Friday, April 11, 2014

Ask Linda #826-Players exchange balls


Linda, after a recent foursome was completed in a stroke play event, one of the other players and I discovered that, somewhere along the eighteenth hole, we had exchanged balls. What is the ruling?
Lou from Ottawa, Canada

Dear Lou,

In stroke play, if a player hits a wrong ball, he incurs a two-stroke penalty and must correct his mistake by playing the correct ball before teeing off on the next hole. If the violation occurs on the last hole of the round, the player must correct the mistake before he leaves the putting green.

If both players in your scenario made the discovery after you left the putting green of the 18th hole, both of you would be disqualified [Rule 15-3b].

Linda
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