Blown Leaf Alters Putt, You Can Replay?

[nevets88]

I posted the misfortune that fell upon a Web.com player, just learned that it is within the rules to replay the putt. If this is the case, nice to know. Rule 19.1.b.

Update: Now I'm wondering, to add insult to injury, if he didn't replay, is that a penalty? And why is a worm, insect or the like an exception? Ugh, RoG gives me a headache.

Quote

If a player’s ball in motion after a stroke on the putting green is
deflected or stopped by, or comes to rest in or on, any moving
or animate outside agency, except a worm, insect or the like, the
stroke is canceled. The ball must be replaced and replayed.

 

This is what happened:

 

[iacas]

Otherwise he played from a wrong place.

Oh, yeah: http://www.golf.com/tour-news/2017/09/24/pro-golfers-ball-hit-blowing-leaf-leads-four-stroke-penalty .

And cue the people who think this is unfair, and all that's wrong with golf, and what keeps people from playing, and so on and so on…

[Vinsk]

I'm surprised he didn't at least ponder if there was a rule on that. I didn't know but had it happened to me I definitely would've asked my partner or someone there, 'hey is there a rule about this?' Certainly shows how it pays to know the rules. 

[Rulesman]

3 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Certainly shows how it pays to know the rules. 

especially when you're playing for a @PGATOURcard. 

[Vinsk]

15 hours ago, nevets88 said:

And why is a worm, insect or the like an exception?

I'm curious to that as well. A june bug comes and smacks into your moving ball, seems just as a leaf blowing as well.

[DeadMan]

This is why you learn the rules. This would have been a huge advantage for him, both in getting the stroke back, and he already got to see a putt on his exact line. Sometimes (actually, often) the rules can work to your advantage!

[rehmwa]

yeah, that's a WEIRD one

[Rulesman]

As has been pointed out elsewhere, the rule itself is designed so that you are not disadvantaged if your stroke from the green is knocked off course by something moving into your line of putt.

See 19-1/7
 

[Groucho Valentine]

Never thought he would have had to replay. Just assumed that would have been a rub of the green thing. 

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

Never thought he would have had to replay. Just assumed that would have been a rub of the green thing. 

It is in fact a rub of the green, which is defined in the Rules of Golf not as "bad luck" but as, quite literally:

So it is a "rub of the green" thing, but in this case, because the stroke was made from the putting green, you're required to replay.

[todgot]

Funny thing is I was wondering about that when you first posted this and I was confused.  When this happened to Phil during the Master's a few years ago it was important to note the seed thing shot in and landed on the ground in front of his ball causing it to deflect.  It did not hit the ball. 

So much to know about the rules... and then to know them well enough to make a ruling and be confident about it.   

[iacas]

22 minutes ago, todgot said:

Funny thing is I was wondering about that when you first posted this and I was confused.  When this happened to Phil during the Master's a few years ago it was important to note the seed thing shot in and landed on the ground in front of his ball causing it to deflect.  It did not hit the ball. 

Yeah, Phil's thing wasn't moving. It was sitting still on the green.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 9/27/2017 at 8:36 AM, iacas said:

It is in fact a rub of the green, which is defined in the Rules of Golf not as "bad luck" but as, quite literally:

So it is a "rub of the green" thing, but in this case, because the stroke was made from the putting green, you're required to replay.

How about if the deflection left the ball closer to the hole than the golfer might have expected. Are they still "required" to replay the stroke?

[Missouri Swede]

15 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

How about if the deflection left the ball closer to the hole than the golfer might have expected. Are they still "required" to replay the stroke?

Yep, that's what "the ball must be replaced and replayed" means.

[1203]

On ‎09‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 6:05 AM, DeadMan said:

This is why you learn the rules. This would have been a huge advantage for him, both in getting the stroke back, and he already got to see a putt on his exact line. Sometimes (actually, often) the rules can work to your advantage!

There are a lot of golf rules to learn but I'm trying

[Papa Steve 55]

So if the leaf hits the moving ball but causes no discernable affect, and all agree, play on?  

[Patch]

If a blowing leaf has a rule, what about a gust of wind by itself blowing a putt of course?

In the past I have had blowing leaves cause me an extra putt. I didn't really look at the leaf being the problem. I just figured it was the wind, that powered the leaf, that knocked my putt off line.  

Probably time I look at the rule book again. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Patch said:

If a blowing leaf has a rule, what about a gust of wind by itself blowing a putt of course?

Nope.

Wind is not an outside agency.