Your practice swing - match play

[Hendy]

Out of interest in match play a player takes a practice swing and knocks a left off the tree. The player himself does not think anything of it and adjusts himself than and plays his shot to the green (great shot) and didn't hit anything only the ball lol

At this stage when on the green hes told by his opponent you hit a leaf of the tree and ends up claiming the hole.

Interesting to know what the ruling is? Does it have to said at the time or on green? Does it matter when its said. Has a rule been broken?

Looking forward to hearing right from wrong here.

 

[Spuddy]

Out of interest in match play a player takes a practice swing and knocks a left off the tree. The player himself does not think anything of it and adjusts himself than and plays his shot to the green (great shot) and didn't hit anything only the ball lol

At this stage when on the green hes told by his opponent you hit a leaf of the tree and ends up claiming the hole.

Interesting to know what the ruling is? Does it have to said at the time or on green? Does it matter when its said. Has a rule been broken?

Looking forward to hearing right from wrong here.

if it was one leaf on a branch covered with them then no rule is broken as there has been no material improvement in the area of the swing. If however there were just a few leaves and the removal of the one that fell off has improved the area of the swimg then it's loss of hole in matchplay

 

[chrisd]

I reckon that this is just about the hardest rule to invoke in golf - has the player improved his swing path?

 

[Hobbit]

I think its in decisions for rule 13/2. I don't think the number of leaves has a bearing on the decision, but happy to be proved otherwise. If the swing is discontinued its loss of hole in match play.

 

[Colin L]

First questions to ask are where was the practice swing made and was the leaf in the line of his intended swing for his actual stroke?

If the leaf was on the line of intended swing, then the number - or rather the proportion - of leaves matters. If the only one or two leaves in the area are removed it can be considered that you have removed a potential distraction and improved your line of swing. If it is one or two out of many that your club head would have to go through, the lessening of any distraction is insignificant and there would be no breach. As Spuddy said. The reference is Decision 13-2/0.5

http://www.usga.org/rules/rules-and-decisions.html#!decision-13,d13-2-0.5