Hitting wrong ball - any reason to fault others?

[bkuehn1952]

I have marked my balls with a red blob on the T of Titleist ( both sides). Today in our group we had a guy with red dots on the sides of his Titleist and another with red blobs on his Wilson.  It is rare to have several players with red as their color. Black, blue and green are more common. We were aware of the potential issue.

With a few holes to go , the twosome with "red" each hit in the rough. Player one hit a shot to the green. At that point the other "red" player figured out his cart partner had hit his ball.  Frankly it is hard to understand how one could hit the wrong ball, knowing one needed to be careful.  On the other hand, our 4th said he was amazed at how frequently the player whose ball was hit seemed to be involved in "wrong ball " issues.  It is almost like he knows the ball is his and says nothing.

The player hitting the wrong ball was really upset with the other player.  He removed his bag from the cart and walked the final 2 holes.

I felt hitting the wrong ball was his error, no matter how the other player may have contributed.  My cart partner felt the error may have occurred because the other "red" was too uninvolved  and by being passive may have created the issue.  Kind of like watching someone tee off outside the teeing ground.

Sorry, I don't have more info.  With the little we know, can you see a reason to assign blame to one or both?

 

 

[iacas]

Ultimately, you're responsible for hitting your ball.

But if the other guy knew it might be his ball (because the other guy was farther to the right, or hit it farther, or whatever…) then he could have warned the other guy.

[DaveP043]

For a player to knowingly allow another player too hit the wrong ball is simply dishonest, it shouldn't ever happen.  On the other hand, exactly as @iacas says, its MY responsibility to make sure that I hit my own ball.  Its not yours, its not the other guy, its me, so its my fault if I do it.  A secondary issue, if I know that my ball is marked similarly to someone else in our group, I'll add more dots or change the color so that the chances of mis-identification are decreased.

[mcanadiens]

After having an issue with this earlier this season, I've been kicking around the idea of putting a big W on my ball. 

It won't be much for looks, but there would be no mistaking that.

[boogielicious]

35 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

After having an issue with this earlier this season, I've been kicking around the idea of putting a big W on my ball. 

It won't be much for looks, but there would be no mistaking that.

I have a friend that does the W and I do an S. We joke with him about it.

"Is that my ball? It has a big W on it."

" Nah.  This one has a big M"

[paininthenuts]

11 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

I have marked my balls with a red blob on the T of Titleist ( both sides). Today in our group we had a guy with red dots on the sides of his Titleist and another with red blobs on his Wilson.  It is rare to have several players with red as their color. Black, blue and green are more common. We were aware of the potential issue.

With a few holes to go , the twosome with "red" each hit in the rough. Player one hit a shot to the green. At that point the other "red" player figured out his cart partner had hit his ball.  Frankly it is hard to understand how one could hit the wrong ball, knowing one needed to be careful.  On the other hand, our 4th said he was amazed at how frequently the player whose ball was hit seemed to be involved in "wrong ball " issues.  It is almost like he knows the ball is his and says nothing.

The player hitting the wrong ball was really upset with the other player.  He removed his bag from the cart and walked the final 2 holes.

I felt hitting the wrong ball was his error, no matter how the other player may have contributed.  My cart partner felt the error may have occurred because the other "red" was too uninvolved  and by being passive may have created the issue.  Kind of like watching someone tee off outside the teeing ground.

Sorry, I don't have more info.  With the little we know, can you see a reason to assign blame to one or both?

 

 

The bloke who took his bag from the cart is a petulant child, and needs a good wack around the back of the head with a cheap putter

[allenc]

2 hours ago, mcanadiens said:

After having an issue with this earlier this season, I've been kicking around the idea of putting a big W on my ball. 

It won't be much for looks, but there would be no mistaking that.

Yeah, I don't understand why everyone and their mother uses dots.  Why not sign your initials or draw a happy face or something that isn't so easily misidentified?

[Jeremie Boop]

I started putting a line above and below the brand of ball *titleist, wilson, callaway* and drawing a line either all the way or halfway around the ball through they alignment marking/model name as well. It makes it much easier to identify the ball regardless of it's orientation in the rough. Sometimes I vary a bit in the mark on/near the label but I almost always have the a line around the ball. The line is dual purpose, it's great for a quick reassurance that the ball is mine as well as helping me a little with lining up putts and tee shots. Ever since I started doing this I've not had any incidents of wrong ball being hit by myself or a playing partner.

[Grinde6]

28 minutes ago, allenc said:

Yeah, I don't understand why everyone and their mother uses dots.  Why not sign your initials or draw a happy face or something that isn't so easily misidentified?

I think its more for the cleaner look, I use a blue line on my ball, and sometimes the sight of that bugs me on my approach shot, but it helps my putting so I'm not about to remove it.

It is ultimately your responsibility to make sure you are hitting your own ball.  It doesn't matter if I am the only one in the fairway, I still take a look to make sure it is my ball, you can never be too sure!

The tournament I played in this past weekend, one of the pros incurred a penalty for hitting the wrong ball.  It was a bad situation because there were spotters/markers marking the balls from the different holes and the marker told the guy that was his ball.  He still should have looked and it is now a lesson learned, but kind of sucked that the marker told him it was his, and it ended up not being his.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Grinde6
wrong info

[Hacker James]

Duffy Waldorf has no problem identifying his ball(s).

[Hacker James]

45 minutes ago, Grinde6 said:

I think its more for the cleaner look, I use a blue line on my ball, and sometimes the sight of that bugs me on my approach shot, but it helps my putting so I'm not about to remove it.

It is ultimately your responsibility to make sure you are hitting your own ball.  It doesn't matter if I am the only one in the fairway, I still take a look to make sure it is my ball, you can never be too sure!

The tournament I played in this past weekend, one of the pros incurred a penalty for hitting the wrong ball.  It was a bad situation because there were spotters/markers marking the balls from the different holes and the marker told the guy that was his ball.  He still should have looked and it is now a lesson learned, but kind of sucked that the marker told him it was his, and it ended up not being his.

http://www.pga.com/news/golf-buzz/rules-hitting-wrong-ball

[Grinde6]

2 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

http://www.pga.com/news/golf-buzz/rules-hitting-wrong-ball

??.  Are you showing me what the ruling is, or showing me it happens on the PGA tour too??  

[Hacker James]

3 minutes ago, Grinde6 said:

??.  Are you showing me what the ruling is, or showing me it happens on the PGA tour too??  

On the PGA. I assumed you know the rule.

[pganapathy]

Simple.  The responsibility is of the person hitting the ball.  If the other person can make the effort to check the second ball, it will be useful in helping to reduce this error because he will then notice that the ball is not his.

For me I put my initials on the ball so it is rare for them to be confused with another.  Additionally, I always check on the tee who is hitting what ball just to ensure that we do not have a similar ball situation to avoid this.

[kpaulhus]

IMO, if you know someone is about to hit your ball, you should give them a heads up. This is a gentlemen's game. Ultimately it is the player hitting the shot responsibility to identify the ball and make sure. Its bad taste, but not a penalty if you let them hit your ball.

In my club championship last week I found a ball in the rough that I thought was my competitors. I said "hey your'e hitting a black titleist, right?" He says yeah and plays the ball. We get to the green and its not his ball. I felt pretty bad for finding the ball (his original was like 3ft away from the wrong ball played). He reassured me it was his fault for not looking at it before hitting it. Both were black titleists but his had a logo on the side (I didnt see it or know about the logo).

[paininthenuts]

I am a Spurs supporter (England football team) and have a stamp with a cockerel on it. It's clean and it does the job. I think it looks really tacky when someone scribbles on a golf ball 

[Hacker James]

@paininthenuts you made me look it up. I had not heard that term before. I always thought them wuz roosters.

 

[Valleygolfer]

2 hours ago, allenc said:

Yeah, I don't understand why everyone and their mother uses dots.  Why not sign your initials or draw a happy face or something that isn't so easily misidentified?

I prefer not to Picasso my golf ball

14 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

I have marked my balls with a red blob on the T of Titleist ( both sides). Today in our group we had a guy with red dots on the sides of his Titleist and another with red blobs on his Wilson.  It is rare to have several players with red as their color. Black, blue and green are more common. We were aware of the potential issue.

Sadly I mark my ball with a red "blob" on both sides of the Titleist... Seeing this makes me want to change it.