The 11th rule has 3 major portions, and I’ve broken each down into its own blog entry so as not to overwhelm the poor reader. Part 1 dealt accidental deflections, Part 2 with deliberate actions to deflect a ball in motion, and this portion will deal with what you can move if a ball is in motion. Today is Moving Day!
Back before 2019, one of the key contributors to “stuff you couldn’t move” was the flagstick. Someone would inevitably make a putt when the flag was still in the hole and the sick sound of the ball hitting the stick and dropping in the hole would mean adding a 2-stroke penalty to the player. After 2019, you’re fine leaving the stick in the hole, so no big deal there.
That doesn’t mean you’re free to move anything you want. I’ll give a few examples.
You’re under the trees on the left of #2 and the sycamores have dumped more of their branches and segments of their bark. You have moved a bunch of that crap (loose impediments) around your ball and you plan to hit something into the air to get back to the fairway. However, you top the ball and it dribbles toward the cart path and it headed right toward a sizeable sycamore branch. If it makes it over that branch, you stand a chance of getting to the edge of the fairway. Your partner sees the intended path of your ball and snatches the b
ranch away just before your ball is set to impact the branch and the ball rolls over the cart path and into the fairway. OK? No. Not OK. While a ball is in motion, you can’t move a loose impediment (the branch qualifies as one of those), or a movable obstruction (a bench is a great example) that may impact the path of the golf ball. Inform your partner that he’s just forced you to add two strokes to your score.
You also can’t replace divots or regrade soil (or have someone else do it) while your ball is in motion that might influence the travel of the golf ball. Golf is not curling.
There are some items you can move when the ball is in motion, and this only applies on the putting green of the hole you’re pl
aying. Say you’ve had the flagstick removed and someone’s laid it down near your line of play to the hole. You should probably have someone move it before your stroke, but you do have the option of having anyone move that removed flagstick even when your ball is in motion to avoid striking the flagstick. Same goes for equipment (clubs, putter head covers, gloves). Same for a ball at rest on the putting green, which might be useful to remember to avoid a 2-stroke penalty. An example. Sam hits a long putt from the right side of #16’s green, but he judged the speed of the putt poorly. Instead of making it all the way to the hole on the left side of the green and deep in the green, it’s being sent toward the front of the green where Steve has left his sand wedge and placed the flagstick. Ste
ve also was going to putt from down there on that portion of the green, and Sam’s ball looks like it has eyes to hit Steve’s ball (which has been marked). Sam quickly asks if Steve would please pick up his ball, the flagstick and his sand wedge before Sam’s ball arrives and Steve does so. Does either player incur a penalty? The answer is “No.” Now if Sam’s ball had hit Steve’s ball, bounced into the flagstick and travelled into the sand wedge before coming to rest, where would Sam play his next shot from, and would there be a penalty? There will be a penalty if Sam’s putt started from on the green (2 strokes). As far as location for the next shot, the deflection of the ball was ACCIDENTAL and not deliberate, so Sam has to accept the result of the deflection and play from where the ball came to rest.
A caveat to that last example. Suppose Sam asked Steve to pick up his ball, the flagstick and his sand wedge, but Steve didn’t get all of that done in time before Sam’s ball struck his own. Does Sam still get the 2-stroke penalty? Yes, he does. Steve is not required to pick up his ball at all. Sam could have asked Steve to mark his ball before the stroke, and Steve would have had to mark and pick up his ball. When I’m on the putting green and I think there’s a chance I could strike another ball, I’m going to have my opponent mark it (or putt out if they prefer) to avoid the dreaded 2-stroke addition.
I intentionally left out the case when you strike a putt on the green and then ask for the flagstick to be removed while the ball is in motion – we’ll address that issue in Rule 13 at a later date. On to 12!