Watch out for accidental movement of a ball

I recently got a gift of a large shiny ball-marker that is about two inches in diameter. As I marked my ball with it for the first time, my good friend Yassin Awale came to me with a troubled look on his face.

“Sensei, I have a Rules question.”

This was my opportunity to help my pal. Knowing his experience on the golf scene and his good knowledge of the Rules, I was eager to assist him decrypt whatever Rules situation was troubling him.

“Are golfers allowed to use saucers or coasters to mark the position of their balls?” he asked. It took me a good five seconds to realise that he was making fun of my ball marker. It is however not funny when such a large ball-marker slips from ones fingers and causes the ball in play to move.

The player incurs a one-stroke penalty for causing their ball in play to move. The same applies when a player drops their ball on a marker (especially a large one like mine) and causes it to move.

At the 2010 Dubai World Championship, a ball that slipped from Ian Poulter’s hands may have cost him Sh41 million in prize money. During the playoff to determine the winner, Poulter’s ball slipped from his hand and fell on a coin that he was using as a ball-marker and made it flip over.

He was putting for a birdie and so was his opponent. The movement of his marker just sealed his fate on that occasion.

Naturally, Poulter was miffed by the loss and he commented on the Rule under which he was penalised as being ‘strange’. Since the movement of the ball-marker was accidental and it was possible to replace the ball without getting an advantage, the penalty and the subsequent loss of Sh41 million seemed excessive.

The Rules review Committee of the R&A and USGA, have now introduced a Local Rule that will waive the penalty for such accidental movement of a ball, or ball-marker on the putting green.

This however doesn’t waive the penalty for a ball moved accidentally anywhere else on the golf course. It has to be on the green. It can only apply if the committee adopts this Local Rule.

A few questions have arisen as to why the R&A did not make this change in the Rules of Golf and not leave it to the committees to adopt as a Local Rule. The other question is why the Local Rule did not wait for the usual four-year cycle.

I may not have answers to this but they must have felt that it was important enough not to punish golfers who may be involved in errors that don’t gain them any advantage.

This doesn’t cover the situations where the ball is moved by the wind or gravity. If a ball in play is blown to a new position by the wind, then the player must play from the new position. The same applies when this happens due to gravity, especially on the undulating, fast greens that we are seeing lately.

It will also not give reprieve to a golfer who “accidentally” forgets to mark his/her ball on the green. Those that have anger management issues after a bad shot will also not be covered by this Local Rule.

The usual penalties will apply. I look forward to seeing the revision of Rules that are complicated and some that are too punitive. This is definitely a move in the right direction by the joint Rules Committee of the R&A and USGA.

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The author is a KGU Executive