Dear Linda,
We had an incident last Friday that is similar to but not
exactly the same as the situation you clarified in Ask Linda 266 - which
covered a ball marker moving.
One of our group, player A, marked his ball on the green
and then walked to the hole in order to tend the flag for player B
who was further from the hole than A.
After B had putted, A and the rest of the group noticed that
A's ball marker was beside his foot as he stood tending the pin, and not where
it should have been, i.e., 20ft from the hole.
Neither he nor the group could explain how it had got there.
We presumed it may have caught on his shoe, as nobody else had been in the
vicinity of his marker. However he tried to re-create this and was
unable. The marker itself was a small metal coin, which would not
have moved in the light wind, we felt.
We agreed on the point where we felt the marker should have
been; he moved the marker back there and putted out.
Can you clarify the procedure, and penalty involved, in this
situation?
A further question comes to mind also. Had we felt that
another player could have been responsible for A's marker moving, would the
penalty situation change?
Many thanks for your wonderful emails, and I look forward to
hearing from you on this one.
Lou from Ireland
Dear Lou,
The player who accidentally moved his own marker incurs a
penalty stroke under Rule 20-1, and must place the ball as near as possible to
its original position (which he did). A player is only exempt from penalty for
moving his ball marker if that occurs during the process of marking or lifting
the ball [Decision 20-1/5.5].
If another player moves your ball marker, the ruling will
depend on your form of play. In match play, if your opponent moves your marker
he incurs a one-stroke penalty and the ball marker must be replaced [Decision
20-1/7]. In stroke play there is no penalty and, again, the marker is replaced.
It will be easy to remember this if you think of your ball
marker as a ball in disguise. If you move your ball in play, you incur a
one-stroke penalty and must replace it – the same holds true for your “ball in
disguise.”
Linda
Copyright © 2013 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.