What if someone else hits your ball?

[RockCreek]

Okay, I'm a hack golfer and the father of a 13 month old, so I've not golfed a lot recently. I'm guessing this is a stupidly common question, but a search didn't find it. I'm not too proud to ask what most of you will considered dumb. (shameless brag). Wife and kid went to visit Grandma yesterday and Daddy decided it was the perfect free time, so got a round in. Hit a crazy wild shot with my 3 iron and shot a 2 on a 5. Probably will never do that again. But, beyond that, I decided today was another chance to sneak a round in. First hole, hit a real solid drive and its downhill so got a killer roll. I can see the ball from the tee box. I'm watching my ball, making the mental picture of where it is when somebody on the next fairway drives over, and hits it as if it was his. I don't want to be a jerk, plus, he's a couple hundred yards away, so it wouldn't matter anyway. I'm walking, so come down, think it was approximately where the ball was, and dropped and hit from there. I didn't take a stroke. Did I cheat?

[Asheville]

The short answer is to be found here:

Rule 18-1 . By Outside Agency - If a ball at rest is moved by an outside agency , there is no penalty and the ball must be replaced.

[RockCreek]

Thank you!! (because I shot my best total overall round today and didn't want to lie) I wish I could I could list some cool clubs on my sig file, but I play some old Pings I bought for 90 bucks online :-). They're still better than I am, so I love them.

[Fourputt]

The short answer is to be found here:

Rule 18-1. By Outside Agency - If a ball at rest is moved by an outside agency, there is no penalty and the ball must be replaced.

If the original ball is not immediately recoverable, then another ball may be substituted.  If the exact location is not known, then the ball must be dropped.  I think he needed the complete answer.

And by the way, not a stupid question at all.

[joekelly]

However, there can be no question of that 'someone else' hitting your ball.  What if indeed the ball he hit was his ball and your ball had fallen into a gopher hole but you had not seen that happen? Unfortunately, we cannot blame all (in fact, hardly any) of our lost balls on outside agents.

And IMO,  you only cheat when you intend to deceive others.  Rules violations, with no intent to deceive, are simply mistakes due to ignorance. You have taken the correct action to fix your ignorance by bringing your rules q to the learned men/ladies here. And that generally ain't me.

[Slice of Life]

Looks like it's been answered for you. Side note, huge congrats on the Albatross! That isn't a brag...I would have started a whole thread about it. Haha.

[RockCreek]

Thanks for all the kind responses.  Yeah, I'm quite certain I could see my ball roll to a stop and watched it while walking down.  That's the same course that last year I hit a groundhog on the head.  I played it where it bounced off.  I sorta felt bad about it, but he seemed okay, and my partner couldn't stop laughing and played a horrible hole.

And thanks for the congrats on the 2.  I was so worked up on the next hole I shot a 6 on a par 3, so I'm not joining the tour anytime soon.

[Flav]

Here's a question that fits here instead of making a new one. Friday one of my playing partners hit his drive in the fairway. Another group playing the hole next to us hit his drive into our fairway. None of us marked our balls as we were all playing different brands. Unfortunately he was playing a Wilson pro staff as was the guy who hit his into our fairway. Neither knew which ball was theirs with 100% certain. They were about five yards apart and my partner had a good idea which one was his but not 100% certain. He proceeded under decision 27/10 was he right? Or would playing a ball he was fairly certain was his be the way to go?

[Big C]

Here's a question that fits here instead of making a new one. Friday one of my playing partners hit his drive in the fairway. Another group playing the hole next to us hit his drive into our fairway. None of us marked our balls as we were all playing different brands. Unfortunately he was playing a Wilson pro staff as was the guy who hit his into our fairway. Neither knew which ball was theirs with 100% certain. They were about five yards apart and my partner had a good idea which one was his but not 100% certain. He proceeded under decision 27/10 was he right? Or would playing a ball he was fairly certain was his be the way to go?

Your friend was correct in proceeding as a lost ball - which is why it is so important to mark our ball before putting it into play. Did he actually go back to the box and re-tee?

[Flav]

Yes it was for handicap so he went back and teed it up again.

[smaug81243]

Here's a question that fits here instead of making a new one. Friday one of my playing partners hit his drive in the fairway. Another group playing the hole next to us hit his drive into our fairway. None of us marked our balls as we were all playing different brands. Unfortunately he was playing a Wilson pro staff as was the guy who hit his into our fairway. Neither knew which ball was theirs with 100% certain. They were about five yards apart and my partner had a good idea which one was his but not 100% certain. He proceeded under decision 27/10 was he right? Or would playing a ball he was fairly certain was his be the way to go?

This seems a little silly to me. Both balls were in the fairway (I'm assuming good lies on both) and 5 yards apart. Your score should be about the same from each position if you played them both thousands of times. If you aren't playing in a tournament just hit the ball.

[Flav]

This seems a little silly to me. Both balls were in the fairway (I'm assuming good lies on both) and 5 yards apart. Your score should be about the same from each position if you played them both thousands of times. If you aren't playing in a tournament just hit the ball.

He's a bit of a stickler for the rules, which none of us mind, so he wouldn't just hit it.

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flav

Here's a question that fits here instead of making a new one. Friday one of my playing partners hit his drive in the fairway. Another group playing the hole next to us hit his drive into our fairway. None of us marked our balls as we were all playing different brands. Unfortunately he was playing a Wilson pro staff as was the guy who hit his into our fairway. Neither knew which ball was theirs with 100% certain. They were about five yards apart and my partner had a good idea which one was his but not 100% certain. He proceeded under decision 27/10 was he right? Or would playing a ball he was fairly certain was his be the way to go?

This seems a little silly to me. Both balls were in the fairway (I'm assuming good lies on both) and 5 yards apart. Your score should be about the same from each position if you played them both thousands of times. If you aren't playing in a tournament just hit the ball.

This is a rules forum so the answers given to questions must necessarily be correct by the Rules of Golf.  If you have no interest in discussing the rules in the context of the question, or in learning about them, then maybe you clicked on the wrong forum heading.

[imsys0042]

This is one of those things where you have a couple of problems and you do something to head it off. You always need something that identifies your ball definitely. The situation above where two people have the same ball/number/etc, is unfortunate because if you don't know something for sure, you have to err on the side of biting you in the a$$. I do agree that all things being equal that from positions that close, you'll usually make the same score. But, even a couple feet difference can be the difference between a nasty side hill lie or a flat one, and you have to enforce the rule that says you must know it's your ball. My home course is ridiculously penal and I frequently can't remember the ball I hit after going to my bag for a second shot. But I have something written on them so there's no confusion.

[smaug81243]

Your friend was correct in proceeding as a lost ball - which is why it is so important to mark our ball before putting it into play. Did he actually go back to the box and re-tee?

[quote name="Fourputt" url="/t/76595/what-if-someone-else-hits-your-ball#post_1057571"] This is a rules forum so the answers given to questions must necessarily be correct by the Rules of Golf.  If you have no interest in discussing the rules in the context of the question, or in learning about them, then maybe you clicked on the wrong forum heading. [/quote] Such an encouraging post to promote discussion. Since you make it sound like my post is completely irrelevant, and do so in a rude manner, let's have some fun with this. As I'm sure you know, the USGA has been attempting to tackle the issue of pace of play in recent years. Methods that have been discussed for shortening the amount of time a golf round takes have included larger holes, encouraging players to tee it forward, etc. Perhaps another way to boost pace of play would be to modify rules such as this. I mean, in this case, he clearly hit the ball in the fairway. Are we really going to waste time by having him walk all the way back to the tee, go through his preshot routine, hit another shot (hopefully in bounds), walk back to his ball and hit another shot. Your signature sums it up perfectly, "Your proper place on the course is directly behind the group in front of you, not directly ahead of the group behind you." By going back to the tee after hitting the ball in the fairway you are certainly not following this quote and not helping out pace of play. If it is a tournament or gambling is involved in the match, sure, going back to the tee is absolutely the correct play. But, if we want to boost the speed of rounds, why would we not elect to amend rules such as this? Perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to shut down posts in this forum heading that aren't strictly rule 18-1 says X and be more open to discussion of whether the specific rule/case even matters.

[Asheville]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big C

Your friend was correct in proceeding as a lost ball - which is why it is so important to mark our ball before putting it into play. Did he actually go back to the box and re-tee?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fourputt

This is a rules forum so the answers given to questions must necessarily be correct by the Rules of Golf.  If you have no interest in discussing the rules in the context of the question, or in learning about them, then maybe you clicked on the wrong forum heading.

Such an encouraging post to promote discussion. Since you make it sound like my post is completely irrelevant, and do so in a rude manner, let's have some fun with this. As I'm sure you know, the USGA has been attempting to tackle the issue of pace of play in recent years. Methods that have been discussed for shortening the amount of time a golf round takes have included larger holes, encouraging players to tee it forward, etc. Perhaps another way to boost pace of play would be to modify rules such as this. I mean, in this case, he clearly hit the ball in the fairway. Are we really going to waste time by having him walk all the way back to the tee, go through his preshot routine, hit another shot (hopefully in bounds), walk back to his ball and hit another shot. Your signature sums it up perfectly, "Your proper place on the course is directly behind the group in front of you, not directly ahead of the group behind you." By going back to the tee after hitting the ball in the fairway you are certainly not following this quote and not helping out pace of play. If it is a tournament or gambling is involved in the match, sure, going back to the tee is absolutely the correct play. But, if we want to boost the speed of rounds, why would we not elect to amend rules such as this? Perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to shut down posts in this forum heading that aren't strictly rule 18-1 says X and be more open to discussion of whether the specific rule/case even matters.

It's a Rules folder. If you don't respect the Rules, then go to the "What kind of socks does Ricky Fowler wear" folder and post your notions as to what kind of Rules you wish to "have fun"  with. Your word salad convinces no one.

[Flav]

Pace of play on a Friday at 5pm is not an issue as there is normally 4 groups besides the local college team practicing on the course. The problem is one ball would have given an advantage to the other player that hit into our fairway. It was a clean shot back to the other fairway while one would have had to be punch under or attempted to go over the group of trees. The other guy played the easier of the two and duffed it five yards. Good choice of balls I would say. They didn't have to wait for us as they reached their green when we reached ours.

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big C

Your friend was correct in proceeding as a lost ball - which is why it is so important to mark our ball before putting it into play. Did he actually go back to the box and re-tee?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fourputt

This is a rules forum so the answers given to questions must necessarily be correct by the Rules of Golf.  If you have no interest in discussing the rules in the context of the question, or in learning about them, then maybe you clicked on the wrong forum heading.

Such an encouraging post to promote discussion. Since you make it sound like my post is completely irrelevant, and do so in a rude manner, let's have some fun with this. As I'm sure you know, the USGA has been attempting to tackle the issue of pace of play in recent years. Methods that have been discussed for shortening the amount of time a golf round takes have included larger holes, encouraging players to tee it forward, etc. Perhaps another way to boost pace of play would be to modify rules such as this. I mean, in this case, he clearly hit the ball in the fairway. Are we really going to waste time by having him walk all the way back to the tee, go through his preshot routine, hit another shot (hopefully in bounds), walk back to his ball and hit another shot. Your signature sums it up perfectly, "Your proper place on the course is directly behind the group in front of you, not directly ahead of the group behind you." By going back to the tee after hitting the ball in the fairway you are certainly not following this quote and not helping out pace of play. If it is a tournament or gambling is involved in the match, sure, going back to the tee is absolutely the correct play. But, if we want to boost the speed of rounds, why would we not elect to amend rules such as this? Perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to shut down posts in this forum heading that aren't strictly rule 18-1 says X and be more open to discussion of whether the specific rule/case even matters.

You make assumptions which may or may not apply in a given case.  The OP states that they were playing on a relatively empty course and did nothing to hold up play for anyone else.  I have yet to see the USGA mention anything about 15 inch holes or any other actual rules changes to promote better pace of play.  The promote procedures for players to help them play faster, not rules modifications.  The rules are based on certain fundamental principles which have been the foundation for the game for 400 years.  The USGA and R&A; shy away from any modifications which weaken those principles beyond what is absolutely necessary to allow the player to play the game.

The rules are not at fault for slow play, uneducated golfers are the fault.  I play by the rules and I play fast, as do most of the guys I play with.  The two are not mutually exclusive.