Dear Linda
Yesterday at golf I took relief from a staked tree. I inserted a tee peg at the point where I obtained relief and another at one club's length. I then dropped a ball between the two tee pegs. Before I played my shot I noticed when I was picking up the tee pegs that my original ball was still against the tree. What I had done was drop another ball from my pocket. I called my marker's attention to my error. I then picked up the substituted ball and dropped my original ball and proceeded to play it.
My question is:
1. By dropping another ball, did that ball become the ball in play?
2. Did I incur a penalty even though I corrected my error?
Another senior moment.
Kind regards
Lou from Perth, Australia
Dear Lou,
Fortunately for you, senior Lou, this is a correctable error. When you drop a wrong ball, you may lift it and drop the correct ball, provided you have not played the wrong ball. There is no penalty for correcting your error [Rule 20-6]. The same would hold true if you dropped the correct ball in a wrong place.
Linda
Copyright © 2011 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
