Sitting in the pro shop
last week several members of the men’s club came in and
asked if there was a simple way to understand the number
of penalty strokes a player could receive? I indicated
there are some principles and charts available that
everyone could learn or have with them.
They wanted to get started right away so I gave them
some principals to think about.
One principle is a two stroke penalty in stroke play
equates to a loss of hole penalty in match play. A
second principle is it will cost a player a penalty
stroke to drop a ball out of a hazard – remember a bunker
by definition is a hazard.
Then there are 15 one stroke penalties that occur in
both stroke and match play. However, as with the Rules
of Golf there are always exceptions and in this case
there are two: there is one situation in JUST stroke play
(not found in match play) where there is a one stoke
penalty and then there is one situation JUST in match
play (not found in stroke play) that is a one stroke
penalty. Sound confusing – not really as the list below
makes it perfectly clear:
ONE STROKE PENALTY – MATCH OR STROKE PLAY
5-3 Ball Unit for Play (Procedure)
6-8c Lifting Ball When Play Discontinued (Procedure)
12-2 Identifying Ball (procedure or Unnecessary
Cleaning)
14-4 Striking Ball More Than Once
16-2 Ball Overhanging Hole
18-2a Ball at Rest Moved By Player (General)
18-2b Ball at Rest moved By Player (After Address)
20-1 Lifting and Marking (Procedure)
20-2a Dropping (Procedure – By Whom and How)
21 Cleaning Ball (When Not Permitted)
24-2 Interference by Immoveable Obstruction (Relief
Outside Bunker)
25-1 Ball in Abnormal Ground (Relief Outside Bunker)
26 Ball in Water Hazard (Relief Outside Water Hazard)
27 Ball Lost or Out of Bounds
28 Ball Unplayable
Then I provided them with the two exceptions:
MATCH PLAY:
18-3b Ball at Rest Moved By Opponent (Other Than Search)
STROKE PLAY:
6-7 Undue Delay (Conditions of Competition)
Before they left I strongly suggested they read each
Rule or selection of the Rule listed above to get a
better understanding of the intent and I will have some
more charts or concepts another week. As a teaser I gave
them some tricks to the shortest Rule in the book – Rule
21 Cleaning the Ball. We all know you can clean the ball
when lifted from the putting green or any other time
when the Rules allow it to be lifted BUT what are the
three times you CANNOT clean the ball? How about using
U, I and I?
You cannot clean the ball when it has been lifted:
U To determine if it is unfit for play (Rule 5-3)
I For identification except it may be cleaned only to the
extent necessary for identification (Rule 12-2) For example, if you know the location of your three dots
you may clean only that area
I Because it is assisting or interfering with play (Rule
22)
Remember when you are playing early in the morning and
grass clippings are adhering to the golf ball you cannot
remove them unless you are authorized to lift it. The
key is any loose impediment that is adhering to the golf
ball has lost its status of being “loose”.
Since there is a procedure involved with the above that
includes marking the ball before lifting I indicated
that decision 21/4 would be excellent reading. |
