Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Ask Linda #1674-Player’s shot hits opponent

Linda,
Today a very strange thing happened in a match play competition.

My partner was hitting his second shot for the green from the centre of the fairway. The opponent was standing on the left edge of the fairway, far to the left, nowhere along the line of shot.

My partner pulled his shot and hit him. Is he entitled to a re-shot?

Regards,
Yours confused,
Lou from India

Dear Lou,

Yes. In match play, if a player’s shot is stopped or deflected by his opponent, there is no penalty to anyone and the player has two choices [Rule 19-3]:

1. Cancel the stroke and replay the shot; or
2. Play the ball as it lies.

The answer is not the same for stroke play. In stroke play, there is no penalty and the ball must be played as it lies. There is no option in stroke play to replay the shot. This is known as a “rub of the green” [Rule 19-1].

Linda
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