Ball Cracked or Broken into Pieces?

[Halebopp]

After suffering from the hosel rockets last Wednesday, I loaded my bag with some of the worse balls in my stash for the round yesterday. After hitting a tee-picker on a par 5, I was surprised to find out the ball I thought had been abandoned on the course was actually mine and it had come up way short of where it was supposed to be. But it quickly became clear why. My own ruling was that the ball had broken into pieces as there was a part of the core missing (the cavity at top right, I'm assuming Nike didn't make balls that way) and jogged back to the tee with the group waiting on the tee looking rather oddly at a man jogging back from the middle of the fairway. Needless to say, to the delight of the group behind, I needed to hit a provisional as the replayed stroke was heading towards OB 🙂.

 

But I'm curious to know if someone here would've considered the ball to be merely cracked and merely losing material from the inside doesn't qualify as breaking into pieces? After all, I'd assume tiny pieces break off from most balls that crack or are cut and there would be a somewhat grey area in when has enough material been lost for the ball to be considered to have broken into pieces?

 

[Sawgrass]

The replay is dependent upon the ball breaking into pieces, which IMO requires an identifiable piece to be missing. I’d give you the replay based on the missing internal piece.

[Sawgrass]

Instead of “missing” I should have said “separated.”

[antip]

8 hours ago, Sawgrass said:

The replay is dependent upon the ball breaking into pieces, which IMO requires an identifiable piece to be missing. I’d give you the replay based on the missing internal piece.

Agree, but to add: the replay is also dependent on the ball breaking into pieces as a result of the stroke. If it broke into pieces due to a mower running over a ball at rest, then it is just replaced at the estimated spot where the damage occurred.

[naval2006]

There have been loads of Wilson Staff Duos around at my course and when power hitters use them they'll crack in a few holes.  There's only a crack in the ball, no pieces missing.  Are you supposed to replace it as they do or do you have to finish the hole?  I've always thought it was a broken ball, but I don't know now.  The old balatas would get seriously wounded from a bunker but you were not allowed to replace it if I'm not mistaken.

[sui generis]

21 minutes ago, naval2006 said:

There have been loads of Wilson Staff Duos around at my course and when power hitters use them they'll crack in a few holes.  There's only a crack in the ball, no pieces missing.  Are you supposed to replace it as they do or do you have to finish the hole?  I've always thought it was a broken ball, but I don't know now.  The old balatas would get seriously wounded from a bunker but you were not allowed to replace it if I'm not mistaken.

 

Rule 4.2 tells you all you need to know.

 

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules/rules-2019/rules-of-golf/rules-and-interpretations.html#!ruletype=fr&section=rule&rulenum=4&subrulenum=2