By Jack Pultorak

The Senior Championship kicked off the 2009 Major Championship Season with a bang for rulings. The first bang being lightning strikes that caused the Committee to delay tee times for the morning wave by three and one-quarter hours. Rule 6-3a, Time of Starting and Groups, allowed the Committee to reappoint the new tee times accommodating the delay. 

Early in the first round, a breach of Rule 4-4a, Selection and Addition of Clubs, occurred and was discovered on the first fairway. The player added the appropriate two-stroke penalty to his score for the first hole and followed the procedure for Excess Club Declared Out of Play in accordance with Rule 4-4c. 

Later in the first round, a player inadvertently hit a Wrong Ball under Rule 15-3b. Unfortunately, his fellow competitor returned the favor and played the first player’s ball. Both competitors added a two stroke penalty to their score for that hole under Rule 15-3b and were required to correct their mistakes by placing a ball on the spot from which his own ball had been first wrongly played in order to complete the hole. 

Unfortunately, since there were two sets of tees on the course, a player inadvertently was guilty of Playing From Wrong Teeing Ground under Rule 11-5 and added two penalty strokes to his score and was required to correct his mistake or be disqualified. 

Due to the extensive delay in round one, there wasn’t enough daylight for everyone to finish and the Committee was forced to suspend play under Rule 6-8, Discontinuance of Play; Resumption of Play, due to darkness. Under Rule 6-8b, Procedure When Play Suspended by Committee, players were allowed the option of whether to finish the hole they were playing or suspend immediately at the time of suspension. When they did suspend, they followed Rule 6-8c, Lifting Ball When Play Discontinued, if they chose to lift their ball. 

The second round began with players following the Procedure When Play Resumed under Rule 6-8d. We hoped that most of the infractions were behind us but that was not the case.  Many more infractions were to come in the final round. 

In the final round, a player addressed his ball while it lay on the putting green and the ball thereafter moved.  The player, following Rule 18-2b, replaced his ball and added one penalty stroke to his score for that hole before proceeding as required under Ball at Rest Moved; Ball Moving After Address. 

Also in the final round, a player hit his ball into a greenside bunker on a par-3 hole. His ball was in a poor lie near the lip of the bunker. His next stroke failed to extricate the ball and it rolled down into his footprints. He deemed his Ball Unplayable under Rule 28 and proceeded under the second option (b) of that Rule. Instead of staying in the bunker, he incorrectly dropped a ball outside the bunker on a line keeping the point at which the ball lay between him and the hole and resulted in him Playing from a Wrong Place under Rule 20-7c. The player completed the hole and played off the next teeing ground without correcting his error. The Committee ruled that the player had committed a serious breach of the Rule and that he incurred a penalty of disqualification. 

And lastly, we had four breaches of the Undue Delay, Slow Play Rule 6-7. Under the Championship Pace of Play Policy instituted under Note 2 to this Rule, players were required to finish within an allotted time or 15 minutes of the group ahead. 

As an official, a good day is a day without rulings. Let’s hope that our next major of the year, The Amateur Championship, is not quite as eventful as the first!