therULeS
Learned from experience
Understanding the rules can be an asset to golfers in handling certain
on-course incidents | by MaTT SMileY
A
s the summer winds down and
another season of championship
golf in Virginia approaches
its conclusion, some rules
situations occurred this season
that might help you on the course.
without penalty, within one club-length of
the spot where he doesn’t stand in the ESA
and his swing doesn’t touch the protected
area. Think about it for a moment: Since
the player didn’t hit the ball into the ESA,
why should he incur a penalty? In this
instance, the rule was his friend.
GONE WITH THE WIND
Oftentimes wind is a factor that affects the
golf ball, sometimes in a helpful manner
and on other occasions negatively. Under
the Rules of Golf, wind is not considered an
outside agency. Therefore, if wind causes
your ball to move—whether your ball was
at rest or in motion prior to the gust—you
must play it from where it ends up. Do
things change if the wind is artificiallypropelled air from a fan? At some courses,
fans are placed adjacent to putting greens
to create airflow. During an event earlier
this year, air from a fan blew a ball that
was at rest to a new and more favorable
location. Decision 18-1/2 deals with this
situation. This decision differentiates
artificially-propelled air from natural wind
and clarifies that artificially-propelled air
(like that from a fan) is an outside agency.
Ultimately, this means that Rule 18-1 (Ball
at Rest Moved by Outside Agency) applies
and the ball must be replaced, without
penalty (just as if the ball was moved by a
dog or your fellow-competitor).
JOHN MUMMERT/USGA PHOTO ARCHIVES
SENSITIVITY TRAINING
Many layouts have water hazards and/or
lateral water hazards that have been declared
Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs).
In order to deal with these areas, a Local
Rule found in Appendix I in the Rules of Golf
is utilized, forbidding players from playing
from these locations or even entering them
to retrieve their golf ball. This Local Rule
requires the player to incur a one-stroke
penalty and choose from his relief options
under Rule 26 (Water Hazards). At a
championship this summer, a player’s ball
came to rest through the green (not in the
water hazard), but he would have had to
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