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To recap what happened, Kid and Swatty were all square going into the 18th.
Swatty was addressing his third shot when the ball moved. Kid claims that
Swatty touched the ball with his club, Swatty claims that the ball moved as
he grounded his club behind the ball and the ball
returned to its original position. They continued to play the hole under the
assumption that regardless of whether Swatty touched the ball or not, he
still had incurred a one stroke penalty.
Under this assumption, Swatty
batted away a putt (i.e., conceded the hole) when
he otherwise might not have done so if he had not believed he would incur a
penalty.
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The lessons to be learned are
as follows:
First, in BGC competitions we must ultimately rely on the honesty and
integrity of our players and therefore when Swatty claims he did not touch
his ball, then he did not touch his ball.
Second, under Rule 18-2 if a ball moves after a player addresses the ball,
he incurs a one stroke penalty. However, the rules define a ball moving when
it "leaves its position and comes to rest in any other place." When a
ball moves and then comes to rest in the same place, it is deemed not to
have moved and there is no penalty. Therefore, Swatty did not incur a
penalty. (Note that Rule 18-2 does not apply to a ball falling off a tee, as
the ball is not deemed "in
play" yet).
Third, the ultimate responsibility to know the Rules of Golf lie with each
individual player. Therefore, Swatty was responsible for knowing that he had
not incurred a penalty, even if the rest of his foursome have the rule wrong
too. Therefore, it is ultimately Swatty's own
fault for conceding the hole when he should have putted out.
Finally, while it may be too much to ask in the heat of the Ryder Cup
competition, such rules disputes should always be handled in a gentlemanly
manner and in the spirit of BGC sportsmanship.
Luckily, this dispute did not decide the outcome of the Cup.
Because of the third point made above, the official record books will record
that Kid defeated Swatty 1 up.
June 14, 2004
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