Facts

In Match Play competition on the Par 5 14th Hole at HCC, Foremost hit a most promising drive off the tee which ended up slicing into the wooded Penalty Area right of the fairway. F was ever-hopeful, however, as he thought he saw the ball ricochet back towards the fairway.

He proceeded directly to the tree he had marked, and sure enough, there was his yellow ball. 10-12 feet down the slope off the fairway, clearly in the PA. F knew it was his ball. Since it looked like he might have a chance to poke it back in play, he grabbed a wedge and headed down the slope to see if he could get a club on it.

The slope appeared to descend gently into the PA. F took his first step into the leafy bank. It gave, and F tumbled headfirst into a ground cover of accumulated brush and leaves. He realized the grounds crew had obviously been blowing leaves from the General Area into the PA, and that he had stepped into a well-graded pile of leaves and sticks. F’s immediate concern, other than his scarred and bleeding shin and arm, was how to get his foot disengaged from a branch that had lodged itself between his shoe and sock leaving his left leg pinned in the air at an 80 degree angle. Thank goodness his opponent, DH, was on the scene to handle this delicate foot extraction! A truly heroic effort! And thank goodness DH didn’t take a picture!

All was good, nothing broken! F was able to roll over and even reach his yellow ball which was now under a nearby log. “Yep, that’s my ball …there’s the F”, said F (who, as usual, had marked his ball with a prominent red F). Breathing heavily, F crawled up and out of the leafy embankment, treated his wounds, and took a drop by the PA, announcing that he lay two. He promptly lost the hole, but the incident continued to nag him as began to wonder if he should have added an additional penalty stroke for causing his ball to move when he slipped and fell.

F was mindful of Exception 2 to R9.4b: “There is no penalty when the player accidentally causes the ball to move while trying to find or identify it”.

Issue

But was F trying to find or identify his ball? It was a yellow ball lying exactly where he thought he would find it! He knew it was his ball!

Ruling

Darn, as much as F would like to rule against himself, to convince Readers of his impartiality, he cannot bring himself to do so in this situation … No Penalty.

Although F assumed the yellow ball was his, at the time of the fall he had not completed the identification process. He was approaching the ball, and had not yet seen his own personal identification on the yellow ball. “Yep that’s my ball… theres the F”, he had finally exclaimed, only then completing the identification process.

The situation is much like that posed for a ball that cannot be retrieved (Clarification 7.2/1) …” a player may not assume that it is theirs but rather must identify it in one of the ways provided by R7.2.”….specifically, by seeing it come to rest, by seeing the player’s identification mark on the ball, or by finding a ball of the same brand, model, number, and condition, where an identical ball is not also found.

In retrospect, F could have and should have replaced the ball he had caused to move — without penalty. He then could have evaluated his shot and possibly been able to advance his ball back into the fairway! He might have even won the hole!

….nah, F is just glad he didn’t break something, and that he is no longer staked in the woods. He would have made tantalizing bear bait!

As usual, all comments and corrections are welcome.*

Respectfully submitted,
F

* By the way, if you missed it, check the excellent Comment by JH in the last blog (Shoes and Sh*t) for an interesting rules find and perspective on the vomit incident.