Get a Ruling • Re: Ball Moved on Putting Green
Thank you to Colin for pointing out my error in implying that the player needs to have intent to play under S&D - I agree that the player does not, for precisely the reasoning in R27-1a that Colin refers to.
But I think it remains relevant to note that the guidance in D18-2/1 and D18-2/2 alone does not provide sufficient authority to be relied on for guidance in the putting green case because of the different requirements for applying S&D to the putting green and the teeing ground. On the tee (as in the cited decisions), anywhere in the teeing ground is sufficient but for the putting green the R20-5 and R27-1a requirements are far more specific. The putting green situation requires the second shot to be played from the same position - anywhere else cannot be 'as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original shot was last played'. I agreed that it was S&D 1SP if that condition was met, but noted it would be 2SP (wrong place) if the ball was not played from the same position. And it would clearly require more than one 'rake' with a putter to return a ball to the correct position, so there may well have been grounds to scrutinize whether the ball was played from the original position.
And when a player has clearly lost their cool and failed to finish the hole in the way the rules intend, there are no precedents in the rules/decisions for giving the player the benefit of any doubt in a ruling, indeed the opposite is the case.
It would have been interesting to have witnessed such a case. Colour me very skeptical that the preconditions for getting away with only 1SP in such a situation would have been met.
But I think it remains relevant to note that the guidance in D18-2/1 and D18-2/2 alone does not provide sufficient authority to be relied on for guidance in the putting green case because of the different requirements for applying S&D to the putting green and the teeing ground. On the tee (as in the cited decisions), anywhere in the teeing ground is sufficient but for the putting green the R20-5 and R27-1a requirements are far more specific. The putting green situation requires the second shot to be played from the same position - anywhere else cannot be 'as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original shot was last played'. I agreed that it was S&D 1SP if that condition was met, but noted it would be 2SP (wrong place) if the ball was not played from the same position. And it would clearly require more than one 'rake' with a putter to return a ball to the correct position, so there may well have been grounds to scrutinize whether the ball was played from the original position.
And when a player has clearly lost their cool and failed to finish the hole in the way the rules intend, there are no precedents in the rules/decisions for giving the player the benefit of any doubt in a ruling, indeed the opposite is the case.
It would have been interesting to have witnessed such a case. Colour me very skeptical that the preconditions for getting away with only 1SP in such a situation would have been met.
Statistics: Posted by Thom — Today, 07:57