During the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Garden at the end of February, 2 rulings were given in similar conditions but with 2 completely different Rules involved.
LOOSE IMPEDIMENTS
Justin Thomas finds his ball in a bush on the right side of #6 fairway. The only shot possible is to chip the ball back on the fairway sideways. Between his ball and the fairway, there is a few branches. After looking at the branches he saw they were not attached to the trees. He ask for a ruling and the rules official confirmed to him those huge branches were considered loose impediments. Outside a bunker or a water hazard, we can always remove loose impediments.
BRANCHES THAT ARE ATTACHED
2 days later, on the same hole, McIlroy sends his ball in another bush area. Unfortunately, the branches were attached. So he could not move them. If he wanted to play the ball were it lies, he had to be very careful to reach the area. These were the conditions:
-1 he must take his stance in the least intrusive way
-2 he must not break anything that would improve the area on his intended swing
-3 he may not move the branches with his hand or feet
-4 if he wants to play while kneeling on the ground, he must not use a towel in his stance but he is allowed to put on his rain pants .
IMPORTANT NOTICE: In both example, the ball must not move. It would be a 1 stroke penalty and he would have replaced the ball.
A FEW QUESTIONS ON MATCH PLAY # 3
Eddy is playing against Jack. All those different questions are un-related
-A The 2 balls are on the green. Eddy plays his shot and his ball hits Jacks ball (Jack was busy on his phone) and Eddy’s ball goes in the hole
-B On his drive, Eddy’s ball hits Jack’s cart and the ball goes in the water hazard
-C Eddy is in the woods and his caddie is standing out of bounds. Eddy hits his shot, hits his caddie and the ball ends up on the rough near the fairway
-D Eddy hits his ball, touches Jack’s cart and hits Eddy’s cart (a 2 for 1)
-E Eddy and Jack share a motorized cart. Eddy’s ball hits Jack’s wife that was sitting in the Cart
-F On a 400 yards hole, Eddy hits his tee shot directly in a moving truck. A few seconds later the ball falls from the truck at about 25 yards from the green. Eddy plays the ball where it lies and Jacks concedes the hole to Eddy. Both player hit their tee shot on the next hole.