Probably my last picture of Pebble Beach - the fabulous and often forgotten 9th hole - the last hole that runs along the coast until 17....
In my last entry about the 8th rule of golf, I think I said that the 8th is one of my favorites in that it deals with one of the central concepts of the game of golf – “Play the course as you find it”. The 9th is very similar, and also involves a central concept – “Play the ball as it lies!” We violate this one every week in league play when we get to roll the ball in your own fairway to find a preferred lie. The reasons for the local rule go back a long way and I’m not even going to try to fight that one. However, we once again spoil ourselves in the interest of “a fun golf league”. In an event where you play by the real rules, you have to accept your lie in the fairway and touching the ball with your club or your hand without marking the ball is going to incur a one-stroke penalty and the ball MUST be replaced exactly as it came to rest. No privilege, no fluffy lie, no provisions for bare spots – play on. We’ll look at this rule in detail just for the fun of it!
My son took me to the Wells Fargo Championship which was played in Bethesda this year (at the TPC at Avenel – one of Ed Ault’s products (also the designer (not famously) of Ruggles Golf Course). Got tickets for Saturday. Brutal conditions. Cold. Gusty winds. Continuous rain. I felt bad for the players who had to face cold rain on both Friday and Saturday. Sunday wasn’t much better – course was still wet and it was still cold. Oddly enough, on most years this event is held in Charlotte at Quail Hollow, but they’re having the Presidents Cup there in September and didn’t want the course to be trampled twice in the same year. Since there was so much rain on Friday and Saturday, play on Friday through Sunday was “Lift, Clean, and Place”, or as I have heard it appropriately stated, “Lift, Clean and Cheat”. For a tour player, a preferred lie is often the difference between playing a shot you like versus a shot you hate but have to play. For the pros, a birdie hole can become a bogey hole if their ball come to rest in an old divot. They grouse about it, but (in most events and circumstances) won’t get relief. Tour pros regularly practice shots off bad lies just in case they are forced to face one. Their ability to recover from bad situations is often the difference in making a cut or winning a championship. Arnold Palmer, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods each come to mind for me as possessing an uncanny ability to accept the challenge that bad circumstances throw at you on the golf course.
The new rule book has some good introductory nuggets before getting into the nuts and bolts of each rule, and the nuggets for Rule 9 are fantastic advice for all of us:
· If your ball comes to rest and is then moved by natural forces such as wind or water, you normally must play it from its new spot.
· If your ball at rest is lifted or moved by anyone or any outside influence before the stroke is made, your ball must be replaced on its original spot.
· You should take care when near any ball at rest, and if you cause your own ball or your opponent’s ball to move you will normally get a penalty (except on the putting green).
Then there is the essence of the rule: You must play your ball at rest on the course as it lies, except when the Rules require or allow you:
· To play a ball from another place on the course, or
· To lift a ball and then replace it on its original spot.
So, by default, you must play the ball as it lies UNLESS you can use a rule to move it. If you lift or move it, it must be replaced on its original spot. Failure to use an available rule to move a ball, or failure to replace it on its original spot results in a penalty for you. One thought that’s always running around in my head when I approach any ball on the golf course is “Don’t touch it!”. When I take a stance to hit a stroke, I’m always cognizant of the ball’s location and where the club is in my hands. Care and concern near a golf ball will save you a penalty eventually.
The next section of the rule has to do with a ball that moves AFTER starting your swing (an action in which it is your INTENT to hit the ball). Regardless of whether you hit the moving ball or don’t, you count the stroke and must accept the new position of the ball (it is not replaced for your next stroke). If you caused the ball the move, you then must decide if you must also apply a penalty. In the legal world, whether or not to apply a penalty stroke comes down to intent. If you didn’t intend to move the ball when you started your stroke, no penalty. I had a conversation once with our departed webmaster, Joe McKeever, about this same issue. His conclusion after our conversation was “So, if my ball starts to move in my backswing, I might as well just try to hit it!”, to which I got to thinking. If I start my backswing and the ball moves and I stop my swing, I must count the stroke and play my next from where it stopped. If I hit the moving ball odds are probably decent that it’ll go near my intended line of play, so in my mind, Joe is right.
In terms of moving the ball and applying the one-stroke penalty, you have a couple of “Get-out-of-jail-free” cards: If you were using a rule which allows you to lift or move the ball, if you accidentally moved a ball on the putting green, if you accidentally moved a ball during search before finding it, or you accidentally moved the ball while applying a rule. I’ll try to provide an example for each one. Two balls are lying in the fairway within an inch of each other. One player can ask that the other ball be marked, and that player may mark and lift the ball with no penalty. In the second case, you’re walking up to the green while having an intense conversation on whether the beer cart will be coming around. You kick your ball on the green by accident. No penalty, and you have to replace the ball as close as possible to the original location on the green. In the third case, you’re hunting for a ball to the right of #16. You move a branch (you haven’t seen your ball yet) and your ball rolls out from under a bush. No penalty, but you have to replace the ball (your best guess of the original location). Lastly, you’re taking relief from casual water. You place a tee behind the ball location and the ball moves. Since you’re marking the ball’s original location to proceed to find your point of nearest relief – no penalty.
Let’s talk a little about “move”. To be considered “moved”, it must be known or virtually certain that the ball has moved. By default, a ball is stationary and you bear the burden of proof to claim that the ball did indeed move. Suspecting that a ball MAY have moved, or hearing from an outside source (say a spectator at an event) is not enough evidence to allow you to move a ball to a different location. There are four different acknowledged causes for a ball moving at rest: Natural forces (wind, rain, gravity), you or your caddie, your opponent and his caddie (in match play), or by outside influences (your playing partners (in stroke play), your walking scorer or a rule official or a spectator, etc.). If natural causes make your ball move, no penalty and you must accept where nature takes the ball (there is one exception that we’ll get into soon). If you, your opponent, either of the caddies or an outside influence move your ball at rest (assuming that you know or are virtually certain that it happened), you must replace the ball as close to the original spot as you can estimate. Probably the most common replacement is the case of a ball hit into the green striking another one that’s already on the green. The stationary ball must be replaced, and the striking ball is played from where it eventually came to rest. Natural forces have become a real point of contention in major tournament events when the greens are cut so short and have so much slope that wind can move a ball at rest. Figuring out if the ball movement was influenced by the player, the slope, or the wind has caused a whole lot of arguments. However, BY DEFAULT, without any other certain knowledge, a ball is considered to have been moved by natural causes.
Now let’s talk about that exception. If you’re on the putting green, HAVE ALREADY marked your ball and placed it back and removed your marker and the ball moves by NATURAL FORCES, you must replace the ball back where you marked it rather than accepting where nature took it. Get this though, if you don’t replace it back at the original marked location you incur a 2-stroke penalty for playing from the wrong place….
Speaking of ball markers, you should treat them just like you would if there was a ball there. Deliberately moving prior to replacing them with the ball incurs a one-stroke penalty.