Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Ask Linda #1722-How to replace ball after someone else hits it

Linda,
Player A plays Player B 's ball by mistake.
Player B discovers this and retrieves his ball to play from the correct spot.
Is Player B entitled to the lie he had before A wrongly played it, and place it, or must he drop it and possibly be penalized by the ball bouncing into a terrible lie? 
Thanks,
Lou from British Columbia, Canada

Dear Lou,

In both match play and stroke play, when another player mistakenly plays your ball, you must place a ball on the spot from which your ball was played [Rule 15-3a and b].

Please take notice that I said to place a ball, not the ball. You may place any ball on the correct spot. There is no requirement to retrieve your original ball.

Linda
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