It is a very windy day. You chip your ball onto the green on hole #8, and it rolls up close to the pin. You walk forward to tap it in for a 5. You take your stance and ground your club. Then before you can swing your putter back the wind moves your ball closer to the hole.
What would you do?
You had already addressed your ball when it moved. Therefore you are ‘deemed’ to have moved it and must take a one-stroke penalty. But should you replace it?
A. You know you almost always have to replace your ball when something moves it, so you replace it now.
B. Wind moved your ball. You feel the ball should be played from where the wind moved it.
A is correct.
If you had not yet addressed your ball when the wind moved it, you would play it from where it lay. But since in this instance you had addressed it you are deemed to have moved it, yourself. So you have to take a penalty stroke and replace your ball. If you don’t, you will be playing from a wrong place and penalized for that.
Open your Rules of Golf book to Rule 18-2b. You will see:
b. Ball Moving After Address
If a player’s ball in play moves after he has addressed it (other than as a result of a stroke), the player is deemed to have moved the ball and incurs a penalty of one stroke. The ball must be replaced unless the movement of the ball occurs after the player has begun the stroke or the backward movement of the club for the stroke and the stroke is made.
There is a simple way to avoid this penalty. On windy days don’t ground your club until you are ready to putt. You have addressed the ball only when you have taken your stance and have also grounded your club. On a windy day take your stance but don’t let your club touch the ground until you are ready to putt. Then if the wind moves your ball you will not be penalized and you will not have to replace it.
REMEMBER: If it is windy, don’t ground your club until you are ready to putt.
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