During Sunday’s final round of the Masters at Augusta National, we saw some good breaks and some bad breaks. Jordan Spieth may have had the best fortune of all when he got to slip on the green jacket, but Dustin Johnson also had his fair share, thanks in part to his knowledge of the Rules of Golf.
On the par-4 seventh hole at Augusta, the hole is traditionally placed just over the right greenside bunker and balls tend to collect in this area. Unfortunately, DJ’s approach shot ended up above the hole and did not funnel down. Under Rule 20, he was allowed to mark and lift his ball from the putting green. His caddie cleaned his ball and then Johnson replaced it in front of his marker and picked up his coin.
He started to read the tricky, downhill putt and was walking behind the hole to look at the line when the ball began to trickle closer to the hole. It came to rest 15 feet closer than where it started and DJ marked it again, to adjust the line on his ball. Should he have replaced his ball to its original position?
The answer lies within two Rules. Under Rule 18-1, a ball moved by an outside agency must be replaced for no penalty. However, neither wind nor gravity is considered to be an outside agency under the Rules of Golf. Because of this, he was required to play the ball as it lies from its new position, which he did correctly. Now keep in mind that Johnson had removed his ball marker from behind the ball before it started to roll, so the ball was in play. Would the situation have been different if his coin was still behind the ball when it rolled down the slope?
Under Rule 20-4, we know that a ball that has been lifted is again in play when it is replaced. There is a specific Decision (20-4/1) that further explains that the ball is in play whether or not the object used to mark its position has been removed.
DJ went on to make his much shorter putt for birdie on number seven, which helped him to shoot a final round 69, which put him into a tie for sixth. Sometimes the Rules are considered to only be there to penalize us, but in this case because Dustin knew how to proceed under the Rules, he was able to take advantage of his good break.
