Rule 9: Information as to Strokes Taken
9-1.
General
The number of strokes a player has taken
includes any penalty strokes incurred.
9-2.
Match Play
a. Information as to Strokes Taken
An opponent is entitled to ascertain from the
player, during the play of a hole, the number of strokes he has taken and,
after play of a hole, the number of strokes taken on the hole just completed.
b. Wrong Information
A player must not give wrong information to
his opponent. If a player gives wrong information, he loses the hole.
A player is deemed to have given wrong
information if he:
(i) fails to
inform his opponent as soon as practicable that he has incurred a penalty,
unless (a) he was obviously proceeding under a Rule involving a penalty and
this was observed by his opponent, or (b) he corrects the mistake before his
opponent makes his next stroke; or
(ii) gives
incorrect information during play of a hole regarding the number of strokes
taken and does not correct the mistake before his opponent makes his next
stroke; or
(iii) gives
incorrect information regarding the number of strokes taken to complete a hole
and this affects the opponent’s understanding of the result of the hole, unless
he corrects the mistake before any player makes a stroke from the next tee or,
in the case of the last hole of the match, before all players leave the putting
green.
A player has given wrong information even if
it is due to the failure to include a penalty that he did not know he had
incurred. It is the player’s responsibility to know the Rules.
9-3.
Stroke Play
A competitor who has incurred a penalty
should inform his marker as soon as practicable.
Note: Refer to Rule 6-6
for requirements on the completion and submission of the score card.
9-3. Stroke Play
ReplyDeleteA competitor who has incurred a penalty 'should' inform his marker as soon as practicable.
I have often wondered why this is not 'must'.
aaa
ReplyDeleteI work on the premise that wherever there is a 'must' there must be a concomitant sanction: there seems to me no point in having a mandatory provision unless there is a penalty for non-compliance.
Furthermore, for mandatory provision to be effective there must be an objective standard. And I do not think that 'as soon as practicable' meets that test. In this case we could require, say, that advice be provided 'within two minutes', but that, in my view, would introduce an unnecessary standard to an issue which, in stroke play, has no real impact on the playing of the game.
I view this as a matter of courtesy and etiquette with which the rules of play do not really need to get involved.
Conversely, in match play the incurrence of a penalty does have an immediate effect on the playing of the game and the broad timing standard for advice in these cases of 'ASAP but before the opponent plays his next stroke' is, I think, reasonable.
In this case there is, as you know, a penalty for non-compliance.
Perhaps
ReplyDelete"before playing from the next teeing ground, or in the case of the last hole of the round, before leaving the putting green"
aaa
ReplyDeleteBefore we consider adding further requirements and penalties, I think we should first consider the objective of scoring.
When it comes to scores and scorecards in stroke play the fundamental objective is for an accurate record of the player’s score at each hole to be recorded and certified by the marker and player. In a technical sense it does not matter much, I think, when this is done so long as the task is completed prior to the card being submitted; nor does the timing of completing this task impinge upon the playing or progress of the game.
The requirements regarding the scorecard are well covered in Rule 6-6 (revised). The onus is placed by this Rule upon the marker to check the player’s score at the completion of each hole and on the player to check his/her score for each hole at the completion of the round. These obligations are not prescriptive nor do they carry concomitant penalties, because they are only peripheral to compliance with the fundamental objective: is the submitted scorecard an accurate record of the player’s results. And there can be applied the severest penalty (in 6-6d) if the answer to that question is ‘no’.
The provisions in Rule 6-6 broadly mirror your suggestion that the player ‘must’ advise his/her marker of any penalties incurred in the playing of a hole before or at the completion of the hole or teeing on the next hole. This is all accounted for if the marker ascertains the player’s score for the hole at the completion of each hole as suggested in Rule 6-6a.
Let’s examine the implications of the suggestions you have made for modification to the proposed Rule 9.
If we introduce a mandatory requirement regarding the timing of the player reporting to the marker that a penalty has been incurred, then this requirement must, itself, carry a penalty for non-compliance.
Treading that path would raise, for me, the following:
1. Is the contravention of a non-critical courtesy worth the incurrence of a one or two stroke penalty in the greater scheme of things, given that there is no impact on the playing of the game and there is already a severe sanction attached to the final outcome of the process (if the error in scoring produces a better score than actually achieved); and
2. Once such a mandatory requirement is introduced there is no choice but to go down the path of considering multiple infringements and the penalty effects that these will have. That is, this would likely require the introduction of ‘maximum penalties per round provisions’, similar to breaches of other Rules in stroke, Stableford and par competitions. Again, is a minor incourtesy worth the additional verbiage and complications to the Rules when ‘at the end of the day’ the issue is adequately controlled by Rule 6-6?
Perhaps we should consider adding a Note to Rule 9-3 referencing players to Rule 6 and reminding them of the need to ensure that all hole scores are correctly recorded on the card.
I concur.
ReplyDeleteOK thanks.
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you think about the added Note.
Good Idea
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input.
ReplyDelete