When is a putt holed?

[Golfingdad]

I was under the impression that you have to pull the flag and if it falls in, it's holed.

You certainly can't just grab the ball from the top of the hole and call it holed.

Nah, pretty sure it just has to be at rest fully below the rim of the hole.

Watch a PGA our player who has holed out from the fairway and they frequently just push the flag to a side, ensure that the ball is well into the cup and then pull the ball out while leaving the flag in place.

[billchao]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Nah, pretty sure it just has to be at rest fully below the rim of the hole.

Watch a PGA our player who has holed out from the fairway and they frequently just push the flag to a side, ensure that the ball is well into the cup and then pull the ball out while leaving the flag in place.

I looked it up:

Quote:

17-4 . Ball Resting Against Flagstick

When a player’s ball rests against the flagstick in the hole and the ball is not holed , the player or another person authorized by him may move or remove the flagstick , and if the ball falls into the hole , the player is deemed to have holed out with his last stroke ; otherwise, the ball, if moved , must be placed on the lip of the hole , without penalty.

So I guess you can just wiggle the flag around to let the ball drop, too.

[Golfingdad]

I looked it up:

So I guess you can just wiggle the flag around to let the ball drop, too.

Right, and just to clarify and confirm, it doesn't have to hit bottom (which, obviously, it couldn't even do with the flagstick in anyway):

Holed

A ball is “ holed ” when it is at rest within the circumference of the hole and all of it is below the level of the lip of the hole .

[billchao]

Right, and just to clarify and confirm, it doesn't have to hit bottom (which, obviously, it couldn't even do with the flagstick in anyway):

[URL=]Holed[/URL]

A ball is “ [URL=http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Definitions/#Holed][U][COLOR=0066CC]holed[/COLOR][/U][/URL] ” when it is at rest within the circumference of the [URL=http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Definitions/#Hole][U][COLOR=0066CC]hole[/COLOR][/U][/URL] and all of it is below the level of the lip of the [URL=http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Definitions/#Hole][U][COLOR=0066CC]hole[/COLOR][/U][/URL].

[quote name="Golfingdad" url="/t/75753/when-is-a-putt-holed#post_1021479"]Nah, pretty sure it just has to be at rest fully below the rim of the hole. Watch a PGA our player who has holed out from the fairway and they frequently just push the flag to a side, ensure that the ball is well into the cup and then pull the ball out while leaving the flag in place. [/quote]Yup, I get what you're saying, now. Since the ball is fully within the hole and at rest, it is considered holed, so you can just pull it out. Going back to @Patch 's scenarios, if the ball is wedged against a flagstick, it is legal to move the stick to allow the ball to drop, but one cannot just call it holed and pick up the ball.

[iacas]

You'll have to prove the q school thing to me. Physics simply does not allow for a golf ball to bounce higher than the height from which it dropped.

That happened. It hit the liner. Not the bottom of the cup. He missed by one.

[Grndslmhttr3]

That happened. It hit the liner. Not the bottom of the cup.

He missed by one.

How does that even happen? I was thinking along the same lines as David on this one.

[David in FL]

How does that even happen? I was thinking along the same lines as David on this one.

The liner hadn't been sunk below the level of the ground, so it prevented the ball from falling into the hole. I misunderstood Nick and thought he was claiming that a putted ball had actually bounced out of the bottom of the hole. Something that cannot happen.

[nick1998bunker]

The guy who missed the putt was Joe Daley. I do think his hit the rim now that that you talk about the physics of it. I have however had it happen twice where I was certain that it hit the bottom and bounced out, was below the cup for a long time. But now I am growing less confident that it happened. I did have a putt the other day on the course that hit the rim and didn't go in.

[ColinL]

What if the putt was going to bounce out but you grab it before it does?

I love the picture of you hitting a wedge shot  far enough from the hole and a sufficient height for the ball to be liable to bounce out, dropping your club instantly and haring off to the green in order to arrive at the hole at the same time as the ball,  to catch it on the rebound.

And to continue being fanciful, if you did that, you would be in breach of rule 1-2 by stopping your ball in play.

[Spyder]

I've had it happen to me twice on the practice green, and it happened to a guy in q school who had a 3 footer to make the tour. It usually happens on 3 footers that just die in.

Hold a basketball, or golf ball, or any ball for that matter, level with your nose in front of your face and drop it. If it bounces higher than the starting point, call Stephen Hawking and NASA. Unless something isn't right with the hole in this case, it'll never happen otherwise.

EDIT: After reading the additional posts after you said this, I see that the hole was in fact messed up. I also thought you were saying that the ball fell in and bounced back out like it had helium in it or something.

[nick1998bunker]

Hold a basketball, or golf ball, or any ball for that matter, level with your nose in front of your face and drop it. If it bounces higher than the starting point, call Stephen Hawking and NASA. Unless something isn't right with the hole in this case, it'll never happen otherwise.

EDIT: After reading the additional posts after you said this, I see that the hole was in fact messed up. I also thought you were saying that the ball fell in and bounced back out like it had helium in it or something.

I thought that is what happened, but i now see that it wasnt. Like you were saying, energy conservation laws. However I still have an image in my head of when it happened to me and i was sure it did. Maybe it is possible on a severely downhill putt.

[Always an 80]

Oh---so you thought that it may be possible that you could hole a shot from 200 yards, have it bounce out and then say it was in. That would make sense when you can't even see the ball.

Unbelievable.

I cannot help myself mentioning that your responses are so much more poignant while I am looking at that cat.

[JetFan1983]

Here's that Joe Daley putt from 2000 Q-School.

He missed by 1 stroke in the end.