Rog’s Blog: Dodgy Decisions #12

 

In a Stableford competition, players Alf and Bert are sharing a caddie (let’s call him Monty) who (believe it or not) is pulling their buggies/carts for them. As the players take their drivers and move to the tee, the caddie labours his way down the fairway to the expected finishing position for the tee shots.

Bert’s ball reaches Monty but Alf’s ball finishes some 30 metres shorter. 

Monty leaves Bert’s buggy/cart near his ball and trudges back to Alf’s ball with Alf’s buggy. Bert leans on his buggy/cart while he waits for Alf to play.

Alf plays his shot which spears at a great rate towards Bert and strikes his bag.

What happens now?

 

Well Alf, Bert and Monty immediately consult the Decisions Book which each player is carrying in his bag and they find Decision 19-2/8. But they need someone with a perverse mind to interpret it for them.

This Decision states:

19-2/8

Player’s Ball Strikes Opponent’s or Fellow-Competitor’s Bag Left Ahead By Shared Caddie

Q. A and B are either opponents in match play or fellow-competitors in stroke play and they are sharing a caddie. They are on the teeing ground and the caddie is positioned where their tee shots would be expected to come to rest. A’s tee shot comes to rest well short of the caddie and B’s tee shot comes to rest near the caddie. Without specific directions from either A or B, the caddie leaves B’s bag near B’s ball and returns with A’s bag to A’s ball. A’s next stroke strikes B’s bag. What is the ruling?

A. The Definition of “Caddie” states in part: “When one caddie is employed by more than one player, he is always deemed to be the caddie of the player sharing the caddie whose ball (or whose partner’s ball) is involved, and equipment carried by him is deemed to be that player’s equipment, except when the caddie acts upon specific directions of another player...” As no specific directions were given to the caddie by B, B’s bag is deemed to be A’s equipment in this case. It is irrelevant that the caddie was not carrying B’s bag at the time A’s ball struck it.

A incurs a penalty of one stroke and must play his ball as it lies unless the ball has come to rest in or on B’s bag – Rule 19-2.

Related Decision:

• 6-4/1 Meaning of “Specific Directions” in Definition of “Caddie”. [The final paragraph of this Decision makes interesting reading in itself, but to introduce this to the discussion would only cloud the issue!!]
 

We can take from this Decision that:

1.   A cannot assume that the bag lying beside B’s ball is not B’s bag even though he has been using it for goodness knows how many holes, and

2.   A must be aware that he might have a problem if his ball strikes B’s bag and should clarify whether B has given Monty ‘specific instructions’ to leave B’s bag in the place that he has.

Let’s compare and contrast this Decision with a couple of others:

Decision 19-2/6 states:

Ball Deflected or Stopped by Player’s Golf Cart Being Pulled by Opponent or Fellow-Competitor

Q. A player’s ball strikes his own golf cart while it is being pulled by an opponent or a fellow-competitor. What is the ruling?

A. Since the player is not sharing the cart with any other player, it remains his equipment even when it is being pulled by an opponent or a fellow-competitor (see Note 2 to the Definition of “Equipment”).

If the player was aware that his cart was being pulled by an opponent or a fellow-competitor, he incurs a penalty of one stroke and must play the ball as it lies – Rule 19-2. But if he was not aware, in equity (Rule 1-4), no penalty is incurred, and the ball must be played as it lies.

Therefore, if, in the case described, Alf was not aware that Bert had not given Monty ‘specific instructions’ to leave his (Bert’s) bag by his ball, why would Alf not be given the benefit of ‘equity’ (Rule 1-4).

 

And further, Decision 19-2/10 states:

Ball Stopped or Deflected by Rake Held by Player’s Caddie

Q. A player’s ball lies in a bunker. He plays, and his ball is accidentally stopped or deflected by a rake that is being held by his caddie. What is the ruling?

A. When a ball is accidentally deflected or stopped by a rake held by or in contact with a player’s caddie, the caddie has accidentally deflected or stopped the player’s ball in motion in breach of Rule 19-2. The player is responsible for this breach of the Rules by his caddie (see Rule 6-1). The player incurs a penalty of one stroke and must play the ball as it lies. (Revised)

 

In the previous Book this Decision was New and stated:

19-2/10 Ball Stopped or Deflected by Rake Held by Player’s Caddie

Q. A player’s ball lies in a bunker. He plays, and his ball is accidentally stopped or deflected by a rake that is being held by his caddie. What is the ruling?

A. There is no penalty. Items such as rakes that are placed on the course for general use are not part of the player’s equipment and remain outside agencies at all times.

So, why the change? Perhaps the Castle Dwellers decided that the 2010 Decision was just too rational and reasonable and that someone had to be punished, somehow.

But this Decision raises an interesting question for the situation in which Alf and Bert (and, of course, the hapless Monty) find themselves, and for Decision 19-2/8.

In Decision 19-2/10 of 2010-2011 it was stated that the rakes remain (are) outside agencies at all times, and nothing in the revised Decision of 2012-2013 changes this.  But is this so?  Surely a rake lying in the bunker minding its own business is an obstruction.  However, let’s allow that the caddie’s act of picking up the rake transmogrifies it from an obstruction into an outside agency.

In the revised Decision, while the ball is stopped or deflected by a rake, the rake has now become part of the caddie and it is now the caddie, not the rake, which has deflected or stopped the ball. As Rule 19-2 has been invoked and it is pure sophistry to imply that the rake is part of the caddie, it may be that by taking hold of the rake the caddie has further transmogrified it into equipment of the player.

If, by virtue of A’s caddie’s action (in D19-2/10), the bunker rake is transformed from an ‘outside agency’ into an integral component of the situation, then why should Bert’s act of leaning on (or, dare I say, holding) his buggy/cart not be construed as tacit endorsement by Bert of Monty’s actions and thereby transform the buggy and clubs into the equipment of Bert, without the need for overt specific instructions from Bert or acknowledgement by Monty.

I am not sure what the real answer to this question is.

I am reasonably certain, however, that Alf, Bert and Monty, being, no doubt, people of good sense, would simply proceed on the basis the Bert’s bag is Bert’s bag and would not give the nonsense in Decision 19‑2/8 a first, let alone a second, thought.

I am also certain that, as the player in charge of the situation, if Alf thought that Bert’s bag was interfering with his play, and imagined for one moment that it presented a danger of penalisation, he would have asked that it be moved.  And where is Bert’s responsibility (in etiquette) to ensure that his equipment is situated in a position that it may not interfere with another person’s play?

If there are persons (with or without the benefit of a perverse mind) who can assist in deciphering this matter, it would do us a great service?