Friday, September 21, 2012

Ask Linda #527-Lifting another player’s ball


Linda, an incident came about yesterday when a player picked up my ball to identify it. I knew it was my ball and asked her what she was doing. She said she could do that to identify it as long as she replaced it exactly as it was. It is my understanding that she should have announced her intention and marked it before lifting it. More specifically since I was 99.99% sure that it was mine, I should have marked and lifted it to identify it.
Lulu from Austin, Texas

Dear Lulu,

In stroke play, if a fellow competitor lifts a competitor’s ball without the competitor’s authority, there is no penalty and the ball must be replaced [Rule 18-4].

In match play, if an opponent lifts your ball without your authority, the opponent incurs a one-stroke penalty and the ball must be replaced [Rule 18-3b].

If you want to avoid endless arguments and frantic searching through the rulebook during your round, leave identification of a ball to the player whose ball it might be.

Linda
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