Dear Linda,
“Tend it for me would you please?” I asked a fellow senior as I aimed a putt from way out in 3-putt territory. He shambled up to do my bidding and I leased off a mighty swipe. Up the hill it went, roughly where I had hoped it would, and then as it slowed it took this mighty curve to head down towards where my fellow and the cup awaited. It got to look less and less hopeless as time passed, but regrettably its progress hypnotised my companion and he stood there with his hand on the stick, the stick in the hole, and his mind in Park. “Get the pin out you daft ****” I yelled in my excitement, but he panicked and managed to jam it and that’s where it was when the ball ran gently into the hole. My greatest putt ever.
We resolved the issue without too much blood, or recourse to the Rules of Golf (RoG). However, if this had happened in a competition and this fellow had been my opponent, I can’t find the place in the RoG where it says I could kill him. Can you advise? (Do what’s fair, it says, and I’m not sure it would be fair to take a 2 shot penalty.)
With best wishes,
Lou
Dear Lou,
When a player’s putt from on the green hits a flagstick that is being attended, has been removed, or is in the hole unattended, the penalty is two strokes (loss of hole in match play). The penalty is assessed to the player, not to the doughhead attending the flagstick.
Attending a flagstick is a fairly serious responsibility. The attending player should check to see that the flagstick will be easy to remove, stand on the side where he doesn’t cast a shadow over the hole (but not on someone else’s line of putt), stand perfectly still so as not to distract the person putting, and pay attention. As soon as the ball is struck, the flagstick should be removed from the hole and the attending player should step away from the hole so that the player has an unobstructed view of the ball if it passes the hole. There is no good excuse for allowing a putt to strike the flagstick.
I’m relieved to learn that the bloodshed was minimal. I cannot find any reference in the Rules of Golf to hastening the demise of an opponent or fellow competitor. Sorry, Lou.
Linda
Copyright © 2012 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
