If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time now, you probably recognize the name Dr. Robin Farran. Dr. Farran is nationally-recognized as one of the USGA’s top Rules Officials. He regularly works the U.S. Open Championship, and he even helps write the Rules book itself.
Dr. Farran has become something of a celebrity on my web site dating back to my days as a student at the now defunct Golf Academy of America in Phoenix where he taught Advanced Rules. Several times each month, Dr. Farran emails-out different Rules scenarios and anecdotes as well as actual rulings, which I post in a segment I like to call Diary of a USGA Rules Official.
So you can imagine my excitement when I learned that Arizona Golf Association (AGA) Executive Director Ed Gowan would not be able to attend our recent Women’s Golf Association’s Rules of Golf Seminar at La Paloma and that Dr. Farran would be taking his place. Yes, that Dr. Farran!
We are really fortunate to have some of the USGA’s top Rules Officials right here in the state of Arizona working for the AGA. They do Rules Seminars like this one at no charge and then hand-out Rule books at the end, again at no charge. Dr. Farran and his co-presenter Roger Waterer are both USGA expert-rated in the application of the Rules of Golf. The Seminar was really interesting, and it was great to be reunited with someone whom I really admire. In this month’s Diary of a USGA Rules Official, Dr. Farran takes us through even more 2019 Rules incidents. The Rulings are in red:
Incident 1
Player A’s tee shot heads into bad country and comes to rest about 150 yards from the hole. Player A’s provisional ball comes to rest in the fairway about 150 yards from the hole. Prior to searching for his or her original ball, Player A plays his or her provisional ball onto the putting green.
Player A finds his or her original ball within the 3-minute search time, completes the hole with the original ball and tees off on the next hole.
**Player A has proceeded correctly. As noted in Rule 18.3c(1), “The player may continue play the provisional ball so long as it is played from a spot that is the same distance or farther from the hole than where the original ball is estimated to be.”
Incident 2
Player B’s tee shot heads into bad country. Player B informs his or her partner that he or she will play a provisional ball. Player B finds his or her original ball, completes the hole with the original ball and tees off on the next hole.
**Player B has proceeded correctly. Interpretation 18.3b/1 clarifies that “an announcement must be made so that people in the vicinity of the player” can hear the announcement.
Incident 3
Player C tees his or her ball within the teeing area on hole #1. Being somewhat nervous, Player C whiffs his or her stroke at the ball. Player C picks up the ball from the tee, substitutes another ball, tees the substituted ball in a different part of the teeing area and hits the ball into the middle of the fairway. What does Player C lie in the fairway?
**Player C lies 2 in the fairway. Read Rule 6.2b(5) and Rule 6.2b(6), and Interpretation 6.2b(6)/1 very carefully to be aware of the significant changes in 2019 Rules.
Incident 4
Incidents four through six are based on Four-Ball Stroke Play. Player A and Player B are partners. During a tournament in early 2019, Player A, who had attended a PGA/USGA Rules Workshop, offered to demonstrate and assist Player B with the 2019 procedures.
On hole #1, Player B’s ball is in a penalty area marked with red lines, Player A correctly measures the lateral relief area from the reference point and, while Player B observes, drops a ball in the right way and the ball comes to rest in the relief area. Player B plays the dropped ball.
Incident 5
On hole #4, Player B’s ball is on an immovable obstruction. Player B correctly measures the relief area from the nearest point of complete relief and drops the ball in the right way. The ball rolls onto the obstruction.
Player A drops another ball in the right way and the ball rolls onto the obstruction. Player A lifts the ball and places another ball on the estimated spot where the ball landed on the second drop. Player B plays the ball.
**The side proceeded correctly. Player A who is Player B’s partner, may take any action regarding Partner B’s ball that Player B is allowed to take before making a stroke. See Rule 23.5a.
Incident 6
On hole #7, Player B’s ball comes to rest in the fairway and is then moved by a ball played from an adjacent hole. Player B remembers that the ball must be dropped since the exact position is not known. Player A offers to assist. Player A lifts and cleans Player B’s ball and places the original ball on the estimated spot, a spot agreed upon by the players in the group. Player B plays the ball.
** The side proceeded correctly. Player A who is Player B’s partner, may take any action regarding Partner B’s ball that Player B is allowed to take before making a stroke. See Rule 23.5a.
Incident 7
Player A plays a stroke with his or her ball on the putting green and, as the ball is rolling towards the hole, the ball hits a large insect (a living insect) that had just landed on the putting green.
**The stroke doesn’t count and the original ball or another ball must be replaced on the original spot. See Exception 2 under Rule 11.1b and Definition of “Animal”.
Incident 8
In taking relief from an immovable obstruction, Player B’s first drop hits the tee (within the relief area) used to mark the relief area prior to landing in and coming to rest in the relief area.
**The ball struck Player B’s equipment before striking the ground in the relief area. The drop doesn’t count, and a ball must be dropped in the right way. See 2nd bullet in Rule 14.3b(2) and 2nd bullet in Rule 14.3b(3).
Incident 9
Player C carefully determines the relief area for relief from an immovable obstruction. The ball, when dropped in the right way, rolls forward and comes to rest with a small part of the ball closer to the hole than the reference point used to determine the relief area.
**The ball was dropped in the right way so the drop counts. However, if any part of the ball is nearer the hole than the reference point, the ball is not in the relief area. Player C must re-drop a ball as described in Rules 14.3b and 14.3c. See Clarifications of the 2019 Rules of Golf, Definitions – Relief Area: 1.
Incident 10
In taking lateral relief from a penalty area, Player D drops a ball in the right way and, as the ball rolls toward an animal hole in the relief area, Player D deliberately deflects the ball. (The ball would have remained in the relief area if not deflected.)
After the ball is dropped in the right way two more times and rolled into the penalty area both times, Player D places a ball where the ball had landed on his or her third drop.
**When Player D deliberately deflected the ball, Player D incurred the general penalty under Rule 14.3d. That drop does not count. Player D proceeded correctly in placing the ball after the second drop that counted. See Rule 14-3.
Incident 11
Player A, in taking relief from an obstruction, measures the one club-length area correctly and drops another ball from knee height. The ball lands on Player A’s foot within the relief area prior to hitting the ground in the RA and comes to rest in the relief area.
**Player A must lift the ball and proceed as directed by Rule 14.3b and Rule 14.3c. Player A would incur a penalty of one stroke for playing the ball without making the correction.
Incident 12
Player B, in taking relief from an obstruction, measures the one club-length relief area correctly and drops another ball from knee height. The ball lands in the relief area, rolls outside the relief area, bounces off Player B’s club and comes to rest in the relief area.
**Player B has completed taking relief when the ball dropped in the right way comes to rest in the relief area. See Rule 14.3c(1).
Note: In Incidents 11 and Incident 12, only when a ball is “dropped in the right way” under Rule 14.3b, does the drop count (when drop, drop, place is a procedure).
Incident 13
Player C, in taking relief from an obstruction, measures the one club-length area correctly on a steep area of closely-mown turf. Realizing that the ball when dropped would roll outside the relief area, Player C places another ball in the relief area.
**Player C must lift the ball and proceed as directed by Rule 14.3b and Rule 14.3c. Player C would incur the general penalty for playing the ball without making the correction.