How many strokes can one be penalized in a single incident?

[pound puppy]

Here's one to test you.  On the Golf Channel the other night they had videos of unusual happenings and this was one of them:

A guy has a short putt for what I took as being the win.  As the ball eases up to the hole, the guy flips his putter in the air in celebration.  The ball lips out.  The guy freaks out.  He drops the putter and the grip hits the ball.  I figure that was 1 stroke penalty.

In his attempt to grab the putter before it hits the ball, the guy gets the shaft between his feet and trips.  When he falls down, he falls on the ball.  I figure that would be a 2 stroke penalty if taken by itself.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that, regardless of what happens, you can only be penalized 3 strokes.

Anyone know about this one?

[johnthejoiner]

Originally Posted by pound puppy

Here's one to test you.  On the Golf Channel the other night they had videos of unusual happenings and this was one of them:

A guy has a short putt for what I took as being the win.  As the ball eases up to the hole, the guy flips his putter in the air in celebration.  The ball lips out.  The guy freaks out.  He drops the putter and the grip hits the ball.  I figure that was 1 stroke penalty.

In his attempt to grab the putter before it hits the ball, the guy gets the shaft between his feet and trips.  When he falls down, he falls on the ball.  I figure that would be a 2 stroke penalty if taken by itself.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that, regardless of what happens, you can only be penalized 3 strokes.

Anyone know about this one?

I only know the guy was  Mike Clayton

[johnthejoiner]

Originally Posted by johnthejoiner

I only know the guy was  Mike Clayton

I'm going to have an educated guess at a one stroke penalty and replacing the ball to its original position from the accidental hit

[Clambake]

http://thesandtrap.com/forum/thread/28071/the-infamous-putt-by-mike-clayton

[Kieran123]

[B-Con]

Regarding Mike Clayton: I'm guessing that he only got one stroke penalty for that, see here: http://www.barryrhodes.com/2010/12/hold-on-to-your-putter.html Regarding the original question: A paragraph from that article is relevant: [quote]Fortunately, Mike Clayton did not incur an additional penalty when the ball went on to hit his arm while he was lying prone on the ground. [b]Decision 1-4/12 confirms that when a single act results in one Rule being breached more than once the player only incurs a single penalty.[/b][/quote] (Emphasis mine.) Note that Decision 1-4/12 pertains to "Prior to making a stroke". So I'm not sure how it applies to a stroke already made. Assuming it applies, if you completely mess up a few rules, you're saved from accruing multiple penalties. Your question asks about "a single incident" which I take to mean the same thing that the rule calls "a single act". I read most of Decision 1-4/12, and it [i]seems[/i] to state, in it's multiple cases, that you just apply the first penalty ("with equity") and continue. So with that in mind, I think the most you can be penalized is two strokes plus distance, because I think that's the most severe single penalty that exists.

[zeg]

I believe B-Con is right on: you can only be penalized once for a single action, and generally it will be the strongest applicable penalty.  In this case, the second possible penalty (deflecting the ball with his body) only occurred as a result of the first (contacting it with his equipment).  It wouldn't sit right with Equity to tack on additional strokes for purely academic rules violations.

There's a bit of complication here, though, because it's not well-defined (in my mind, at least) whether this event was one act or two acts.  He threw his putter and he then tried to catch it and stumbled.  In this case, since his putt had come to rest before it was moved by his putter, it needs to be replaced, so IMO Equity would essentially demand that he take that one-stroke penalty and replace his ball.  However, he could well have hit it before it came to rest, violating rule 19-2 instead of 18-2.  In that case, the ball would still remain "live" after his putter deflected it, since the rule requires it to be played as it lies.  Then we'd have to decide whether this was one or two acts.

I think it would be best if it were considered a single act in that case, at the least so we don't penalize him for making his best (if comical) effort to prevent the initial penalty, but I can't quite convince myself of the by-the-book explanation for that.

In any case, I hadn't seen this incident before, poor guy.

[pound puppy]

Thanks for the input.  I did find some more information on the incident and I think it was ruled that the ball was not in motion when his putter hit it.  The ball would be replaced next to the hole with a 1 stroke penalty.  Either way, better him than me...which it usually is.  :-(