On May 30th and 31st on the Circuit Canada Pro Tour (CCPT) we had our first tournament of the season. The best players from the Great Lakes Tours and a few players from Quebec were invited. The Rules Committee had many rulings but I will talk to you about one particular ruling involving the Scorecard.
We all know that if a player signs for a scorecard with a hole indicating a score lower than the exact score, the player is disqualified.
Since last year, a major change was made in the application of the Rules
RULE 6-6d:
Exception: If a competitor returns a score for any hole lower than
actually taken due to failure to include one or more penalty strokes that, before returning his score card, he did not know he had incurred, he is
not disqualified.
In this case the penalty is added to the score plus a 2 strokes penalty for returning a wrong score card.
Let’s see the facts
The round was played under the Preferred Lies Rules, one club length On short grass. At the 18th hole, a player replaced his ball on the green. The original lie was on the fringe of the green. A player may never place his ball on the green under the preferred lies rule.
The player signs his score card. A few minutes later his fellow-competitor tells me that the player replaced his ball on the green. I called the player and he confirmed to me that he thought he could replace the ball on the green. After explaining that he could not do that he accepted the 2 stroke penalty for playing from the wrong place and another 2 stokes penalty for signing and returning a wrong score card. His score of 70 became 74.
The day after, a few players came to me to say that they asked him if it was permissible to do that and that he should consult with an official before returning the score card. He was sure of his rights and decided not to consult.
Because the fellow competitors questioned his move, he could not use anymore rule 6-6d and I did not have any choice to disqualify the player.
 
