Greensomes wrong ball

[D-S]

But at the moment he hits it, it is his own ball. The other ball, that he hit from the tee, is his partner's ball.

Once the two tee shots have been struck and come to rest, each player's ball to be played for the next shot is the one his partner hit from the tee.
So the player is hitting his own ball towards his partner not someone else's ball.

Isn't it the case that the ball struck back to his/her partner is not in play? So at that point it is not his/her ball, it is just a ball.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Isn't it the case that the ball struck back to his/her partner is not in play? So at that point it is not his/her ball, it is just a ball.

The ball is in play when it is struck, since it had not been taken out of play.
No declaration or indication had been made that the ball had been taken out of play.

 

[rulefan]

Isn't this just a simple 'wrong ball'? The player made a stroke at a ball that was not his ball in play.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Isn't this just a simple 'wrong ball'? The player made a stroke at a ball that was not his ball in play.

Not the scenario that I brought up in the second part of post #17.

Player hits ball with putter. The ball that his partner played from the tee.
Is this then the ball in play?

 

[Steven Rules]

Detailed rules for Greensomes are not provided to this level of granularity in the Rules of Golf, although there is some conceptual guidance for Greensomes in Committee Procedures 9B. Committee Procedures 9 also provides this general guidance:

Any situation that is not covered either by the Rules of Golf or by the additional modifications for the format being played, should be decided by the Committee:
* Considering all the circumstances, and
* Treating the situation in a way that is reasonable, fair and consistent with how similar situations are treated under the Rules and modified Rules for the format.

I see the point of the question you are asking, but I think you will find that most learned Rules folk (and I) will take a similar view to salfordlad. That is, that casually hitting a ball back to another player, done solely as a courtesy (Rule 5.5a), is neither a stroke nor a practice stroke, nor makes it the ball in play, not even in Greensomes.

Naturally, a Committee is free to publish its own Greensomes Rules - ideally in advance - around these issues, but you have the view of salfordlad and me.

 

[rulefan]

I see the point of the question you are asking, but I think you will find that most learned Rules folk (and I) will take a similar view to salfordlad. That is, that casually hitting a ball back to another player, done solely as a courtesy (Rule 5.5a), is neither a stroke nor a practice stroke, nor makes it the ball in play, not even in Greensomes.

Et moi in that specific case.
But not when a stroke is made.

 

[Voyager EMH]

So it has not become the ball in play, thank you.

Is there a penalty for playing a practice stroke on the green of the hole being played by the player casually hitting this ball back to his partner?

 

[Steven Rules]

No. Rule 5.5a. And posts 18, 19 and 25.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I take this to mean that knocking a ball back to another player is not penalised as testing the green.

 

[Steven Rules]

No.

If the sole purpose in hitting the ball back is as a courtesy to the other player then - no - it doesn't constitute testing the green.

Furthermore, Clarification 13.1e/1 is explicit about a similar situation. It is not deliberately testing a putting green when a player concedes their opponent's next putt and hits the ball away on the same line of play as the player may subsequently use but does not do so deliberately to learn information about the putting green.