Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Golf rules question

On this fine summer day in Buffalo, I decided to take a little time on my day off to head to the local par-3 golf course for nine holes of practice. I went by myself and hoped to zip around the course quickly.

By the second hole, I realized those thoughts weren't going to work. I was behind two women who obviously hadn't played much. Therefore, the next couple of holes I got to see the old "hit the ball 30 yards, walk up to it, and hit it again" routine. One did have a little more skill than the other, for what it was worth. You could tell the lesser player's inexperience by the way she would leave her clubs 25 yards down the fairway when she got the ball on the green, forcing her to walk back and get them after completing the hole. Heck, we all have to learn sometime, and a pitch-and-putt course is a good place to do it.

The women were on the fourth tee when I was finishing up the third hole. The lesser player, I'm pretty sure, had just hit a grounder of about 20 yards, and decided to hit another ball. By this time, I had finished on No. 3 and walked up behind the fourth tee. Our heroine got a hold of the ball for once, sending it down the middle. The ball took a couple of bounces and rolled on to the green. Then we all heard the distinctive sound of ball hitting flagstick, and then the ball was nowhere to be seen -- and we had a pretty good view of the green.

The golfer had to be talked into waiting for her friend to hit before running up the fairway. I stayed back on the tee, and watched the two get to the green. Yes, the ball was in the cup. Much hugging followed.

The question, then, is -- what was the woman's actual score for the hole?

A. One
B. Two
C. Three
D. She's disqualified

I told the woman on the fifth tee that it was clearly time to give up golf, because this game had become too easy for her.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

What a great story!

Technically, she has no score on the hole because she didn't play her original ball. I am assuming she didn't declare an unplayable lie, which would have given her a score of three.

In a tournament she would have been DQ'd, but in the world of friendly golf I would have made her play the original ball. Nobody gets a hole-in-one on a mulligan!