Many of you watched the last round of the Waste Management at the TPC at Scottsdale, last week. On all the golf courses I had the chance to play, this TPC is my favorite…probably because the fairways are very wide.
Phil Mickelson sent his ball in the grassy area in the middle of the huge bunker on the left side of the 18th fairway. He decided to play the ball where it lied. But what was his options if he had decided to consider his ball unplayable?
RULES OF GOLF:
-1 When a player declares his ball unplayable, one of the options is to drop the ball within 2 club-length or to drop the ball behind the ball on a line with the position of the flag, when the ball lies in a bunker the ball must be dropped inside the bunker.
-2 The grass growing within the limit of the bunker is not part of the bunker, if Phil had decided to declare the ball unplayable, he would have been permitted to drop his ball outside the bunker.
-3 He would also have been possible to ground the club without penalty if he had decided to play the ball where it lies.
-4 He also had the option of returning to the original position, in that case the teeing ground.
ANSWER TO HOLE # 4
The results is 6 : 4 strokes + a penalty of 2 strokes
BALL WITH SAME NUMBER AND MARKINGS
If the 2 balls were hit in the same area, it could not have been possible to determine which ball would have been considered the original or the provisional. he would have played one of the 2 balls as if it was the provisional and would have played his 4th shot,
But in our question, the 2 balls were hit in 2 different areas, so Eddy took the right decision to play the original ball
BALL RESTING ON A RAKE AND BALL MOVES AFTER THE REMOVABLE OF THE RAKE
A rake is an artificial object (obstruction). It is permitted to remove an obstruction in a bunker and if the ball moves, there is no penalty but the ball must be replaced. Eddy did not replace the ball so he made his stroke from a wrong place. If the breach is not important, he does not have to replay the shot from the right place.
Result: Penalty of 2 strokes
NEXT CHRONICLES:
Because many of my readers play matches, I will give you a few questions in Match Play competitions.