Hi Linda,
Question: During friendly play my group tends to allow short
gimme putts. The other day in a tournament a player missed his putt by a couple
of inches and took a gimme. We told him to replace the ball and finish the
hole. The debate then started as to what the penalty should be, one or two
shots. Can you help us?
Regards,
Lou from Trinidad, in the Caribbean
Dear Lou,
The penalty for moving your ball in play is one stroke. The
ball must be replaced. If it is not replaced, the penalty increases to two
strokes [Rule 18-2]. The player in your question incurred a one-stroke
penalty. If he had not replaced the ball and holed out, he would have been
disqualified [Rule 3-2].
This is a problem for many players who casually break the
Rules in “friendly” play. If you always play by the Rules, you won’t form any
bad habits that most assuredly will get you into trouble when you compete in a
tournament.
If all of you would carry a rulebook in your golf bag, you
could spend less time “debating” and more time enjoying your golf. Rule 18 is
not a hard Rule to find or understand.
Linda
Copyright © 2016 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
