Dear Linda,
Recently in a match play match the following occurred. Playing three matches at the same time (2 single matches and one better ball match), John and Jack were partners and Peter and Paul were partners. John and Peter played a singles match. So did Jack and Paul. John and Jack played a better ball match against Peter and Paul. Lift, clean and place was allowed.
John played from the beginning a Bridgestone ball and his opponent Peter played a Titleist, but changed during the round to Bridgestone, which he didn't announce and John didn't notice. At a certain hole, both hit a shot to the front of the green and both balls ended up close to each other. Peter walked to the first ball, marked it, picked it up, cleaned it and placed it back and hit the ball in the bunker.
In the first instance, when John came up walking behind Peter, John thought that Peter was walking to John's ball, but since Peter picked it up, cleaned it, placed it and played it, he expected that it was Peter's ball indeed.
John walked to the second ball, saw that it was a Bridgestone and, without checking carefully, played that ball and hit it close to the pin with a good chance to win the hole. John marked that ball and put it in his pocket waiting for the other three players to hit their balls.
Peter went in the bunker to play his ball and saw a marking on the ball that he didn't recognize and asked John if he had a certain red mark on his ball. John said "yes", looked at the ball in his pocket and discovered that there was no mark on the ball he had played.
Conclusion: Peter had played John's ball and after that John had played Peter's ball.
Rulings:
John's opinion:
- He admitted that he should have carefully examined the ball he was going to hit and therefore was responsible for hitting a wrong ball.
- Peter lost that hole in his singles match against John since Peter was the first one who played a wrong ball, which results in loss of hole.
- The fact that John played the wrong ball after him didn't affect his singles match, but affected the better ball match.
- Therefore John and Peter were out of the better ball match for that hole since they both played a wrong ball and it was up to Jack and Paul to decide the outcome of that hole for the better ball match.
Peter's opinion:
Peter agreed with the result for the better ball match, but disagreed with the result for the singles match: in his opinion, the hole was halved since they both played a wrong ball.
I would appreciate your always accurate and well-documented opinion.
Best Regards,
Lou Lou
Dear Lou Lou,
I am going to try to make my answer very succinct, Lou, since I suspect everyone’s head must be spinning by now.
Peter was the first player to hit a wrong ball. As soon as he did so, he lost the hole to his opponent John. Rule 15-3a explains that, in match play, when a player hits his opponent’s ball, and his opponent then hits the player’s ball, the first player to make a stroke at the wrong ball loses the hole.
Both Peter and John are disqualified from the hole in the better ball match, since each of them hit a wrong ball. The better ball point for that hole will be determined by the play of Jack and Paul.
I imagine it is clear to everyone at this point that the whole situation could have been avoided had Peter observed the courtesy of informing John when he switched from a Titleist to a Bridgestone. I hope this also drives home the importance of drawing distinctive markings on your golf balls.
Linda
Copyright © 2009 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
