What's your interpretation....

[thekid65]

Of a ball "moving"? I've come across this many times during a round and wondered if I had actually "moved" the ball.

Definition from da'rules: "A ball is deemed to have "moved" if it leaves its position and comes to rest in any other place."

So, if one were to say, remove a pine needle, or leaf/stick...whatever..thats nestled on or just barely under the edge of the ball, and the ball moves (wobbles) a bit, but returns to what appears to be its original location...have I "moved" the ball?

 

[mddubya]

The way I understand the rule, if the ball just wobbles, you're ok.

 

[Augster]

The ball needs to change position to be a penalty. If it moves over 1 dimple, it has been deemed to have moved.

If it oscillates (wobbles) and stays in the same place, it has not moved.

You always know if your ball has moved. You get a sick feeling in your stomach as despair washes over your body.

 

[PMay]

How about this one. In a round the other day i knocked the ball off the tee doing a practice swing and it went about a foot. The group i was playing with made me play that ball. When i got back to the scoring table they told me that i could have re teed it at no penalty. So what does the rule actually say?

 

[N.V.M.]

.........

How many times have we accidentally tapped our ball and had it fall of the tee, only to hear someone we’re playing with say, “That’s one!”? The joke is old and it usually isn’t true. Rule 11-3 says that when the ball is not in play and it is falls off or is knocked off the tee, it may be re-teed without penalty. But, if you’re in the middle of a stroke, the balls falls off and you complete the stroke, it counts as a stroke and the ball is played as it lies.
Also, if you swing and miss your ball, it is now in play. If you were to then accidentally knock it off the tee, you’d be penalized one stroke for moving your ball in play and would have to re-tee it or get the general penalty under rule 18-2 (Decision 11-3/1).

 

[trumb1mj]

The rule is something like this: You need to "intend" to hit the ball forward off the tee and it is not in play until you intentionally hit the ball forward off of the tee. I am 99.9% sure of this rule.

 

[anonymous golfaholic]

But it counts as a stroke if your in the fairway taking practice swings and you accidentally hit the ball. I played with a guy in a tournament that accidentally clipped the ball taking practice swings in the fairway one time and the bum didn't count it. I didn't say anything because he was doing bad anyway.

 

[Augster]

When you are on a tee box, your ball is not in play until it is fairly struck at. If you know absolutely that it was a practice swing that accidentally sends it flying, there is no penalty, and you can either retee with that ball, or another ball.

Once you have teed off on a hole, your ball IS in play. You are not allowed to move or touch a ball in play without taking some sort of penalty unless doing so under the Rules.

 

[Fourputt]

Of a ball "moving"? I've come across this many times during a round and wondered if I had actually "moved" the ball.

Definition from da'rules: "A ball is deemed to have "moved" if it leaves its position and comes to rest in any other place."

So, if one were to say, remove a pine needle, or leaf/stick...whatever..thats nestled on or just barely under the edge of the ball, and the ball moves (wobbles) a bit, but returns to what appears to be its original location...have I "moved" the ball?

If the ball returns to its original position then no penalty as long as you didn't touch the ball. If you touched it, then you incur a one stroke penalty even if it doesn't move.

How about this one. In a round the other day i knocked the ball off the tee doing a practice swing and it went about a foot. The group i was playing with made me play that ball. When i got back to the scoring table they told me that i could have re teed it at no penalty. So what does the rule actually say?

The defintion of Stroke from the Rules of Golf:

A "stroke" is the forward movement of the club made with the intention of striking at and moving the ball, but if a player checks his downswing voluntarily before the clubhead reaches the ball he has not made a stroke.

Since you had no intention of striking or moving the ball, you did not make a stroke and should have reteed it.

 

[Fourputt]

But it counts as a stroke if your in the fairway taking practice swings and you accidentally hit the ball. .

NO it does not. Just because you're in the fairway the definition of a stroke does not change. You still must swing with the intention of striking the ball for it to be counted as a stroke. However, you do incur a one stroke penalty under Rule 18-2 and you must replace the ball. If you don't replace the ball before making a stroke at it, then the one stroke penalty turns into two strokes for playing from a wrong place, and you must play out the hole from there. The guy you were playing with should have replaced the ball and added one stroke to his score.