Category: Rules Knowledge

Is there a legal mulligan on the green allowing you to re-putt without a penalty?

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Yes there is.

During the 2019 SAS Championship (Champions Tour), Jesper Parnevik had a short bogey putt that horseshoed around the cup and hit his foot. Instead of replaying the putt from the original spot without penalty, he putted the ball from where it ended up and thought he had a double bogey.

The rules state that if the ball on the green accidentally hits any person, animal or immovable obstruction, the stroke doesn’t count and must be replayed from its original spot.

In this case, Parnevik was given a two-stroke penalty for playing from the wrong place. The one where he tapped in counts but the original stroke does not.

Triple bogey. Ouch.

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Your club shaft snaps in two during your swing and you end up whiffing the shot. 

Do you get free relief?

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Nope.

It is still considered a stroke.  You now have to calm yourself down and take your next shot (with a different club, of course).

This happened to John Senden during his first round at the 2018 Australian PGA Championship.

See the article and videos at Golf Digest.

By the way, did you read in the article the part about the tee being an obstruction?

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Is it remotely possible to lose your ball without the clubhead touching the ball or the ball not going out of bounds?

Well, this one peaked my interest….

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You can read the story and see the videos at the link below but here's the short version:

…Wicks marked his ball on the 13th green, three feet from the hole and put the ball in his pocket. When he reached into the same pocket moments later to pull out his scorecard, the ball fell out, hit his shoe and rolled into a pond at the edge of the green.

NCAA rules state that a player must find their personal ball to continue the hole without penalty. That meant Wicks stripped down to his underwear and jumped into the pond in an attempt to find and replace his ball.

After a five-minute search, Wicks found 20 golf balls, but none of them was his own. Therefore, he was assessed a two-stroke penalty.

Apparently, Ian Poulter found himself in a similar position at the 2004 Players Championship (video in the link below) but he lost his ball in a different manner.

Read and see more – Item #3:

https://www.pga.com/news/golf-buzz/11-times-rules-of-golf-were-broken-sometimes-in-bizarre-fashion

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Do you get relief from this lie?

Yes and no…

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On any normal day, no, you don't get relief from the bark.  It is what it is.  Roll up your sleeves and take the shot.

In this case, yes the player did get relief since his stance was on the cart path.

This happened to Scott Rehn during the second round of our 2017 Club Championship.  His tee shot on 14 went off to the right and he visualized his second shot as a power fade around the trees back into play.  Well, the golf gods were paying attention.  The ball hit the top of a tree, rattled around and landed on top of the bark.   Who knew that Scott was a trick short artist!

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