Dear Linda,
I've learned so much since subscribing to your website,
thank you very much. I have a question for you that came up during a society
tournament on Saturday.
The ball of one of my fellow competitors was on the green. I
chipped onto the green and my ball rolled slowly towards his and struck it,
moving it out of position. My ball stopped exactly where his had been and
his moved about 8 inches.
We proceeded as follows: I marked my ball as normal and took
it up leaving my marker there. He then placed his ball where mine had
been. Then I moved my marker one putter-head to the right to allow him to
putt. When he putted, I returned my marker back the one putter-head to the
original position and putted out.
My question, presuming we proceeded correctly in ball
placement procedures, is as follows: does it matter what order we putted in,
given that one of us was bound to show the other the line? Is there a rule or
decision to cover this, especially for match play, where it could cause some
debate? As it happened, he hit a poor putt and I proceeded to do the same,
learning nothing from his!!
Thanks,
Lou from Ireland
Dear Lou,
In both individual match play and stroke play, if two balls
are the same distance from the hole, the order of play is decided by lot [Rules
10-1b and 10-2b]. Flip a coin and carry on.
Your procedure was impeccable. Your failure to choose by lot
is not important and does not carry a penalty. It sounds like you agreed
amicably as to order, and “amicably” is not markedly different from “by lot.”
Linda
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