Penalty for playing the wrong hole

[lagster]

At my club, we start on staggered holes (shotgun) for our weekly medal pool. Yesterday, a foursome teed off on the wrong hole and didn't rectify the problem and proceeded to tee off on the following hole and thus were DQed.

 

From the USGA- In a regular stroke play tournament, if a player plays from the wrong teeing ground (the wrong hole), she incurs a two-stroke penalty and must return to the correct hole. However, if she continues play at the wrong hole and does not correct her mistake before she tees off on the following hole, she is disqualified [Rule 11-5 and 11-4b].

 

They started on 14 and were supposed to start on 18

 

My question is this: Lets assume they holed out on the wrong hole discovered they were in error, proceeded to correct the mistake by going to the proper hole (in this case 18). Since it was the first hole of the round, do they incur a penalty for having tested the surface of the green on 14?

[st1800e]

Only if intentional to test the 14th green, but thats absurd. 

[Colin L]

@lagster

 

Beware!  The source you quote the USGA explanation from  is out of date.  The rule numbers are from a pre-2019 rule book.   It doesn't make any difference in this instance to the answer to your query but it suggests that you didn't follow up the reference  which would have helped your understanding.  It's 6.1b in the 2023 Rules:

 

https://www.randa.org/rog/the-rules-of-golf/rule-6#6_1b

 

As you'll see, playing the 'wrong hole' means that you played from outside the teeing area of the correct hole.  Also,  from the second bullet point of 6.1b(2),  the strokes and penalties played on your 'wrong hole' wouldn't count.

[lagster]

Ok Since they don't count and since they holed out, do they incur a penalty for testing the surface of the green?

 

[antip]

Short answer is no. These players were not "deliberately testing a green" as covered in Rule 13.1e. They were continuing play with a ball that was not in play, unaware of that fact.

 

It is, in fact, possible to incur additional penalties beyond the general penalty for that continuing unaware play, but there are only limited ways to do so - see clarification 6.3c(1)/1. These include making a practice stroke and asking for or giving advice.

[lagster]

Thank You!

 

[sui generis]

12 hours ago, lagster said:

[Rule 11-5 and 11-4b].

 

GOOGLE is where you go for Rules info if all you want is an answer and it doesn't matter whether the answer is right or wrong. 🙄

 

If the answer matters, look here:

https://www.usga.org/rules/rules-and-clarifications/rules-and-clarifications.html#!ruletype=fr&section=rule&rulenum=1

[Hawkeye77]

5 hours ago, lagster said:

Ok Since they don't count and since they holed out, do they incur a penalty for testing the surface of the green?

 

Of course not, who thought that up? The rule contemplates they may have holed out, Colin already gave you the answer if you’d read it. 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Hawkeye77