USGA and R&A announce changes to Rules of Golf for 2012-2015
Here are some interesting links to explain what rules have been modified.
You are playing Poplar Creek’s #14 (par 5) and your second shot comes to rest on the bridge.
Are you entitled to relief?
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No. You would think you can take cart path relief but that particular bridge is deemed to be inside the hazard because the surrounding red stakes defines the whole canal – and anything in it and crossing it – as part of a water hazard.
Therefore, the bridge itself is part of the water hazard.
You can declare an unplayable lie and take a drop behind the bridge with a one shot penalty or you can play the ball where it lies. Just remember if you do play it where it lies, you cannot ground your club – the bridge is in the hazard.
So the lesson here is to first look to see if there is anything to exempt the bridge from the water hazard such as double red stakes or a red line. Otherwise, the bridge may be part of the water hazard.
This situation did happen to a player (the club’s webmaster) during our 2011 Club Championship. Their second shot came to rest on the bridge just a few inches from the concrete curb. That player was about to take cart path relief when another player stopped them. After some discussion, the player elected to play the ball as it lied, hit the ball left handed and scored a good bogey. If he had taken cart path relief and turned in his scorecard, he would have been DQ’d for signing an incorrect scorecard.
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A player’s tee shot comes to rest in an area containing heavy rough and a large burrowing animal hole.
After a search of five minutes, the players in the group determine that it is neither known nor virtually certain that the ball is in the burrowing animal hole. The player returns to the tee to put another ball into play under Rule 27-1.
As the player is returning to the tee, the ball is found in the burrowing animal hole.
May the player now proceed under Rule 25-1 (abnormal ground condition)?
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No. When five minutes elapsed and it was neither known nor virtually certain that the ball was in the burrowing animal hole, the ball was lost and Rule 27-1 was applicable.
Update: If the ball was found BEFORE the five minutes were up then yes, the player could play the original ball provided he did not hit a second ball. But this rules question asks what happens when the ball is found after the five minutes have expired. Almost a trick question.
27-1(c): Ball Not Found Within Five Minutes
If a ball is lost as a result of not being found or identified as his by the player within five minutes after the player’s Side or his or their caddies have begun to search for it, the player must play a ball, under penalty of one stroke, as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played.
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In Match Play, Player A’s ball is on Player B’s line of putt. Player B requests Player A to lift his ball under Rule 22-2. Instead of complying with the request, Player A putts out of turn.
Does Player A lose the hole for a breach of Rule 22-2 or does Rule 10-1c apply, in which case there would be no penalty but Player B would have the right to require Player A to replay the stroke in correct order?
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If Player A wants to be unsportmanlike and putt out of turn, he can do so without penalty. However, in Match Play, Player B can ask Player A to mark and replay the putt.
Rule 22-2 – Except when a ball is in motion, if a player considers that the ball of another player might interfere with his play, he may have it lifted. Except on the putting green, a player may not lift his ball solely because he considers that it might interfere with the play of another player. If a player lifts his ball without being asked to do so, he loses the hole in Match Play (two stroke penalty in stroke play).
Rule 10-1c – Playing Out of Turn – If a player plays when his opponent should have played, there is no penalty, but the opponent may immediately require the player to cancel the stroke so made and, in correct order, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played.
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