The rules of golf are difficult! Luckily we have the guru. Our Rules Man knows the book from cover to cover. Do you have a question? He has all the answers.
I hit a shot into a bunker on the green side. My ball half-stopped about halfway up the steep slope. Taking a stance, I made sure the sand with my ball slid down the face for the ride, ending up on the flat bottom of the bunker. What now? – Fred Mohr, Valencia, Penn.
If Fred Mohr takes a stand, damn it, Fred Mohr takes a STAND! Seriously, Mr. Mohr, you need to tread lightly – unfortunately, this is what the Rules call a double whammy. (No, they don’t, but we do.)
You caused your ball to move in a situation that is no exception to the principle of playing the ball as it lies. So you incur a one-stroke penalty and must replace the ball, according to Rule 9.4. Because the lie has changed in sand, to replace this ball you must do so in its original spot and then recreate that half-hidden lie (see Rule 14.2d). And then try to play the shot without moving the ball again. Your feet won’t let you down now!
For more posture-related guidance from our guru, read on…
A player hits his drive into the fairway. When he addresses his ball for his second shot, his foot is in a deep cleft left by a previous group. He sees a patch of grass a few yards away, picks it up, places it in the divot and then plays his shot. Did he break the rules by improving his attitude? –John Alario, Staten Island, NY
Cruel, he did that. Replacing divots is proper etiquette, but to do so in this case would be to violate one of the most fundamental rules of golf, which is to play the course as you find it.
Rule 8.1a prohibits improving any condition affecting the stroke – here the area of the intended stance – by certain actions, one of which is changing the surface of the ground by replacing a divot with a divot.
He gets our sympathy, as well as the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of the hole in match play.
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