A fellow competitor complained about grass clippings around her ball just off the fairway, and I told her that she could brush them away (loose impediments). In doing so, she accidentally moved her ball. Ooops.
This is a violation of rule 18-2, and is a one stroke penalty, and the ball must be placed in the original position.
This rule is under discussion for changing in 2019:
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/test-item-graphics/
The proposal would not change what happened above, though. The proposed change is only for instances where it is unclear whether or not the player caused the ball to move (the Dustin Johnson rule).
