You are playing hole #2 and two drives have landed in the deep rough on the right side of the fairway. You know where your ball landed so you drive to that spot, find a ball and hit it. Then you point to the other ball nearby and see that it is in fact your own ball. Oh, no! You have hit a wrong ball. A two stroke penalty! “I’m sorry,” you cry. "I hit your ball by mistake. But here, I know exactly where it was." You pull another ball out of your pocket and place it where her ball was.
The owner of the ball walks over, takes her stance and hits the ball. But then one of the other players challenges her. “You, the ball’s owner, have to place the ball. You can’t let her do it for you. That’s a 2 stroke penalty.”
What should the owner do?
A. The owner knows the challenger is right so she takes a 2 stroke penalty.
B. The owner knows the challenger is right but says the penalty is only 1 stroke.
B is correct.
Look at Rule #15
15-3 Wrong Ball
If the wrong ball belongs to another player, its owner must place a ball on the spot from which the wrong ball was first played.
And look at Rule 20-3
If the ball is placed or replaced by any other person and the error is not corrected as provided in Rule 20-6, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke.
This is new. In 2008 this rule was changed to reduce the penalty from 2 strokes to 1 stroke.
REMEMBER: If someone hits your ball by mistake, be sure that you, the ball’s owner, place a new ball on the spot from where it was hit.
No comments:
Post a Comment