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Q.
If in searching for your golf ball, you accidentally move loose impediments when also causing your ball to move, are you required to replace them when you replace your ball?
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A.
No, but you aren’t permitted to move loose impediments that might have caused the ball to move when it was at rest on its estimated spot.
Rule 7.4 provides the answer about whether you must replace the loose impediments that were moved:
There is no penalty if the player’s ball is accidentally moved by the player, opponent or anyone else while trying to find or identify it.
If this happens, the ball must be replaced on its original spot (which if not known must be estimated) (see Rule 14.2). In doing so:
If the ball was on, under or against any immovable obstruction, integral object, boundary object or growing or attached natural object, the ball must be replaced on its original spot on, under or against such object (see Rule 14.2c).
If the ball was covered by sand, the original lie must be re-created and the ball must be replaced in that lie (see Rule 14.2d(1)). But the player may leave a small part of the ball visible when doing so.
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