Each year the CGA conducts a number of USGA Local and Sectional Qualifiers in Colorado, and the hosting courses work hard to challenge the top amateurs plays from here and abroad who come to qualify. Recently, the CGA conducted a U.S. Amateur Sectional Qualifier at Saddle Rock Golf Course in Aurora. Those of you who have played Saddle Rock know it’s a very challenging course that has hosted the Colorado Open in the past, and it is always in great shape. For the qualifier, it played even tougher than usual with the greens being a little firmer and faster and the rough being a little higher. And of course the high native areas through the green that can swallow a ball so deeply that the only hope of finding it would be to step on it.
And that could be a bad thing.
As good as these players are, there were still a number of ball searches in the high native grass, and when searching for their ball they had to tread carefully. To understand why, let’s first look at Rule 12-1. This rule 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, these players were searching in tall native grass that was not in a hazard or in an abnormal ground condition/immovable obstruction, so this rule would not apply should the ball be accidentally kicked and moved by the player. The player would in fact be penalized one stroke under Rule 18-2, which addresses situations where a player moves his ball in play, and he would be required to replace the ball.
Now, If someone other than the player is searching for the ball and accidentally moves it when they find it, then the player is not penalized but still must replace it. If replacing the ball is not possible because the player did not see the location of the ball before it was kicked, then we refer to Rule 20-3c which 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. The goal here is to get the ball back to the same location as it originally was before the kick.
Remember, when searching for your ball through the green, 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.
