By Senior Rules Officials, Pete Scholz and Terry McEvilly
We have made it to the home stretch. Albeit, not the final article on Rule 14. Hopefully, over the past eight months, the importance of understanding this Rule has become obvious. A simple miscue when dropping or placing a ball can easily result in the player incurring a penalty stroke. Or even worse, the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play or a loss of hole in match play. But don’t forget our favorite (get out of jail) Rule in the book. Rule 14.5 allows us to correct mistakes made in substituting, replacing, dropping or placing before we play the ball. Without this Rule, many golfers would unknowingly incur the general penalty for playing from a wrong place. Which is our final focus in Rule 14.
Playing from a wrong place is, without a doubt, the most common breach of the Rules. Rest assured; a good understanding of Rule 14 will eliminate many of those breaches. Test your knowledge regarding what a wrong place is and how and when to correct the error of playing from a wrong place with the following questions.
Questions: True / False
1) When an accidentally moved ball is required to be replaced on the original spot, if a player makes a stroke at the ball without replacing it, he or she has played from a wrong place.
2) Playing a dropped ball from outside the required relief area is playing from a wrong place. In match play, the player incurs a loss of hole penalty.
3) If a player fails to cancel and replay a stroke when required to do so, and instead makes a stroke at the ball from where it came to rest, the player has played from a wrong place.
4) Playing a ball from a no play zone or when a no play zone interferes with the player’s area of intended stance or swing at a ball that lies outside the no play zone is playing from a wrong place.
5) If a player takes relief from a condition when not allowed, whether free relief or penalty relief, and plays the ball after dropping for relief, he or she has played from a wrong place.
6) Playing from outside the teeing area when starting a hole is playing from a wrong place and must be corrected.
7) Playing from a wrong place gets the player the general penalty and the error must be corrected in both match play and stroke play.
8) A serious breach of playing from a wrong place occurs when doing so could give the player a significant advantage compared to the stroke to be made from the right place.
9) Only the distance gained should be considered when determining if a serious breach has occurred.
10) In stroke play, if the player determines that they have played from a wrong place and the breach is serious, they must correct the error by playing out the hole with a ball played from the right place before making a stroke to begin another hole.
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Answers:
1) True. Definition of Wrong Place. When a Rule requires that a ball be replaced on a spot, unless another Rule applies to the situation, playing the ball without replacing it is playing from a wrong place.
2) True. Definition of Wrong Place. The player has played from a wrong place. In other words, the player played from a place on the course not allowed under the Rules.
3) False. Definition of Wrong Place. We have said it many times over the years, that the most important section in the Rules is the Definitions and this is a perfect example. This situation is not considered playing from a wrong place and each situation when a player is required to cancel and replay the stroke is handled in that particular Rule.
4) True. Definition of Wrong Place. Since a Rule requires that the ball be played from a different location than where it has come to rest, the player incurs the general penalty for playing from a wrong place if he or she does not take proper relief under the applicable Rule.
5) True. Definition of Wrong Place. Once again, this player has played from a spot not allowed by the Rules. One very common example of this is when a player takes relief from a penalty area for a ball that has not been found and when it is not known or virtually certain that the ball came to rest in the penalty area.
6) False. Definition of Wrong Place. This certainly seems like a wrong place. However, this error is handled by Rule 6.1b and is not considered a wrong place. It is true that, in stroke play, this error must be corrected under the same Rule. In match play, the opponent has the option to require the player to either play the ball as it lies or cancel the stroke and replay from within the teeing area.
7) False. Rule 14.7. It is true that the player gets the general penalty, but in match play, since the player lost the hole for the breach, there is no point in correcting the error. Simply, move on to the next hole. However, and here is where the Rule gets a bit messy, in stroke play, if the error is not serious, no correction is needed. The player continues the hole adding the two-stroke penalty for playing from a wrong place. However, if the breach is serious, the player gets the two-stroke penalty and the error must be corrected. First and foremost, we must determine what constitutes a serious breach. Read on.
8) True. Definition of Serious Breach. Once again we rely on the Definition section of the Rules to provide us guidelines in making this determination. This question is taken directly from the Definition. Hint; there is more to it than simply the distance the ball is from the hole. Read on.
9) False. Definition of Serious Breach. Distance is certainly an important factor to consider. Additionally, the difficulty of the stroke, any obstacles on the line of play, and conditions affecting the stroke should also be considered. For instance, the Committee could conclude that playing from the fairway instead of the deep rough might be a serious breach even though the distance from the hole was the same.
10) True. Rule 14.7b(1). The player gets the two penalty strokes for playing from a wrong place and must correct the error before making a stroke to begin another hole. If the breach occurs on the final hole of the round, the player has until returning their scorecard to correct the error.
Playing from a wrong place will be continued in next month’s article. Please stay tuned.