Right Green, wrong hole
Last week at the USC Invitational, Jeff Ninnemann from the Southern California Golf Association had an interesting problem come up. The players were playing 36 holes the first day with a shotgun start. Play would be continuous meaning that when a group finished its 18th hole, it would go to the next hole and immediately started the next round.
The coaches didn’t want them to play to the same holes for both rounds. So, they had the superintendent cut two holes on each green. The flagstick was placed in the round 1 hole and after the final group played that hole, they were supposed to move the flagstick to the round 2 hole.
There were only 20 groups in the tournament so there were only two holes where more than one group started. When the first group that started on the 11th hole finished the 10th hole, they incorrectly moved the flagstick to the round 2 location before the second group could play #10. The second group didn’t realize this and three of the four players hit their second shots toward the flagstick which was in the wrong hole.
At this point, someone noticed they were playing to the wrong hole and stopped the fourth player from playing. This was when Jeff got called in. The three balls which had already been played were quite near the second round hole and a good distance from the hole they should have played towards. Jeff and the other members of the Committee started trying to figure out what to do. These are the possibilities as they saw them, plus a couple of others I thought of:
- Have the players who had already played return to the fairway and play to the correct hole.
- Have the players move their balls to equivalent locations the same distance from the hole they should have played towards.
- Tell the players tough luck, you have to putt to the correct hole from where you ended up.
- Have the players putt to the second round hole and count their scores for the second round. When they reached the hole later in the day, have them putt to the first round location and count it for round 1.
- Have the players putt to the second round hole, but count it for the first round. When they returned later, have them play to the round 1 hole and count it for round 2.
- Cancel the round.
I’ll let you all take a guess before I tell you what they decided.
Sorry the polls are closed. See the results.
Interestingly, they also had two players who accidentally hit shots which ended up in the wrong hole during the rounds. The other hole on the putting green is a hole made by a greenskeeper and is ground under repair. If the player hits his ball into it, he should lift it and place it to the side of the hole with no penalty.
1-4/3
The Committee should have managed this not expected the players to get it right!
John,
I think that I would have ruled that it is a similar situation to Decision 1-4/3;
Q. A practical joker removes the flagstick from the hole and sticks it into the putting green some distance from the hole. The players approaching the green are unaware of this action and they play towards the flagstick and not the hole. Do the players have the option to replay?
A. No. In equity (Rule 1-4), the players must accept the resultant advantage or disadvantage.
Barry
Cancel the round.
RS Tufts,
Good option I forgot to put on the survey. It definitely could be considered.
2 points: Here in the East, courses that stay open during the wnter often put two holes on the green, one in the back, one in the front (and leave them there for weeks or months). In theory, you are supposed to play to say the front, and then put the flag in the back and the next group should play to the back and then put the flag in the front. In theory, you should have nine of each locations for every round. In reality, it gets royally screwed up by groups who forget, or don’t care or whatever. My standing group has an internal rule that we play to where the flag is, regardless of where it “should” be, since we don’t really know where the other hole is. Obviously this kind of informal arrangement doesn’t work in tournaments, but I’m just pointing it out.
Did these guys have pin sheets? If so, they should have known it was the wrong hole. If not, then I think they should consider using the same hole for that round, and for this group only have them play to the Round 1 pin in Round 2. Unless there is a cut between rounds, this is ultimately fair to the players and the field.
Shultz, let me get this right, you play a course multiple times over the winter with the holes in these two locations but don’t remember where it is from week to week?
Yes, they had hole location sheets. Since this was a college event, I assume that range finders weren’t allowed. But, I’ve seen much less usage of hole location sheets now that players have range finders so I could see that not being a help at non-college or USGA / PGA Tour events.
“But, I’ve seen much less usage of hole location sheets now that players have range finders so I could see that not being a help at non-college or USGA / PGA Tour events.”
Really? I have a SkyCaddie and the VSGA allows us to use them. With the pin sheets, they are really accurate. I use them in conjunction with each other to get really accurate data.
And, yes, we know where the hole is (if it hasn’t been moved), but where’s the fun in aiming at a blank spot…