Hi Linda,
Last evening, in an individual stroke play competition, one
of the girls in the 4 in front of us was standing close enough to the pin to touch it – 2 others in
the 4 were off the green. The girl near the pin was looking away from the
player who actually chipped on first – the ball hit her on the foot. As
she was so close to the pin, the query is: Was she considered to be attending
the pin without permission from the player and thus did she incur a penalty for
the ball hitting her?
Thanks,
Lulu
Dear Lulu,
When a player stands
close enough to the flagstick to touch it, she is considered to be attending
it. In your scenario, the player who was chipping apparently did not notice
the other player next to the flagstick, and so did not ask her to attend it or
move away. Since the player standing at the flagstick did not have
authorization to attend it, she incurred a two-stroke penalty when the ball hit
her foot [Rule 17-2].
Most of the time, a player standing next to the flagstick
has been asked to attend it. When such attendance has been requested, the
two-stroke penalty is assessed to the player hitting the ball if the ball
subsequently hits the flagstick or the person attending it.
Linda
Copyright © 2013 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
