Linda,
My wife and I were playing in a mixed foursomes knockout
match recently, when we made a pretty basic error. I was teeing off on the even-numbered
holes, but when we got to the 9th, I was ahead of our opponents, and I went
onto the men's tee, and teed off. (It was our honour.) Our opponents arrived,
and pointed out it wasn't my turn to tee off. They said that in foursomes the
penalty for playing out of turn is loss of hole. However, the men's tee is 20
yards behind the ladies’ tee, so I had clearly played outside the correct
teeing area. I argued that the ball was therefore not in play, and my wife
should tee off from the correct tee, with no penalty. They disagreed. In the
end we gave them the hole, and still won the match. Who was right?
Regards
Lou from Barton on Sea, England
Dear Lou,
Your opponents were right.
Is it really so much trouble to open a rulebook? Rule 29 is
entitled “Threesomes and Foursomes.” Rule 29-2, “Match Play,” has only one
sentence: “If a player plays when his partner should have played, his side
loses the hole.” Sometimes the language in the rulebook is as clear as day.
Linda
Copyright © 2016 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
