Hi Linda,
I am becoming quite well known at my club for being a bit of
a rules aficionado with the help of yours truly.
Anyway, someone brought an incident to me and was looking
for an answer. I didn’t really know the exact answer but provided them with my
thoughts and said I would research the actual ruling. Their incident was that
whilst playing, someone put their shot into some trees. They found their ball
sitting 6 inches above the ground in a relatively thick bush, suspended in
outer branches. It was quite a windy day and the branches were moving and hence
so too was the ball in question. The ball was actually playable although a
difficult shot to play to say the least. It was quite fortunate too that the
player could address the ball normally, but his dilemma was can he strike what
he thought was a moving ball or did he have to take a drop under penalty to
ensure the ball was stationary before playing it?
For the record I suggested that playing the ball as-is was OK,
as the ball wasn’t rotating in movement. But as I said I was not sure, so could
you please advise on the correct procedure?
Thanks as always,
Lou from Sunshine Coast, Australia
Dear Lou,
This ball is not moving under the Rules of Golf, since its
position relative to the bush has not changed [Decision 18/3; Definition of
“Move or Moved”]. The player will incur no penalty for hitting this ball that
is stuck in a bush, swaying in the wind. Good job, Lou!
Linda
Copyright © 2017 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
