The Rules of Golf Strike Again - Si Woo Kim

[Kalen Braley]

Golf is the only sport I can name that attempts to enforce time limits when no one is using a clock or stopwatch.

WW

One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi ... Ten-Mississippi.

It ain’t that hard.

Agreed

Basketball has numerous variants on this:  3, 5, 8 and 10 second violations that the ref counts usually with a hand signal... but still without a visible clock for players to see a precise count.

[JohnVDB]

Just a little history on this courtesy of "The Rules of Golf Applied" by Cliff Schrock:
1963 Phoenix Open - Palmer was in clubhouse in the lead.  Don January was playing with Gary Player and Johnny Potts.  Player had a 5 footer to tie Arnie.  January putted first and his ball came to rest overhanging the hole.  At the time the Rule just said the player was allowed a "momentary delay" to see if the ball would fall.  January went up and thought the ball was still moving, which Player and Potts agreed with.
January waited 7 minutes and finally tapped the ball in.  Player then missed his putt and Palmer won.
The Rule was then changed because of this to allow 10 seconds and the player got a 2 stroke penalty if the ball fell in after that.
1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills - Denis Watson's putt on #8 in the first round came to rest on the lip.  Watson waited and eventually the ball did fall in for what he though was a par 4.  He was timed as having waited 42 seconds and was penalized 2 strokes.  He lost to Andy North by 1 stroke.
In 1988 the R&A and USGA changed the Rule to be a one-stroke penalty which made it the equivalent of tapping the ball in.
It has remained the same since then and was unchanged in 2019.  In fact it is one of the few things that I don't think we even discussed.  The only real change was the wording was changed from "deemed to be at rest" to "treated as being at rest".

John,


Technically Watson was penalised one stroke - plus the stroke he would have had if he'd tapped the ball in after 10 seconds. And TC Chen's penalty now would only have been one shot and not two for the double hit.

Mike,
The penalty was two strokes.  When the ball fell in the hole he had holed out with his previous stroke.  the penalty statement for Rule 16-1 was Loss of Hole in Match Play and Two Strokes in Stroke play.
The result was that he was one stroke higher than he would have been had he tapped in, but the penalty was two strokes, just as the result today is the same as if you tapped in, but it is a one-stroke penalty.

[JohnVDB]

John


Let me ask you, what happens if the player goes to tap in the putt and it drops while he is at address ?


Niall

Niall, presuming he didn't cause the ball to move, which requires a 95% certainty under today's rules, the result would be the same as if he hadn't done anything.  If it was before 10 seconds, no problem, if it was after, same as Si Woo Kim.
If he accidentally caused it to move, he would have to replace it with no penalty and then tap it in.

[Adam Clayman]

After spending considerable time trying to navigate the rules of golf on USGA.com. I've been unsuccessful finding the rule that covers this situation.


JVB, could you guide?


What strikes me as different is that Kim's shot was from off the green. I was under the impression the golfer had 10 seconds once he got to the ball, from a putt, not a chip.


Any clarification would be helpful

[Kevin_Reilly]

Adam, did you see 13-3?  It covers a ball overhanging the hole.  Doesn't seem to matter where the shot originated.

[JohnVDB]

After spending considerable time trying to navigate the rules of golf on USGA.com. I've been unsuccessful finding the rule that covers this situation.


JVB, could you guide?


What strikes me as different is that Kim's shot was from off the green. I was under the impression the golfer had 10 seconds once he got to the ball, from a putt, not a chip.


Any clarification would be helpful

Adam, as Kevin says, you’ll find it in Rule 13.3.  While that Rule is in about the putting green, it has nothing to do with where the ball was played from only where it came to rest.


You could be he first to hit on a par 3 and your ball comes to rest overhanging the hole.  The other three players in your group could all then hit.  You might have to help another player search for his ball and finally get to the green 5 minutes or more later.  Once you are there, you’ll get your 10 seconds.  As long as you are not unnecessarily delaying to give it more time, there would be no problem.