The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.
During a friendly 4-ball, teeing off on a blind par-4, my playing partner could not find her tee shot. The group searched for more than 3 minutes for her ball. My partner decided to “pick up” rather than head back to the tee. Soon enough, another player in the group checked the hole for fun — no one had thought to look there, since it was a par-4 … and there it was. A hole-in-one! But was it really, given the circumstances? – Teresa White, Purchase, NY
Really, it was, even if it sounds like the group didn’t get the free round of drinks owed at the 19th hole.
Your partner indeed made a hole-in-one — and, even rarer, an albatross to boot! The fact that the ball wasn’t found in the search time didn’t matter, nor did her “picking up,” because she had already completed the hole. Rule 6.5, “Completing Play of a Hole,” completely covers this situation.
For the answer to another hole-in-one query, read on …
A member at our club made an ace, then called a penalty on himself, claiming he teed the ball ahead of the marker. All this to avoid paying for drinks after the round, when tabs have reached $2,000. Was this legal? – John Karam, St. Petersburg, Fla.
The thrill of victory and the agony of… the bar tab.
Let’s say this occurred in match play. Under Rule 6.1b, which covers playing from inside the teeing area, the opponent gets to choose whether to cancel Mr. Cheap Ace’s stroke, so if that opponent prefers a free drink and losing the hole, so be it — don’t cancel the stroke and the hole in one stands.
In stroke play, once the player has called the penalty on himself, he gets two penalty strokes — but remember, the stroke into the hole now doesn’t count and the player has to correct the mistake by playing from within the teeing area (as opposed to “That’s a 1 with a 2-stroke penalty for a 3”).
If he doesn’t correct the mistake, he’s disqualified. Some might argue that a player calling a penalty to gain an advantage is antithetical to golf’s spirit, and the Committee could go the DQ route via serious misconduct under Rule 1.2a.
But the game of golf assumes honorable golfers and takes them at their word, unless there’s hard evidence to the contrary. Suspicions aren’t facts, and the “advantage” here is purely financial, not competitive — quite the contrary, since he has cost himself strokes. Maybe it seems a bit naive, but Rules Guy, for one, prefers it that way, even if it means paying for his own single-malt Scotch at the 19th hole.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: golf.com
