Linda,
Thanks. After writing you [Ask Linda #169], I found the following in the Decisions of golf...it appears to give a different answer. Thoughts??
31-8. Effect of Other Penalties: If a competitor's breach of a Rule assists his partner's play, the partner incurs the applicable penalty in addition to any penalty incurred by the competitor. In all other cases where a competitor incurs a penalty for breach of a Rule, the penalty does not apply to his partner.
Lou Lou
Dear Lou Lou,
There is no rule prohibiting fixing spike marks that are not on your line of putt. You are always permitted (and encouraged) to repair damage to the green that will not assist you in your play of the hole. Your partner did not improve her line of putt, so there is no penalty to her. She did not breach a rule for herself.
When your partner fixed a spike mark on your line of putt, she was assisting you, her teammate, by improving your line. Since your line is the line that was improved, the penalty is yours for a breach of Rule 16-1c.
If the spike mark had also been on your partner’s line of putt, both of you would have incurred a two-stroke penalty.
Rule 31-8 is referring to a situation where you are penalized because you breached a rule, and your partner is also penalized if your breach assists her. For example, suppose both of your balls are lying in a bunker. Before you hit your ball, you pick up a fallen branch and toss it out of the bunker. You will be penalized two strokes under Rule 13-4c for moving a loose impediment in a hazard; you breached the rule. If your partner’s ball in the bunker was nearby, and removing that branch assisted her subsequent play, then Rule 31-8 tells you that your partner will also be assessed a two-stroke penalty. Your breach of a rule helped your partner.
Your partner did not breach a rule when she fixed a spike mark that was not on her line. The breach and penalty are yours when your partner breaks a rule to assist you. Her action improved your line; the two-stroke penalty is yours alone.
Linda
Copyright © 2009 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
