The Rules of Golf Are Complicated! Thankfully, we have the teacher. our Rules Guy knows the book inside out. Have a question? He has all the answers.
During a putt, clean, and power tournament, a competitor continued to set his ball using the “hockey method”—that is, swinging the ball with his club until it was ideally seated. I told him that was wrong, but I couldn’t cite specifics, and he’s still doing it months later. What is the rule and what is the punishment? -Gary, by email
Gary, did you just think about pulling the golf shirt over the guy’s head and hitting him? (Hockey humor!)
Your competitor is living in the past. Before 2019, his method wouldn’t be a problem, but since then when the Rules require you to place a ball, they require you to use substitution procedures. This means you have to put the ball down by hand (emphasis ours) and let it go – see Definition of Substitution and Rule 14.2.
It would cost a penalty every time to get the ball in the right place but in the wrong way. The model Local Rule for “Lifting, Clearing and Setting”, otherwise known as “Preferred Lies”, is E-3, and it specifies when you decide to use the replacement procedures as we see in the rest of the rulebook. There is no talk of two minutes in the penalty.
;)
Rules Guy: Playing favorite lies, can I put my ball on the first cut instead of the fairway?
Rules Guy
For more placement guidance from our tutor, read on…
When you can ease up close to the putting surface, do you put the ball or drop it from knee height? In general, in what cases do you decide instead of letting go? —Jesse Trapp, via email
Jesse, remember the old fire advice you learned in school, “stop, drop and roll”? It’s really not about that – it just popped into our heads.
However, except on Preferred Lies (Model Local Rule E-3), you would putt a ball when you receive free relief for interference from an abnormal condition of the course when the ball was originally on the green—even if the nearest point of full relief is outside the putting green (see Rule 16.1d).
You will also end up deciding, under rule 14.3d, if two points in the correct relief area in the general area roll out of that relief area. Drop, drop and set!
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