Quote:
Originally Posted by Thump
After watching today's British Open, I realized how ridiculous some of the rules are.
The 37 mph winds were causing balls to move on the green but if the player had already addressed the ball and grounded his putter, and the ball moved, the player incurs a stroke.
Now I understand that if someone touches their ball with their putter and it moves that a stroke should be incurred but my god how ridiculous.
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Taking your stance
and grounding your club constitutes "addressing the ball".
If you do one but not the other, you have not addressed the ball and therefore would not incur a penalty.
The reason for the rule is to eliminate subjective judgements as to what caused a ball to move. In golf, it's always the player (if he's addressed it). The rule actually serves to avoid a whole host of possible arguments between players as to whether or not a player moved a ball.
Greg Norman grounds his putter behind the ball before he takes his stance. If the ball moves before he has completed setting his feet in position and taking his stance for the stroke, he would not get a penalty if the ball moved.
KJ Choi was the opposite - he took his stance, then was very careful about not grounding his putter behind the ball if the ball was oscillating in the wind.
What I don't get is why they would address the ball over a short putt, then move their putter away from the ball and just stand there watching the ball oscillate. At that point, you're screwed if the ball actually moves to another position, so you might as well go ahead and putt it, or quickly re-mark it so you can start over.
I haven't heard of a single case in this tournament where a player incurred a penalty stroke for causing his ball to move on a green.
I only saw one instance of a ball actually being blown to another position after the player had placed his ball on the green and picked up his marker (Lee Westwood).
Oh yeah, and for those who have not played tournament golf in 30+ MPH winds, putting is a b****!
