Intersting Occurence in A Cup Match

[Tyk]

I was playing in a 4 ball handicap match on our Cup team. We were 3 up on the 6th hole, I had stiffed one to 2 feet, a straight slightly downhill birdie tap in to win the hole and go 4 up, my partner was putting for bogey and if I was at 12:00 he was at 2:00, a roughly 12" right to left slider.

 

As my partner was addressing his ball our opponent said "its good". My partner look up and said "oh, ok, thanks" and just knocked the ball toward the hole and missed. I proceeded to make my putt whereas our opponents said "we conceeded your partner's putt and he putted it anyhow, you lose the hole!" I contested this saying that he was not on my line and therefore was not assisting me in my putt and did not violate a rule, however, I was not positive I understood the rule correctly.

 

The opponents called the clubhouse and said that they verified thier ruling. Given that we were still 2 up I said that we would accept thier ruling under contention and would play out both ways.

 

We went on to lose the match 1 down.

 

Turns out the opponent was lying when he said the pro shop had verified his rule interpretation, the person there didn't know the rule and was looking for a pro when our opponent hung up on him!

 

What we should have done is contested thier ruling waited for an official (in this case either a course pro or a phone call to the Cup Association) and not teed off until it was resolved. In giving up the tee on 7 we had in effect agreed that we had lost the hole!

 

They are still considering DQing our opponents for unsportsmanlike conduct due to the fact that they lied about getting a ruling from the clubhouse.

[Moecat]

What prizes were at stake that behooved your opponents to act in this manner?

[Tyk]

A point in a 10 point cup match, which thier team won 7-3, so, not much.

[Matt Saternus]

Wow, really classless for your opponent to lie like that. That is a very interesting situation. I know I've seen pros on TV hit practice putts in match play after a hole is over, so does the fact that you have a partner not change the fact that you can do that? I guess not. Interesting.

[Tyk]

According to the Cup Association official, they were incorrect in thier ruling. If your partners ball lies on your line and will help you read your putt he has to pick it up if it is conceeded. Of course, the sportsmanlike thing to do would be if there is a question of whether it will help your partner or not and you want to putt it, you mark it and putt afterwards.

 

My partner is a class act, he wasn't even thinking about it when he went ahead and slapped his putt at the hole, and that's what it was. It was not a meaningful putt and he was more just getting the ball out of the way than anything. They conceeded as he was addressing his ball.

 

All in all a mess and I'm really really hoping our opponent shows up to play on our course! If that happens I'm going to make sure that round is as uncomfortable for them as I can!