Storing golf balls in cold temperatures

[Titleist Man]

Is it a penalty if you have the warmers in your pockets and then put the ball in your pocket after the hole?

[Lefty22]

Is it a penalty if you have the warmers in your pockets and then put the ball in your pocket after the hole?

Here's the excerpt from the Minor revisions PDF:

14-3/13.5 Golf Ball Artificially Warmed Q. Is the use of a golf ball that was purposely warmed during a stipulated round with a golf ball warmer, hand warmer or any such device a breach of Rule 14-3? A. Yes. Use of a ball that has been purposely warmed during a stipulated round with an artificial device constitutes a breach of Rule 14-3. However, it would not be a breach of Rule 14-3 to use a ball that was artificially warmed prior to the stipulated round. (Revised) At this point I think we are in fact getting in a bit of a gray area. The rule states purposefully warmed; this gives me the impression that if the warmers are genuinely for your hands and you accidentally put a ball in that pocket without the intent of warming it then it would not be a breech of the rules. However after reading this thread this rule is undoubtedly indelibly ingrained into your Golfer subconscious and as such it will be on the list of things like grounding your club in a hazard that you just don't do . On a somewhat related note; the rule does explicitly mention an "artificial device" constituting the breech. So it seems that if you just keep an extra ball or two close to the other pair of balls you've already got in your pants then they will be at 98.6* and completely legal when you need to put them in play... I'm assuming body heat alone could NOT be considered an artificial device; if anyone knows of an existing ruling stating otherwise please correct this statement. Link to PDF containing 2008 Minor revisions

[klaymon]

I would have to say it is still a breach. A lot of the rules could be "I accidentally (x)" or "I forgot about (y)". I think they have to take a somewhat hardline approach to keep things fair for everyone.

Keeping a ball in your pocket to keep it warm from body heat would be acceptable because it is not using an artificial device (provided the hand warmer was not in there, of course).

[flanagan]

Definitely a breach.

[Mr3Putt]

[/quote]On a different note; this conversation has made up my mind on my own rules violation. I have been playing with Bionic brand gloves for about 8 months (since I started playing); I found out yesterday by reading some old reviews on this site that they are in fact only USGA legal if you have a medical reason to play them. I like that these keep my hand from getting sore (plus they last forever) and I was considering continuing to wear them but I don't have arthritis (yet) so I have so stop playing them if I want to truly track a USGA handicap. [/quote]


Sounds to me like you have a valid medical reason to play them. Mention it to your Doctor, I guarantee he'll back you up.