Re: Any rule cover this?

On Jul 29, 3:47 pm, donar...@xxxxxxxxx (Don A Roof) wrote:
Today I played 18 holes with an old friend who I hadn't played with in
years. We're pretty even and it was a "social" match as far as I was
concerned although I always try my best and I'm sure he does as well.

No money.  No bets of any kind.  No bragging rights.  Just the two of
us.  Both of us play the ball down and putt them out so there is no
problem with who does what or when.  

I haven't had an official handicap for years of any kind and I don't
know if he does or not. He shot 80 and I shot 77 from the white tees,
6800 yd course.   The scores could have easily been reversed as they
have over the years between us.

Here's the situation:  6th hole - Par 4, 410 yards straight away with
towering trees on both sides out of the chute and small pines on the
edges leading up to the green about 100 yards out.

He hits a tee shot wide right.  So far right through the trees that he
has a shot from off of another tee.  He can't see the green and hits a
low liner that appears to fade back to the fairway.  When we get over to
the fairway there is no sign of his ball and he starts looking among the
small pines off of  the right hand side of the fairway.

I played my second shot from the fairway to just off of the green and
since I thought that his ball took a different line  I walked across the
fairway (left side)  since it was obvious his ball was not on the
fairway and began looking in the rough and the small pines where I found
his ball.

I picked it out of the pine and flipped it out to the rough between the
tree and the fairway so that there was a clear 120 yard shot to the
green.  Meanwhile my friend had seen none of this and was still poking
among the trees on the other side of the fairway and much further back
than his ball had ended up so he was unaware of anything that I had
done.

I really don't have any one answer as to why I moved his ball; I just
did.  He came over, identified his ball and then asked me if that was
where I found it.  I said something like, "If it's there, where do you
think I found it?" and went on up to play my third shot.

Bad chip.  Missed putt. Tap in for a bogey 5.  He hit his third shot on
to the green, two putted for a 5 and we walked off the green whereupon
he said, "Bogey, double bogey."

I asked him where he got that and he said that he was taking 2 strokes
since he figured that I had moved the ball from the tree and that's all
he knew to do.

I told him that was ridiculous;  that he had no reason to believe that I
had done anything with his ball and even if I had done anything to his
ball, the penalty would NOT be his since I wasn't his caddy or
responsible for his ball in any way.

I know that it's a long story but my question is simple: Was I correct?
No, not in what I did in moving his ball.  That's another story, but am
I correct in saying that if he had no knowledge that I moved his ball
then he should incur no penalty?  

BTW, there was no rancor.  He's just a stickler for playing by the rules
and didn't want anything that he didn't deserve. A great guy and I've
always enjoyed playing with him.  He didn't need my help and I had no
good answer ready for why I moved the ball  so I never did admit to it.  
If it had been a real argument, I would
have just told him that if he really felt that I had moved his ball from
the tree then he should have put it under the tree and played from there
or called it unplayable.

Probably no ROG answer to this but something that just occurred during a
friendly round of golf on a beautiful day.

Yes, the rule is decision 99/1. Who gives a ***?
.

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