The post Rules Guy: Is a dead animal considered a loose impediment? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is a dead animal considered a loose impediment? appeared first on Golf.

The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

In a recent round, my drive wound up near a decomposing animal carcass that interfered with my swing path. After my group said a quick silent prayer for the dearly departed, we decided it was a loose impediment … but nobody wanted to watch me heave up my breakfast by trying to move it, so we decided a free drop was appropriate. Is there an actual rule that covers this situation? – Mickey Boland, via email 

Thank you, Mickey, for not specifying the animal, so that Rules Guy doesn’t have too clear a picture in his head.

The first decision you all made was correct — the dearly departed was indeed also a loose impediment. Here’s where it gets a little … messy: As a loose impediment, your free relief was to remove the carcass, which you are allowed to do in any way, so you need not have put your hands on it, and so forth, but a free drop would only be granted if the Committee decided to grant relief for ground under repair (see Definition of Loose Impediment and Rule 15.1).

If it were the remains of a larger animal, that might have been the appropriate solution. Regardless, Rules Guy will pass on the steak tartare tonight.

Rules

Rules Guy: What are the legal limits when removing loose impediments?

By: Rules Guy

For more loose-impediment guidance from our guru, read on …

When playing under winter rules, is it permissible to place your ball on a worm cast to elevate your ball prior to your shot? – Mike Dearden, via email

Mike, Rules Guy is going to be honest with you: we had to look up “worm cast.” You’re always learning in this business.

As to legality, when put into effect by the committee “winter rules,” a.k.a. the preferred lies local rule, lets you place the ball within a specified distance.

Beyond that, however, it’s still undergirded by the notion of playing the course as you find it. If there is worm cast (a loose impediment) within the specified radius of where your shot came to rest, you are by all means free to place your ball atop it — you just can’t pull some from beyond that area, or from your pants pocket or your golf bag, et cetera.

That said, if before you make your stroke the ball were to move due to natural forces, you’d have to play it as it lies — no replacing the ball atop the worm cast. And, with that, Rules Guy hopes and expects never to type “worm cast” again.

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

Alone on the course, I decided to play white ball versus yellow ball. I holed out everything and kept score for each ball. Can I enter both scores for handicap purposes? – Robert S. Altman, PhD, via email

Doctor Robert, in a word, no, you could not have.

From a Rules of Handicapping standpoint, Rule 2.1 states that a score is acceptable for handicap purposes if the round has been played by the Rules of Golf, among other criteria, and the Rules of Golf don’t allow more than one ball in play. (Rule 2.1 also notes that rounds played solo are not acceptable for handicap purposes.)

Not to go too far down the rabbit hole, but however you look at it there are legitimate reasons your dual rounds are both illegitimate. Regardless, this issue is settled law, so next time just play the one ball — and find someone to join you, for handicap and social purposes.

For more posting guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: Are scores using preferred lies acceptable for posting?

By: Rules Guy

I know that it is illegal to use the slope feature on a rangefinder in tournament play but that players can agree to waive the rule for casual play. My question: If the slope feature is used, can the score be posted for handicap purposes? – Thomas A. Franko, via email

Rules Guy, as you might imagine, isn’t big on casual. We do sometimes eschew a pocket square on casual Fridays, but that’s about it.

Regarding your question specifically: This situation does appear in a Clarification in the Rules of Handicapping: Clarification 2.1b/2 recommends that a score made while using a DMD (Distance Measuring Device, not to be confused with its distant relative WMD) to measure slope changes not be acceptable for handicap purposes.

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

I am hoping you can clarify Rule 23.8 – the restriction on a player standing behind their partner when stroke is played. At my club, we inform all foursomes match competitors that any breach of this rule will result in the general penalty being applied. Yet when you watch the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup or that televised Parent-Child tournament, you sometimes see a player clearly stand directly their partner to get a read on how the putt moves. Can this rule be excluded from the playing conditions? – Ken Shaw, New Zealand

Ken, we haven’t seen what you have been, at least in the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup, but your query is a chance to elucidate some related issues.

The restriction on being in the standing-behind position has a start time and a stop time. A player is allowed to be in this position for any reason before their partner starts taking their stance, and for any reason other than helping their partner’s aiming up until the stroke is made.

Again, in neither the Ryder Cup nor the Solheim Cup have we seen a partner in breach of Rule 23.8 or Rule 10.2b(4) given the requisite timelines. (We’ve seen plenty of horrible fan behavior, yes, but not that.)

Rules

Rules Guy: My playing partner's ball collided with mine before I could mark. Now what?

By: Rules Guy

Now, you may well have seen these Rules excluded in the parent-child event, the PNC Championship, which is a two-person scramble. Officially, no, you can’t just throw out a Rule of Golf; that said, scrambles are just a different beast and already toss aside any number of Rules, so there’s been general acceptance that 23.8 and 10.2b(4) just get excluded/ignored in scrambles.

Should the USGA or R&A ever put on a Scramble Championship, which might happen should hell freeze over, perhaps that would change.

For more partner-related guidance from our guru, read on …

Upon reaching our drives, my playing partner and I found that our golf balls were touching and perfectly lined up toward the hole. My ball was in front, so I marked it. His approach produced a massive divot; to replace my ball in its original spot would have meant being in this newly created divot. I claimed I was entitled to a free drop, he said I wasn’t. Who was right? – Brick Rigden, Parkville, Mo.

In a word, neither.

Under Rule 14.2d, you were entitled to relief but not a drop.

When you lifted for interference, you were required to replace the ball … but when the lie of a ball to be replaced is altered, you must replace it in a specific way. Namely, by replacing it on the nearest spot with a lie most similar to the original lie that’s within one club-length of said spot, no nearer the hole and in the same area of the course.

(Your scenario, we will note, more commonly occurs in bunkers, but the process is the same.) We hope this info doesn’t hit you like a ton of bricks, Brick!

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

My buddy pulled his approach shot pin-high but left of the elevated green. His ball was inside of the bordering cart path in the rough about 20 yards out. He has a clear stance, but his backswing to hit a clean pitch would hit a carved granite slab with the next hole’s number and distance info. I was about to suggest he take relief from this man-made object interfering with his swing when he somehow played a great shot that ended up within inches. When I asked why he hadn’t taken relief, he said it wasn’t possible because that only applied coming up to the green, not once around it — something about “through the green”? Since it wasn’t my ball and he pulled off the shot anyway, I didn’t follow up … but this doesn’t sound right to me. —Tom Enderle, via email

Without wanting to sound at all smug — heaven forbid! — we note that this revolves around a rather amusing misunderstanding of a pre-2019 Rules term. “Through the green” is what today we call the “general area” … and in fact had nothing to do with whether you had reached the green surrounding area or not.

Your buddy was allowed to take free relief before 2019 and was still allowed to do so now with his ball laying in the general area (and not through the green). Please refer to Rule 16.1 for all the specifics.

For more free-relief guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: Can you take free swing relief from a ball washer?

By: Rules Guy

A course I play planted several young trees recently but didn’t stake around them. Can I move my ball so as not to potentially damage a tree if it’s in my path to the hole? —Peter Bemis, La Crosse, Wis.

Model Local Rule E-10 treats young trees as no-play zones to protect them from damage, but it is the responsibility of the Committee to enact said rule and decide which trees are protected.

If the Committee hasn’t done so, nothing in the rules allows you to go rogue. That said, if you are unwilling to risk potential tree damage, you could always declare the ball unplayable and take penalty relief — and maybe win an award from the Sierra Club!

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

On the 18th hole of a match-play final, my drive embedded in the loose sand on the upslope of a fairway bunker. Spectators had seen my ball enter this bunker, but I couldn’t locate it. It was ruled a “lost ball,” and I returned to the tee, playing 3. I lost the hole and with it, the final. It’s always been a bad memory. Was the lost-ball ruling correct? And you’re not allowed to dig for the ball, right? – Martin Simpson, Sydney, Australia

Martin, we want you to sleep better at night, and here’s hoping what follows helps.

While you didn’t finish the way you wanted to, the ruling was correct. Even though you knew that the ball was somewhere in the bunker, to take any kind of relief other than stroke and distance — the penalty you paid for the lost ball — you must find the ball, per Rule 18.2….

Here’s what may lead to some tossing and turning, however: Because knowing a ball’s general whereabouts in a specific spot isn’t enough to identify a ball (see Rule 7.2), you were in fact allowed to dig for the ball to try to find it, under Rule 7.1. Sleep tight.

For more embedded-ball guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: Can an embedded ball be denied free relief?

By: Rules Guy

In stroke play, my fellow competitor skipped his tee shot over a pond, but the ball lodged in its muddy bank, which was not staked as out of bounds. He claimed embedded-ball relief and took relief in the general area. Although I disagreed, it was getting late and I wanted to finish. What was the correct ruling? – Larry Lohman, via email

The desire to finish a round, or simply end a disagreement without resorting to strong words or pistols at dawn, has precipitated countless bad rulings — including this one.

A body of water such as a pond is by definition a penalty area, even if it’s not staked. And when the edge is not defined by the committee in charge, it’s defined by its natural boundaries, in this case, where the ground breaks down toward the water.

So it sure sounds like that muddy bank is in the penalty area, and as such your fellow competitor wasn’t entitled to embedded ball relief, since there is no relief for other rules where the ball is in the penalty area per Rule 17.3. You can stake your reputation on that.

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The post Rules Guy: When playing lift, clean and place, can you use your club to roll the ball around? appeared first on Golf.

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

During a tournament with lift, clean and place in effect, a competitor kept placing his ball using the “hockey method” — i.e., rolling the ball around with his club until it was sitting ideally. I told him this was wrong but couldn’t cite specifics, and he’s still doing it months later. What’s the rule, and what’s the penalty? —Gary, via email

Gary, did you consider just pulling the guy’s golf shirt over his head and pummeling him? (Hockey humor!)

Your competitor is living in the past. Prior to 2019, his method wouldn’t have been an issue, but since then when the Rules require you to place a ball they require you to use the procedures for replacing. That means you need to set the ball down by hand (emphasis ours) and let it go — see Definition of Replace and Rule 14.2.

It would cost one penalty stroke each time for getting the ball on the right spot but in the wrong way. The Model Local Rule for “Lift, Clean and Place,” a.k.a. “Preferred Lies,” is E-3, and it specifies when placing you use the procedures for replacing just as we see in the rest of the Rule book. There is no mention of two minutes in the penalty box.

Rules

Rules Guy: Playing preferred lies, can I place my ball in first cut instead of fairway?

By: Rules Guy

For more placement guidance from our guru, read on …

When you can take relief from near the putting surface, do you place the ball or drop from knee height? More generally, on what occasions do you place rather than drop? —Jesse Trapp, via email

Jesse, remember the old advice you learned in school in case of fire, “stop, drop and roll”? This really has nothing to do with that — it just popped into our head.

Anyway, other than Preferred Lies (Model Local Rule E-3), you would place a ball when taking free relief for interference by an abnormal course condition when the ball was originally on the putting green — even if the nearest point of complete relief is off the putting green (see Rule 16.1d).

You would also end up placing, per Rule 14.3d, if two drops in the correct relief area in the general area roll outside that relief area. Drop, drop and place!

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

I play in a weekly league whose leaders have decided that the ball may be moved one club-length without penalty both in the general area and penalty areas. We don’t post our scores — but we are adhering to the league’s rules, and this doesn’t seem much different from the “ball in hand” played in many competitions due to course conditions. If we can’t post our scores, can the “lift, clean and place” crowd? – Clint Humphrey, Union, KY

Is it called “The Fast & Loose League”? Because it sounds like that’s how the powers that be are playing with the rules.

For starters, there’s a relief procedure to get out of penalty areas for one stroke and nothing that lets you just move a ball a club-length there.

But the real crux of the question seems to be: Are scores using preferred lies acceptable for posting purposes? The answer: The Committee at the golf course may adopt a Local Rule for preferred lies when course conditions warrant it. This Rule should be limited in duration and reviewed daily. Scores made while it’s in effect must (!) be posted for handicap purposes — unless score posting has been temporarily suspended.

You should check with the course before teeing off. Should you and your group adopt preferred lies on your own, your scores are still postable. That said, preferred lies should only be used when conditions justify it, because frequent use may yield a Handicap Index that’s too low, or what some people refer to as a “vanity-cap.”

Rules

Rules Guy: Is it legal to post scores when a rangefinder's slope function was engaged?

By: Rules Guy

For more score-posting guidance from our guru, read on …

The pace of play was really slow the other day, but the starter squeezed me in as a single. To kill time between shots, I played two balls, using the same ball first every shot and scoring only that ball. Can I post the round for handicap purposes? – Ray Mainville, McKinney, Texas

Rules Guy has been there, done that and bought the T-shirt, as the kids like to say nowadays. (Do they still say that? RG hopes so.)

What he didn’t do is post his score, because for a score to be acceptable for handicap purposes, the round must be played under the Rules of Golf — and playing two balls is not considered to be doing so.

The other fly in the ointment is that you also must play in the company of at least one other person for a score to be acceptable for handicap purposes. That was a somewhat controversial rules change but, remember, Rules Guy doesn’t make the rules — he’s just a guy who tries to elucidate them.

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

During a local tournament, I walked onto a green and spotted a pitching wedge obviously left by a group ahead. After we all putted out, I picked up the wedge and put it in the basket of my cart, thinking I would drop it off at the clubhouse at the turn or give it to its owner if we caught up with him. After I teed off on the next hole, a fellow competitor said I had violated Rule 4, having more than 14 clubs in my possession which called for a 4-stroke penalty. I argued that I never intended to use the club and did not even put it in my bag, so it couldn’t be a violation. What say you? – Rick Itami, Liberty Lake, WA

We say kudos to you for not telling this dunderhead to go pound sand or taking even more drastic action.

Clearly, there can be quite a difference between referencing a Rule and knowing what in fact it says. Rule 4 — 4.1, to be exact — specifically covers this courteous act, noting it does not add to one’s club count, so long as the club isn’t used. Your competitor was at best wrong and at worst trying to get one (or four) over on you.

Rules

Rules Guy: Can an extra shaft count as your 14th club?

By: Rules Guy

For more club-count related guidance from our guru, read on …

Can you carry clubs outside of your bag and not have them count toward the legal limit of 14? —Joseph Mills, Pinehurst, N.C.

Yes… but only if you balance them on your nose.

Come now, Joseph — 14 clubs maximum means 14 clubs maximum (per Rule 4.1b[1]), not 14 clubs and however many more you can stash under your armpit, in your opponent’s bag and behind bushes.

Breaching this rule is a two-stroke penalty per hole in stroke play, maximum two holes, and once you realize you’re in breach you must declare the extra clubs out of play immediately or be disqualified. Golf is a game of honor, not hoarding.

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

During a recent round, my tee shot forcefully struck a robot lawnmower, was deflected at 90 degrees, and went out of bounds. Without the deflection, the shot clearly would have been on the fairway. My playing partner was of the opinion that the lawnmower was an outside influence, and that I should replay the shot with no penalty. I wasn’t so sure and reloaded for 3 off the tee. Who was right? —John Deacon, via email

Did the robot not hear you yell, “Fore!”?

Sadly, the reload was the correct call. Your playing partner was right about the status of the lawnmower — it does fit into the outside influence category under the Rules. Unfortunately, however, that fact doesn’t change the ruling, because a ball played from off the putting green that is accidentally deflected by any outside influence is just played as it lies — which is this case means taking the penalty and playing again from the previous spot, per Rule 11.1.

Perhaps next time, clanking on off R2D2 will redound in your favor.

For more bad-bounce guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: Where do you drop a ball that carries a penalty area, but ricochets backward into it?

By: Rules Guy

A few weeks ago, I hit a perfect slam-dunk shot on a par 3…but our club has placed 2-inch pool noodles in the holes for COVID-19 reasons, and the ball bounced out. Our club pro said it was an ace. The state golf association said it probably was, too, but not having seen it suggested I talk with my fellow players. They all agreed the ball had landed directly in the hole. Do you agree that it was a hole-in-one (with an asterisk)?—Dennis Doherty, Lexington, Ky.

Dennis, there are no pictures on the scorecard, nor asterisks, question marks or parallelograms….The USGA hasn’t changed its guidance in terms of when a ball is considered holed.

It has to be, yes, holed…or with the limited exception of it resting against the flagstick with some portion of the ball below the surface.

Otherwise, sorry, you’ve got to play on, noodle or not.

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

Our group was teeing off on a par 3. I hit a nice shot about 10 feet left of the pin, then a playing partner hit one that, from our point of view, appeared to roll just inside of my ball. At the green, thinking his was closer, I marked the other ball…turns out that was his ball. We immediately noticed the mistake, and I replaced the ball to its original spot. Did I violate any rule, or is it “no harm, no foul”? – Scott Baxendale, Arlington Heights, IL

Happily and indubitably, it is the latter — no harm, no foul.

In stroke play, you’re an outside influence and as such wouldn’t be subject to penalty for lifting the other player’s ball anyway (see Rule 9.6). In match play (see Rule 9.5), while there is a one-stroke penalty attached to deliberately lifting an opponent’s ball, there is an exception for exactly the situation you describe — mistakenly lifting the ball thinking it’s your own.

As long as the ball was put back on the right spot, there is no penalty to anybody and play on … and make the putt, please!

For more mark-related guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: Is it a penalty to pick up an unmarked ball to avoid a collision?

By: Rules Guy

My brother and I both missed a green, on the same line, leaving treacherous downhill chips. He was away, and I said that I’d mark my ball despite it not being on the putting surface, as it might potentially assist him. Before I could, however, he chipped… and croqueted my ball over the other side of the green while his trickled down near the hole. I replaced my ball on the original spot and told him to replay his shot, as I’d wanted to mark. “Too bad,” was his reply. Penalty? Can’t you mark any time you think your opponent could gain an unfair advantage? – Peter Starshak, via email  

The relevant term, “helping ball,” only applies to a ball on the putting green. Ergo, since your ball wasn’t on the green you weren’t allowed to mark your ball solely because you thought it might help — your brother was allowed to make the stroke with it still in place.

Had your ball been on the putting green, the ruling’s script would be flipped; Rule 15.3a would penalize your brother the general penalty of loss of hole in match play or two strokes in stroke play for making the stroke without waiting for your ball to be marked.

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