Each year the USGA conducts 13 national championships to test the greatest players – from the U.S. Open Championship to the Senior Amateur Championship; all are the most prestigious tournaments in the country and the world. Colorado is lucky to have 2 of these national championships conducted in the state for 2008, the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor and the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship (USAPL) to be held less than two weeks from now, July 14-20 at Murphy Creek Golf Course in Aurora.
Those of you that have played Murphy Creek in the last month know that it is not the same course you are used to in years past. The condition of the course is still immaculate, but the difficulty level has soared. The greens are firmer and faster, and the rough is now three inches or higher. Throw in the penalizing native areas and Murphy Creek is ready to test the best public players in the country and across the world.
Murphy Creek also hosted a sectional qualifying event where five players earned a spot in the USAPL. I helped conduct the qualifier, and during my travels around the course I had a player call me over for a ruling on the first hole. At Murphy Creek some of the longest and thickest rough can be found around the bunkers, and sure enough, the players were searching for a ball that was in the heavy rough around one of the fairway bunkers.
While the player was searching he stepped on his golf ball and moved it. Now, Rule 12-1 deals with “Searching for Ball” and states that a player is not subject to penalty if he moves his ball while searching for it in a hazard by probing with a rake, club, his foot/hand, etc., or if he accidentally moves his ball while searching for it in an abnormal ground condition or immovable obstruction. However, this player’s ball was lying in the tall grass around the bunker that is through the green, so it was not in a hazard or in an abnormal ground condition/immovable obstruction. He was therefore penalized under Rule 18-2 which addresses situations where a player moves his ball in play. Regardless of the fact it was moved accidentally during search, he is penalized one stroke and the rule requires him to replace the ball.
Replacing the ball in this case is not possible because he did not see the location of the ball before he kicked it and therefore does not know the exact spot to place his ball. In this circumstance, Rule 20-3c explains that because the spot where the ball originally lay is not determinable, the player must drop a ball at the approximate spot where the ball originally lay. In essence the idea is to get the ball back to the same location as it originally was before the kick.
So the lesson this player will take with him the next time he is searching for his golf ball in tall grass is be careful. Try to move as little as possible, walk gingerly and hope your fellow competitors in the group had a better eye on it then you did. After all, if someone else kicks your ball there is no penalty to anyone and you have found your golf ball!
