Know the Rules

Now what do I do?
By MIKE SWEENEY, Director of Rules and Competitions

Question: I thought I hit my ball into a lateral water hazard. I dropped under the water hazard rule within two club lengths of where my ball crossed into the hazard. After I played my shot to the green I found my original ball 25 yards closer to the hole, outside the hazard! Which ball do I play?

Answer: Decision 26-1/3 in Decisions on the Rules of Golf covers this situation. When you dropped and played another ball next to the hazard, it became the ball in play and the original ball was lost. If there was reasonable evidence that the original ball was in the water hazard, the player is entitled to invoke Rule 26-1 (Relief for Ball in Water Hazard). The penalty in both stroke and match play is one stroke for taking relief under Rule 26-1. Pick up the original ball and stick it back in your golf bag, as it is no longer the ball in play. If you were to play the original ball you would now be playing a wrong ball.

Refer to Decision 26-1/1 for the meaning of “reasonable evidence.” It states: “the term reasonable evidence in Rule 26-1 is purposely and necessarily broad so as to permit sensible judgments to be reached on the basis of all the relevant circumstances of particular cases. As applied in this context, a player may not deem his ball lost in a water hazard simply because he thinks the ball may be in the hazard. The evidence must be preponderantly in favor of it being in the hazard. Otherwise, the ball must be considered lost outside the hazard and the player must proceed under Rule 27-1 (Ball Lost or Out of Bounds).

“Physical conditions in the area,” the decision continues, “have a great deal to do with it. For example, if a water hazard is surrounded by a fairway on which a ball could hardly be lost, the existence of reasonable evidence that the ball is in the hazard would be more likely than if there was deep rough in the area. Observing a ball splash in a water hazard would not necessarily provide reasonable evidence as splashing balls sometimes skip out of hazards. It would depend on all the circumstances.”

In the question above, in the absence of reasonable evidence that the original ball was in the water hazard, the player was required to put another ball into play under Rule 27-1. In playing the ball dropped under Rule 26-1, the player played from a wrong place. In match play, he incurred a penalty of loss of hole (Rule 20-7b, Playing from Wrong Place in Match
Play). In stroke play, he incurred the stroke-and-distance penalty prescribed by Rule 27-1 and an additional penalty of two strokes for a breach of that Rule. If the breach was a serious one, he was subject to disqualification unless he corrected the error as provided in Rule 20-7c (Playing from Wrong Place in Stroke Play).

We had a similar situation occur in the recent SCGA Amateur Championship. A player’s ball hit a tree adjacent to a water hazard. An official was on the spot and saw the ball hit the tree but didn’t see it come out. After a five-minute search, the official ruled correctly that the player had to assume the ball was lost and go back to the tee.

Speaking of recent tournaments, the California Amateur Championship provided its share of interesting rulings.

Many of those incidents happened on No. 14 of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes course, a beautiful 177-yard par 3 situated between 17 Mile Drive and the Pacific Ocean. It played extremely difficult during the two stroke-play rounds because of the 20-30 mph winds directly into the player’s faces.

John McClure incurred a two-stroke penalty on the 14th green when he pressed his ball down on the putting green. McClure’s ball was oscillating in the strong winds coming off the ocean. Prior to addressing the ball, McClure reached down to stop his ball from oscillating. He readjusted and pressed his ball down on to the putting green to stop it from oscillating in the wind. McClure incurred a two-stroke penalty under Rule 18. Decision 18-2a/6 covers this exact ruling:

Question: A ball lying on the putting green was oscillating due to wind. The player firmly pressed the ball into the surface of the green and the ball stopped oscillating. The player then holed out. Was the player in breach of the Rules?

Answer: Yes. The player incurred a penalty stroke under Rule 18-2a when he moved his ball by pressing on it. Since the original lie of the ball was altered when the ball was firmly pressed down, the player was obliged to proceed under Rule 20-3b. Since he did not do so, he lost the hole in match play and incurred a total penalty of two strokes in stroke play — see penalty statement under Rule 18.

McClure would not have incurred a penalty had he marked the position of the ball prior to touching it. With the addition of the penalty strokes McClure fell into a playoff for the final qualifying spots into match play. He chipped in for par on the third playoff hole (hole No. 3) to survive the playoff and qualify for the last spot into match play. He eventually made it all the way to the semifinals.

Have a Rules question? Contact foremagazine@scga.org.