Clary

[Clary]

I played with a guy who putted 15 yards from green up a steep hill which leads onto the green. So he was in fact on the fairway. His putt didn't make the top of the green and started rolling backwards down the hill again. In anger he threw his putter at the side of the hill which laid then on the ground still off the green and his ball hit the putter. What is the ruling. I need a golfing guru to answer this because I thought it was a 1 stroke penalty?

[DaveP043]

Did he DELIBERATELY deflect or stop the ball in motion?  Check Rule 11, the link is below.  If he accidentally deflected a ball in motion, even if its with his own body or equipment, there's no penalty.  This is a change from previous versions of the rules.  

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules/rules-2019/rules-of-golf/rules-and-interpretations.html#!ruletype=fr&section=rule&rulenum=11

 

[HardcoreLooper]

Thanks @DaveP043.  I'm not sure I like the rule change taking intent into account.  Sure, it was adding insult to injury to get penalized when you blade one into the face of a bunker and it hits your leg before you could get out of the way.  But in this case, where the golfer in question most likely didn't intend to touch the golf ball with his club but certainly engaged in a bad act (throwing his club) and was not penalized for touching his ball seems contrary to the spirit of the rule to me.

 

[Clary]

While I believe he did not intentionally try to stop the ball the fact is the putter prevented his ball from progressing any further. The action was deliberate and directed at the balls mishap. Its a tricky one and in stapleford I would have picked it up. He scored a point after the incident and went on to win his handicap division in the competition. The pro shop said he should not receive a penalty. It is not in the spirit of the game and it was on the second last hole and unfortunately it wrecked perfectly good game. Golf can be cruel and fortunate in many ways.

[DaveP043]

2 hours ago, Clary said:

While I believe he did not intentionally try to stop the ball the fact is the putter prevented his ball from progressing any further. The action was deliberate and directed at the balls mishap. Its a tricky one and in stapleford I would have picked it up. He scored a point after the incident and went on to win his handicap division in the competition. The pro shop said he should not receive a penalty. It is not in the spirit of the game and it was on the second last hole and unfortunately it wrecked perfectly good game. Golf can be cruel and fortunate in many ways.

I don't disagree, to me the decision to eliminate the penalty for unintentional deflection of a moving ball wasn't the best choice.  But that's the rule now, and I don't see any basis to penalize him.

[fixyurdivot]

This is an interesting rule change.  Maybe they should consider a rule where throwing a club results in loss of use of that club for the rest of the round .

[DaveP043]

2 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

This is an interesting rule change.  Maybe they should consider a rule where throwing a club results in loss of use of that club for the rest of the round .

Another option, the Committee is authorized to develop a Code of Conduct for a competition.  The Committee could certainly decide to penalize club-throwing.  The Committee is not allowed to institute stroke penalties where none are called for in the Rules, but they COULD say that a player can be DQed for these types of offenses.