Rules (1) Player Responsibility for Applying the
Rules. Players are responsible for applying the Rules to themselves:
(2) Accepting Player’s “Reasonable Judgment”
in Determining a Location When Applying the Rules.
In this week’s question the
player correctly estimated the point that the ball had entered the penalty area
based upon their knowledge under rule, 1.3B(1) bullet point 3, and dropped a
ball within the relief area using this reference spot. After this process was
completed, and before the player made the next stroke, the other players in the
group located the players original ball in a different location of the penalty
area which then requires the player to lift the previously dropped ball and
proceed in accordance with the new reference spot where the ball is estimated
to have crossed the line, Rule 1.3b(2) 4th bullet point. Our player correctly lifts the dropped ball and in accordance with the rules drops in the new location using the correct reference point. Most of us are aware that when we accidentally cause our ball to move in the general area a 1 stroke penalty is applied. But what happens in this case? Does the penalty still apply?? Based upon rule 9.4b Exception 1 it does not. 9.4b Penalty for Lifting or
Deliberately Touching Ball or Causing It to Move If the player lifts or
deliberately touches their ball at rest or causes it to move, the player gets
one penalty stroke. But there are five exceptions: Exception 1 - Player
Allowed to Lift or Move Ball: There
is no penalty when the player lifts the ball or causes it to move
under a Rule that:
Based upon this information we
can now determined the correct score for the playing of this hole. The player
took 6 talent strokes and gets one penalty stroke added to their score for
penalty area relief under Rule 17. The penalty stoke for accidentally causing
their ball to move is disregarded when the player is required to play from the
new location under Rule 9.4b Exception 1. Therefore, we now know that the
players score is 7, making this week’s answer B. |
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