2020 MGA Rules Quiz - Q7

[rogolf]

7. While searching for her tee shot, a player accidentally breaks a tree branch. In a surprised reaction

to having broken the branch, she accidentally steps on what may be her ball. Without notifying

anyone, she marks, lifts and identifies the ball as hers. She notices the ball has become embedded

in the soft ground by her stepping on it, so she lays her driver on the ground to measure a relief area

within one club-length of the embedded position and no closer to the hole. She drops the ball. The

ball hits the ground within the relief area, then bounces off the driver which she left on the

ground. The driver prevents the ball from rolling out of the relief area. She plays the ball onto the

putting green with her next stroke and takes two putts to finish the hole. What is her score for the

hole?

A. 4

B. 5

C. 6

D. 7

 

[Ty_Webb]

ee-yikes! Okay - here is my stab at this one. I don't think there is any penalty for the broken branch. It sounds like that was in the fair attempt to find the ball and even if it wasn't, it doesn't say if the branch improved the lie or intended swing. Then, it's not an embedded ball. There is no penalty for moving it in search, but she should have replaced it and didn't. She dropped it. I think technically that's a breach with the general penalty, but my reading of rule 14 is that if you pick a ball up you can proceed under a different rule if that's valid. Since an unplayable ball would need to be dropped in the area the ball came to rest in I think she can proceed on that basis. There's no penalty for hitting the club, so she made 5. Answer B.

[rogolf]

Imo, you're correct on some points - there is no penalty for breaking the branch during search; the ball was not an "embedded ball" under the Rules, no penalty for moving the ball during search and no penalty for the dropped ball hitting the player's club.

Imo -because the ball was moved during search, it must be replaced (a defined term) at the original spot. If the spot or lie is not known, it must be estimated (within one club-length) and the ball placed there (Rules 7.4 and 14.2d). When the player played the dropped ball, she played from a wrong place and incurs a penalty of two strokes; there was no serious breach of playing from a wrong place. So her total penalty strokes is two. She made four strokes at the ball (tee shot, second shot, two putts). Her total score is 4+2=6, choice C.

Regarding unplayable - the player is the sole judge of whether the ball is unplayable and whether Rule 19 (Unplayable ball) is being applied. The Committee cannot assign Rule 19 to the player's actions. In all of these questions, we are acting as the Committee providing a ruling based on the facts presented.

[antip]

Agree, score of 6, answer C. There's a lot of fluff here (par for the MGA course) but only one penalty. And there is a really valuable reminder in this question: when a ball needs to be replaced, there is no relief area, there is only a required spot. And that required spot sometimes has defined limitations like same area of the course, not nearer the hole, within 1CL, but it is not a relief area. If you play from where you drop (instead of placing) it will be a general penalty for wrong place unless the ball managed to find the required spot, in which case it would be one shot penalty for replacing in a wrong way (14.2b(2)).

[grin]

But it seems that the ball is embedded as a result of the player stepping on it. So Rule 14.2d(2) applies. She "must replace the ball by placing it on the nearest spot with a lie most similar to the original lie that is whitin one club- length from its original spot". She do that, but she drops instead replace. She breachs Rule 14.2b(2) and she gets one penalty stroke.

IMO answer B

[antip]

The player did not get the ball onto "the nearest spot with a lie most similar.....etc", if she did it would be 1 penalty stroke. She only followed the procedure for embedded ball (16.3/14.3), not the correct procedure for replace the ball (7.4/14.2). I think this is precisely the issue the question aims to illuminate.

[Newby]

#7 C Rule 7.1a; Rule 7.4; Rule 7.3; Rule 14.7