Quote:
Originally Posted by
MSchott 
It's quite possible his ball was partially buried with the logo in the sand. You can't pick up the ball from a hazard to verify it's yours. The again it might have a typical Daly moment. I feel bad for him. I thought he had his act together the last year or so in this regard.
Originally Posted by
iacas You can't, but Rule 12 allows you to identify it:
See also 12-2.
As far as I can tell, you are permitted to lift the ball, even from the bunker, for purposes of identifying it as long as you comply with the rule 12-1. That means you must notify a fellow-competitor and allow him to observe the procedure, then mark and lift (or touch/rotate) and clean only enough to make the identification. When you're done, you replace it and recreate the original lie. I don't see any restriction on the right to securely identify the ball because it's in a hazard.
If there is such a restriction, I'd be very interested to see it pointed out However, I'm fairly confident there won't be. Such a rule would clearly conflict with the penalty for playing a wrong ball. As far as I know there's only one situation in which you have an excuse for playing a wrong ball: when your ball is moving in a water hazard. In that case, the rules already waive the penalty since it may be impractical to identify the ball before making a (probably ill-advised) stroke on it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DocWu1948 To me, that's the caddy's job and the caddy screwed up.
The caddy screwed up, but more importantly, Daly blew it. The player is ultimately responsible and IMO the caddy should be treated as an assistant. The player needs to make the final determination that he's playing the right ball on every single stroke. Hell, when I'm playing for fun, I still verify that I've got the right ball on every stroke, even when I'm lying in the middle of the fairway and I saw the ball the whole way. No sympathy for a professional who can't be bothered to do his job.
This whole story is really pathetic.
