Ball on putting green moved

[stacks04]

Hey guys, a quick rules question. I was playing with a couple guys this weekend and one of them chipped up and their ball contacted mine on the green. Mine was at rest waiting on the others to chip up. In doing so it moved my ball about a foot closer to the pin. We all discussed it and decided to just play it as it lies as we were just out having fun. I am curious of the proper thing to do in such a situation now. According to the rule book I have Rule 18-5 says the ball must be moved back to the original position and then played. If this is true that is fine, but when this happened I was just done with my chip shot, moving my cart to the green side path and would never have known where to put the ball now. I did not have the chance to see it or to mark it and pick it up before this happened. Thoughts?

[kpaulhus]

You have to replace your ball as best you can. The ball that hit yours plays where it stopped.

[Fourputt]

You have to replace your ball as best you can. The ball that hit yours plays where it stopped.

Yep.. this is how it is. Stacks incurred a 2 stroke penalty when he played the ball from a wrong place.

[Pat007]

yup..2 strokes...you have to replace it and your playing partners have to agree to where it was.

[yenner]

Yep.. this is how it is. Stacks incurred a 2 stroke penalty when he played the ball from a wrong place.

Doesn't sound like it.

yup..2 strokes...

We all discussed it and decided to just play it as it lies

His partners agreed and nobody could locate its original spot so it's fair game, right? Besides, if it was just a round for kicks with friends who cares? :)

[Rexx]

This isn't "a tree falls in the woods" thing. Someone saw the ball hit his ball. That person should identify the original spot as best as he can.

[Clambake]

Being just a friendly "knock it around the course and have fun" kind of round, it doesn't much matter. But if you want to play truly by the rules (always a good idea so one actually learns them and doesn't get sloppy), the correct process is to make the best consensus about where the ball was and replace it to that spot. It doesn't have to be perfect, but since you all knew it had moved you knew it was in the wrong spot, so you must have had some idea where the original spot was.

In stroke play, agreeing to waive the rules and play it from where it stopped is also a violation of 1-3 "Agreement to Waive Rules" and is a violation by itself, resulting in DQ of both sides if match play and DQ of all parties concerned for stroke play.

[stacks04]

Cool thanks guys. We certainly know for next time now. We dont go out to play by the book so to speak, myself and one of the other guys are in our first year so for us it is basically getting some ball striking/aiming practice. The other gent is a long time once a year golfer and we collectively decided to make an honest go at it this year and it is really fun. We are learning the rules as things arise in our games and have fun doing it.