A question for our golfing fraternity

**Keith Jones 989** · 06-04-2018, 22:34

I am an avid golf watcher (on TV), buying daily or weekly passes to watch the majors on my NOW TV supply. I have never been tempted to try the game and much too late for that now. Anyway, I digress, can any of you answer this question for me:

player A pitches his ball onto the green and it stops 6 inches from the hole.

player B pitches his ball onto the same green and before it stops some 18 inches past the hole, it clips play A’s ball and pushes it into the hole.

How does this affect player A’s score at that hole?

(Common sense suggests that Player A’s stroke which put the ball on the green counts as the stroke which put the ball in the hole.)

**jones20** · 07-04-2018, 19:10

Don’t know the answer to that question but when someone asked Churchill about golf he replied a good walk spoiled and I have to agree with that

**jones20** · 07-04-2018, 19:15

The easy bit to remember about this Rules situation is that whenever a ball in play and at rest is moved by another ball in motion after a stroke, the moved ball must always be replaced (Rule 18-5). It is a principle of the Rules of Golf that a player is entitled to the lie and line of play that they had when their ball came to rest. When a ball is to be replaced, the player, his partner or the person who moved it must place it on the spot from which it was lifted or moved (Rule 20-3a). The players must make their best judgement to estimate where the ball was lying before it was moved. The player whose ball hit the ball at rest must play their ball from wherever it came to rest.

There is no penalty when a ball played from off the putting green moves another ball. However, in stroke play, when a ball played from the putting green hits another ball on the putting green the person making the stroke incurs a penalty of two strokes. This is not the case in match play, where no penalty is incurred (Rule 19-5a); another example of where match play differs significantly from stroke play. The logic behind this is that in match play no-one else is involved other than the opponents playing the same hole; whereas in stroke play the players are competing against everyone else entered in the competition, whose interests have to be protected.

One interesting Decision on Rule 19-5 is that in stroke play, if a ball putted from the putting green comes to rest touching another ball on the green but does not move it, no penalty is incurred, Decision 19-5/4.