Golf Quebec started its competition season with the Spring Open Qualifying rounds. We can see many talented amateurs and professional golfers that are not already qualified.
In all those events, Golf Quebec has 3 certified rules officials on the golf course. Some players don’t know the rules of golf and some experimented players think they know the rules. Here are some rules incidents in the last week.
Out of Bound fence
No free relief is available from a fence or a wall used to define an out of bound. A player’s ball was lying close to the wall and a very experienced player told him to take a free relief. The player dropped his ball, played the hole and a few hours later arrived at the scoring tent. An official was informed of the situation before the player signed his score card. We went on site and the player showed to us the area. The player had dropped his ball (lucky for him) in a correct area for an unplayable ball and he added a penalty of one stroke to his score before returning the card.
If he would have signed his score card without correcting the score he would have been disqualified.
The importance of reading the notice to competitors
Two very important rules were put on the Notice to Competitors:
A ball lying in an aeration hole on the green may be lifted and place outside the hole without penalty.
On a certain hole, the player could play Preferred Lies between the cart part and the lateral water hazard. (including in the rough)
Because many players never read the Notice to competitors, many competitors played their ball from a very bad lie.
Ball resting against a rake in a bunker
A ball at rest moved after the removal of a rake. There is no penalty if the player replaces his ball. If the player had not ask for a ruling and would have played the ball where it lies, he would have received a 2-stroke penalty from playing from the wrong place.
Advice to competitors
In certain situations, if you are not sure of your rights ask an official or play 2 balls. We are on the course to help you.
You must not always take for granted the ruling given by experienced players