A golfer was playing in a U.S. Open Qualifier and hit a wrong ball. What’s the penalty and how must the other player proceed?
“Tales from a Golf Rules Official” is your behind-the-scenes peek at real rulings from the golf course.
As a USGA-certified golf rules official, I work alongside a team of top-notch rules officials at amateur golf tournaments across Southern California.
In my blog, Tales from a Golf Rules Official, I break down real-life rulings—sharing situations we’ve encountered (without naming names!) to help you avoid mistakes on the golf course, and play every round with confidence.
Learn more about Marcela at www.GirlfriendsGuideToGolf.com
I’ll help you conquer the rules of golf:
www.GirlfriendsGolfAcademy.com
How do you come back from that mentally when you start out and you earn a two-stroke penalty on your first hole? Hey, I wanted to share with you some of the rulings that came up during two recent US Open qualifiers. This US Open qualifier is individual stroke player, what we call metal play. The first thing that happened uh the other day was a player actually on their first hole hit a wrong ball. Now, what’s a wrong ball? That is not your own ball in play. In this case, it was a ball belonging to another player in their group. The player that did it earned a two-stroke penalty for doing that. And they have to go back and find their own ball, wherever that is, and continue play of the hole and finish that hole with their own ball. And they are going to add a two-stroke penalty at the end. Now, what happens to the ball that they hit? The ball that they hit because it belonged to another player. Let’s say the other player’s name was John. There’s no penalty to John. Jon’s ball needs to be replaced. If they can find it right away, great. They can replace J’s ball that was just hit or Jon can substitute a different ball. Now, that is not a drop like many times when we’re taking relief under a rule, like for an unplayable ball or maybe for a cart path or something like that. That’s typically a drop from knee height. In this case, it’s not a drop. You’re going to replace that ball. And that means place it on the spot. And if we don’t know the exact spot, then we’re going to estimate the spot. And placing it means just setting it down and letting that ball sit still on its own. And now that ball is back in play. That’s what happened on the first hole. Not a good way to start off your US Open qualifying round. Of course, it does go without saying that you don’t want to hit a wrong ball. You should know your ball and identify your ball. You should put a unique mark on your ball so that you can identify it. It’s not required under the rules that you put a unique mark on it like this, but it’s a really good idea. And that way, you’ll be less likely to hit the wrong ball and incur that two-stroke penalty in stroke play, which is what happened to this poor guy on the first hole of the US Open qualifier. I mean, how do you come back from that mentally when you start out and you earn a two-stroke penalty on your first hole?
