SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
My 'not on' the course being not part of the course is wrong. Clearly branches overhanging the boundary of course are part of the course even if the tree they are from is not.
Could anybody point me to the rule or decision re. following situation :
Player A holes out but leaves his ball in the hole.
Subsequently Player B holes out by putting from the green; by doing so his ball obviously hits the ball of Player A while this is in the hole. (Both balls end up / are “at rest within the circumference of the hole and all of it is below the level of the lip of the holeâ€, that is not the point).
My reading of the rules of golf is that no penalty is incurred, in matchplay (one can even hit the ball of the opponent while it is on the green, without penalty) nor in strokeplay (the ball of fellow-competitor Player A is holed out, hence no longer his ball in play, hence has become an outside agency, hence no penalty ).
But…would anybody agree with some members of my club, who are convinced that in strokeplay Player B does incur a 2 strokes penalty in this case? And which rule justifies this?
Or…is there a ruling by which I hopefully can easily kill this misinterpretation of the rules?
Now, let's have some fun in this realm of the hypothetically improbable. Some prankster comes along and almost fills the hole with earth. Your pitch wedges between the flagstick and the side of the hole but the ball is still above the rim. You walk up and take the flagstick out carefully to allow your ball to drop, but it can't because of the earth. Your ruling, ladies and gentlemen? (Duncan, hold back!)