Ball "lost" up a tree, then falls back into play

[Stuey01]

The rules of golf are certainly a complicated affair.
I'm interested to know how one can be considered to have accidentally moved one's ball, when one has deliberately shaken a tree with the intention of dislodging the ball.
Still seems ball up a tree is covered elsewhere as mentioned earlier so I'll have a read of that and bough out

 

[Colin L]

The rules of golf are certainly a complicated affair.
I'm interested to know how one can be considered to have accidentally moved one's ball, when one has deliberately shaken a tree with the intention of dislodging the ball.
Still seems ball up a tree is covered elsewhere as mentioned earlier so I'll have a read of that and bough out

Sorry Stuey, I have misled you a bit. Following a root and branch review of my posting, I have twigged that I shouldn't have said "accidentally". If you look at Rule 18-2 you will see that you breach it by "causing the ball to move". That can happen accidentally as in kicking your ball in the rough when looking for it, or deliberately as in picking it up when you shouldn't or shaking the tree you think it is in.

You are, however, misleading yourself in applying 13-2 to this situation since it is about making changes to the area around your ball. You may have been drawn to it because of mentions of bending branches, pressing down grass, breaking off leaves and the like, but in all of those the ball is in its original position. If you move your ball when you shouldn't, Rule 18-2 does not allow you to play from the new position: you have to replace your ball in the original position in the same lie. Nothing has been improved. If you don't replace the ball, you may or may not have a better lie, but since you are penalised a further stroke, you are paying for it.

One thing is clear in all of this. Ball up a tree? Play it as it lies or pay at least one penalty stroke. There is no free releaf.

 

[Colin L]

Stuey
I've replied to this but it has been caught up in the problem of some posts being filtered out for moderator's approval so it may take a while to appear. Essentially, I misled you by saying "accidentally". If you cause your ball to move whether accidentally or deliberately, you are in breach of Rule 18-2.

 

[Stuey01]

Okey doke, makes sense.
The rules explorer application on the R&A website is quite good. Been inspired by this thread to have a poke around it a bit.

 

[Colin L]

I see that when your posting is eventually "approved" by a moderator it appears ahead of the explanation of why it hadn't appeared.

And before anyone else says it, I know, the spam filter is probably a a highly sophisticated one that is programmed to detect and reject awful puns .