Swango1980
Well-known member
I agree with that, but not that this agrees with rulefans position on this specific case. The OP had more than suspicions.It would appear the "Expert" at NCG agrees with Rulefan on the general point.
Rules of Golf explained: Our expert says…
Turn your rule books open to 9.6 – ‘Ball Lifted or Moved by Outside Influence’.
You need to know or be virtually certain it happened – seeing your ball being shifted clearly qualifies – but if your ball is lifted or moved by an outside influence, which includes another player in stroke play, there is no penalty.
You need to replace the ball on its original spot, or estimate if that isn’t known – like if you’re watching someone making eyes at it from 200 yards away.
What if they’ve nicked your ball? Firstly, restrain yourself. But never fear. This rule applies whether or not your ball has been found.
Now, you might have felt the bit about known or virtually certain at the start of this section was a little weird. After all, you’ve watched someone make off with your precious Titleist.
But what if you merely harboured suspicions? In that case, if it’s not known, or virtually certain, the ball was lifted or moved by an outside influence – and you couldn’t find it – then you’d have no other option but to take stroke-and-distance relief.
If the OP had said the ball was hit over trees in the direction of an open fairway, but was not found when they got there as they expected, then I'd agree that it is not reasonable to assume someone nicked it. It might have clipped the top of a tree, or got a funky bounce and ended up where they didn't expect.
However, the OP said they saw the ball end up in a stationary position on the fairway. It disappeared by the time they got there. Therefore, as many have said, it could now be easily interpreted that the ball had been moved by an outside influence. Maybe it was another player. Maybe a dog ran on the course and nicked it. But, it had clearly been moved by something.