12/22/2024 - Admiral Baker South

This came up in discussing the PNC Championship, which is being played in Orlando this weekend.  They mention on the telecast that the partners are allowed to stand behind them when they are putting to see the line.  Normally this would be a violation for a caddie (Rule #10.2).  In a team format, it is normally a violation of Rule #22.6 (Foursomes) or Rule #23.8 (Four Ball).

Without a local rule, it seems like this would be an issue in any scramble.  But I guess no one cares about the rules in a scramble.

People often think that you're not allowed on the line of your opponents putt.  It's bad etiquette, but it does not violate the rules of golf.  If the player asked you to move and you refused, I think you would then be in violation of Rule #1.2 - "All players are expected to play in the spirit of the game..."

10/28/2024 - Twin Oaks

Not only were the greens just punched, but there was an enormous mound of dirt piled short and right of the green on #6.  It wasn't marked as ground under repair, but it certainly should have been.

Do I get relief?

The definition of Ground Under Repair includes "Grass cuttings, leaves and any other material piled for later removal."  I can't say for certain whether it was planned for removal, but I assume so.  So I would say that I get free relief.

10/17/2024 - Goat Hill

A lot of course websites let you know when you book if the greens are punched.  Some even give a discount.  Goat Hill did neither.

But it's fine.  The greens were still rolling okay.  The rule issue came up when I couldn't get my ball to stay where I had marked it due to an aeration hole.  What's the rule?

Rule #14.2-e covers this.  If your ball won't stay where you are placing it, you must place it in the nearest spot where it will stay.  It can't be any closer to the hole, and if your ball is on the green, then you have to place it on the green, or in the general area.

The other issue came up when I tried to post.  #18 at Goat Hill can play as a par 3 or a par 4.  Today it was playing as a par 3, but when I went to post the round, it listed it as a par 4.  I'm hoping that PCC will take care of it, but I'm not sure.  I couldn't find anything definitive online, so I reached out to my handicap chair to get his thoughts.  I'll post more when I find out more.

10/12/2024 - Balboa

I know sand is considered a loose impediment on the green, but I wasn't sure what to do about an ant hill when I was just off the green.  I know I can't remove sand off the green, but I thought an ant hill might be considered an animal burrow, which would entitle me to relief.

Turns out that an ant hill is explicitly covered by the definition of loose impediment.  So I am allowed to remove them on or off the green.

 

8/16/2024 - Admiral Baker South

I had never noticed the white OB stakes along the right hand side of #5, but these didn't come into play.  The white stakes beyond the green did.

My approach shot landed in the bunker, and I hit it a little too clean, sailing well over the green.  I didn't know that it was out of bounds at this point, so I raked the bunker.  When my playing partner told me that it was OB, we pondered whether or not there was a penalty for this or not.

Per Rule #12.2b(3), once you have played the ball out of the bunker, you are allowed to rake it.  So my ball was out of the bunker (and out of bounds), which allows me to rake before I drop.  If the shot remains in the bunker, then you can't rake it.

By the way, I did this twice, scoring an 8 on one of the easiest holes on the course.  :|

8/7/2024 - Balboa

I'm surprised that I had never encountered this before, but now I have.  A player in the group was in the left rough, and it was run over by a lawnmower.  I've seen them mowing the course frequently while folks are playing, but they are always good about avoiding a ball in play.  Until today.

So what's the ruling?  The mower is an outside influence, and the rule that covers this is Rule #9.6 - Ball lifted or moved by an outside influence.  You have to be virtually certain that this occurred (it did).  And then you have to estimate where the ball originally came to rest.

The ball had a big cut from the mower.  Can you put a new ball in play?  Any time you're taking relief (free or penalty), you can substitute in a new ball.  You can also replace a ball that is cut or cracked (but not if it is only scratched or scraped).

6/14/2024 - Oaks North

A player in the group missed the fairway slightly to the right and had some sort of maintenance box in his line of play.  It's an immovable obstruction, and it was in his line of play, but it was not impacting his swing or stance.  Sorry, no relief for you, unless you want to take an unplayable lie for one stroke.  I see people assume that they get relief here all the time.  This is covered by Rule #16.1a - Abnormal Course Conditions.  Unless you're on the green, an immovable obstruction only gives relief if it impacts your swing or stance.  On the putting green you would get relief for the line.  I'm not sure I've ever seen an immovable obstruction on the green.  Sprinklers are usually in the fringe.

A lot of people assume that they get relief from a sprinkler near the green.  The PGA Tour plays a local rule that gives them relief, but us amateurs don't get relief in that scenario either.  Sorry.

5/27/2024 - Admiral Baker North

A player in the group chipped up onto the green today, and his ball came to rest in the line of another player.  My ball was in a similar position, and I had already marked it.  So I wanted to mark his ball so that the other player could putt while the first player retrieved his putter.

First, you need another player's permission to mark their ball (unless you're their caddie).  And you can't just declare that it's always okay.  You have to give permission each time.  This was a casual round with players that I often play with, so in the spirit of the game, and for pace of play, I was going to mark his ball, but I didn't have a second ball-marker.

I marked it with a leaf, which I was pretty sure you're not allowed to do.  The definition of a ball-marker indicates that it is an artificial object.

Why?  Because a leaf may blow away?  Some random artificial object could blow away as well.  Because there could be confusion over which leaf was marking the ball?  Maybe....

This is all covered by Rule #14.  It's a one-stroke penalty.

So who gets the penalty here?  I guess I do, for marking his ball without explicit permission, and for using an illegal natural ball-marker.

I found it interesting that the rule explicitly indicates that it's okay to mark your ball with a club right next to the ball.  I'm pretty sure that's a recent addition.

5/2/2024 - Admiral Baker North

No one wants to play on punched greens, but what do you do when the greens are punched, and your ball won't come to rest where you marked it?

Rule #14.2e covers exactly this scenario.  If it won't stay on the spot where it was marked you have to try to place it again.  If it still won't stay in place, you have to keep trying to find the closest spot where the ball will stay at rest.  You can't place it closer than the original spot.

This same rule applies in the general area, and also in a penalty area or bunker.  In a penalty area or bunker, you the new spot must be in the penalty area or bunker.

Why are you lifting your ball in a penalty area or bunker?  Possibly to identify it (this is one of the scenarios when you can pick up your ball, but you can't clean it).  Another scenario is if the ball were to come to rest against a rake in a bunker.

3/27/2024 - Miramar

Have you ever wondered what complete relief means?  I was wondering when my ball was near the cart path on #18.  The lie wasn't great, and the cart path was definitely interfering with my stance, but the further right I went, the more a tree was going to be an issue.

So it means what it sounds like it means.  If I'm taking relief from the cart path, my nearest point of relief has to be at least far enough to no longer be standing on the cart path.  But then you get a club length from your nearest point of complete relief, so you can probably find a good spot.

I was able to get a stance on grass, and still not have the tree be too much in my way.

3/22/2024 - Balboa

I found a tee on the golf course (pic below), and I think it's an illegal tee.  It's hard to tell, but it's not round.  The top is oval-shaped.

The rules specify that a tee must not be "designed or manufactured in a way that could indicate line of play." (emphasis added)

You could clearly point the tee along the line of play, but once you put a ball on it, I don't think you could tell.  But I can't see how any tee design could indicate line of play once the ball is placed.  So I'm going to go with technically illegal.

So this would be a violation of Rule #4.3, which is two strokes for the first offense, and then DQ if you do it again.  If anyone tried to call me on this, I would make the argument that I can't use it for alignment with a ball on the tee.  But that fact seems to be inherent in a tee, so I think the committee would tell me that I was wrong. 

Bay Hill has tees with a log on top (Arnie's umbrella).  That could conceivably be used for alignment (before you put a ball on it).  I don't see anyone having a problem with that.

2/18/2024 - Riviera

Lots of people talking in my golf circles about Hideki's chip that got the full close-up treatment on CBS.  The ball clearly moved, but I would say that it came to rest on the original spot.  The CBS rules official agreed with me.

This is covered by Rule #9.2, and specifically Clarification 9.2a/1:

As stated in the definitions, to “move”, a ball at rest must leave its original spot and come to rest on any other spot and the movement must be enough that it can be seen by the naked eye.

To me, this really highlights the inconsistency between the coverage of the leaders / big names, versus the journeyman tour player.  If the same thing had happened to Beau Hossler, we would never have known anything about it.  We certainly wouldn't have HD close-ups of it to analyze.

And Spieth's DQ for signing an incorrect scorecard is similar.  He has a gallery of hundreds watching him, while Beau Hossler (not to pick on Beau Hossler) doesn't.  Though in this case:

• Spieth should have caught it
• His caddie should have caught it
• Shotlink (and probably the walking scorer) did catch it, and he should have corrected it while he was still in the scoring area.

All of that said, I think DQ is too harsh of a penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard, when it's such an easy error to correct.

2/12/2024 - Balboa 9

Did you know that they were making changes to the handicap system for 2024?  I typically follow this sort of thing pretty closely, and I only recently heard about it.  So I'm going to say that they aren't doing a very good job of publicizing it.

I also think that the new "expected score" mechanism is a step backwards, but we'll get to that in a moment.

The notable changes for 2024 are:

• Allowing shorter courses to be rated.
• Use of "expected score" for hole not played.
• More frequent use of the playing conditions calculations.
  

The old hole not played calculation was simple.  If you can only get in 17 holes due to darkness, you write down par plus any handicap strokes for the 18th.  The old system for a 9-hole course was clunky, but also simple.  A 9-hole round needed to be combined with another 9-hole round to be included for your handicap.  I see room for improvement there, but the new system is much more complicated.

Rather than just doubling everything for a 9-hole round, they match your actual 9-hole round with a fictitious "expected score" back-9 to post as an 18-hole round.  Presumably this calculation involves your score, your handicap, the course rating, and  the slope.  But they don't publish this calculation anywhere that I can find.  So you tell them what you shot, and they do the differential calculation for you.

The old (ie simple) method also allowed you to post a 9-hole round after 7 holes, and an 18 hole round after 14 holes.  Now you have to play a full nine to post anything.  And you have to post hole-by-hole (which I do anyway) for anything that's 10-17 holes.

The new "expected score" combined with the more frequent use of PCC make it much harder for you to actually calculate your own handicap.  PCC is only applied after your round is posted.

I will at least show their reasoning on why these changes are good:

 • This change benefits the many players who regularly play and post 9-hole rounds because it is more responsive. Players will no longer have to wait for another 9-hole score to be posted for an 18-hole Score Differential to be calculated.
• This change provides a better indicator of how a player will normally perform over 18 holes on a given day when compared to combining 9-hole scores from different days and under different playing conditions.
• This new method produces a more consistent and comparable Handicap Index for those who post 9-hole scores.

» Prior to 2024, the order in which the 9-hole scores were combined could add volatility to the Handicap Index.
» It was also common for two good 9-hole scores to combine and produce an 18-hole Score Differential which was lower than any of the Score Differentials based on an 18-hole score in the player’s scoring record - which resulted in a Handicap
Index that may be difficult for the player to play to.

(link)

It is worth noting that you have to have a good reason to post an "incomplete" round.  Reasons for not completing a round that are acceptable to the USGA include:

• light / weather
• injury
• because the committee says so

More details on the 2024 changes here.

1/18/2024 - Balboa

A lot of people take relief from the cart path on the nicest point of complete relief, not the nearest point of complete relief (this is cheating).  If you are right-handed, and the ball is in the middle of the cart path, then your nearest point of relief is to the left of the cart path.  It's not always the fairway side.  Sorry.

So what if there's a penalty area immediately to the left of the cart path?  This is the case on #2 at Balboa, and it came up.  That's where complete relief comes in.  The definition of complete relief includes the ball being in the required area of the course.  This means not in a penalty area.  So in this scenario, the nearest point of complete relief is to the right (fairway) side of the cart path.

1/6/2024 - Singing Hills (Oak Glen)

Everyone knows that you get relief from a dangerous animal condition (don't they?)  I think it was Bryson DeChambeau who was trying to get relief from fire ants, but they were just regular ants.  Do you get relief from Poison Oak?  It came up in our tourney at Singing Hills.

Turns out that the rule makers thought of that.  Rule #16.2 (the rule that covers fire ants, venomous snakes, and alligators) allows relief for animals, but dangerous plants (cactus is the stated example) are explicitly excluded.  You can take an unplayable for a 1-stroke penalty, or you can take your chances.  I took my chances.

I wasn't 100% sure it was Poison Oak anyway.  And I'm not showing any rash, so I guess it wasn't.

1/4/2024 - Miramar

I remember a few years ago Justin Thomas was getting from an official regarding his ball near a sprinkler in the fairway.  The official asked if Justin thought that it would impact his swing or stance.  I think the pros typically are going to say yes every time that question is asked, but Justin said no.  And he didn't get relief.  I gained some respect for JT that day.  I found a link for it here.

I don't often get photographic evidence of my rulings, but I was playing solo today, so see the image below.  There is a sprinkler in the second hole as well as the first.  I am right-handed, but think I could make an argument that the slope around the sprinkler was going to impact my swing.  But was the sprinkler head itself impacting my swing?  I would have to say no.

Because of this, I was not entitled to relief.  You need to follow a chain of definitions to get there.  Relief in this scenario would be for an Abnormal Course Condition.  The Abnormal Course Condition would be due to an Immovable Obstruction.  The definition of an Obstruction is that it is an artificial object.

No relief, but I got up and down, which is highly unusual.