Rules of Golf discussions and meanings • Re: Causing a ball to move after an invalid drop

doc568 wrote:Take the example where a player is searching for his ball in play.  A fellow competitor finds a ball sitting in a clump of pampas-like grass.  The player approaches the grass plant with the intention of identifying the ball, in the process of moving the grass blades aside, he causes the ball to slip further down into the plant.  He has just moved his ball in play and is subject to the 1-stroke penalty associated with R18-2. The best way to avoid any penalty is to announce you intend to identify the ball and if it is your ball in play, you plan to deem it unplayable and then will proceed under R28.  He could change his mind about the unplayable, but would then have to replace the ball in its original spot and take the R18-2, 1-stroke penalty.

It is entirely possible that the ball can be in a position that does not allow identification and that it can't be identified without the ball being moved in the process of complying with the requirements of a rule (R12-2) but that the ball is not unplayable.  So there is no logic in the player declaring he is proceeding under R28.  In this situation, if the player has declared intent to mark and lift to identify and is simply moving towards the ball - and this cannot be achieved without the ball being moved - then there can be no penalty under R18-2 in my opinion.  In this very specific situation, I believe the R18-2 exception for the player proceding under R20-1 (12-2) is operative.  And if the ball cannot be replaced precisely in the same position, R20-3 operates.

Statistics: Posted by Thom — Today, 12:28

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