ONLY WHEN THE FORM OF PLAY IS A FACTOR WILL IT BE STATED If you do not have a Rules of Golf book handy, go to: http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Rules-and-Decisions/ If you have any questions pertaining to this or previous quizzes, please ask. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Question from week #199 Rule 5-3 covers a ball deemed unfit for play. Consider the following: 1. Your tee ball has hit an asphalt cart path on the fly and is visibly scraped and tar-colored. 2. Your brand new ball has hit the trunk of an oak tree after a full swing and the surface is clearly scuffed and the finish is marred. 3. Your ball, after a stroke from the fairway, strikes the 150 marker full on. Your ball now has a dime-sized blue paint transfer mark upon it. 4. Your ball at rest on the fairway was picked up by a dog, who had fun playing solo catch with it before releasing the ball. After retrieving the ball you see puncture marks from the dog’s teeth that have penetrated the cover and left raised barbs. Decide for each of the above listed situations whether you would likely be permitted to deem that ball unfit for play during the play of a hole.
Answers: It is a common misconception that if a ball hits a cart path, tree, rock or other hard substance, the impact damage renders it unfit for play. This is simply not true for the modern golf ball. The origins of this Rule go back to the times of the gutta-purcha ball, circa 1850. The guttie could be mass produced, but had a tendency to break apart. So the R & A introduced the Rule, which was revised over several decades. The modern Rule has a fairly detailed description of what does or does not constitute unfit damage. Please take the time to read the first paragraph in R5-3 for this description. 1. The ball would not be deemed unfit for play. Contact with a cart path might scuff up the ball’s surface, but the modern ball is too tough to damage to the point where it would be unfit for play. Most people I know continue to use the ball in that condition. 2. Not unfit for play. Again, same reasoning as above. 3. Not unfit. 4. Now we have a damaged cover. Both the barbs left from the dog’s teeth and the holes made by his bite have probably altered the cover enough that it would effect both the flight of the ball and effect contact with, say, a putter face. I honestly cannot recall the last time I was aware of anybody on any tour successfully taking a ball out of play for being unfit during the play of a hole. Every once in a while someone will hit a rock or something like a grandstand and it might cut the ball enough to render it unfit, but it really takes something like a mower running over the modern ball to damage the cover. =============================================================== | 
