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I had a short chip off an uphill lie and ended up hitting about six inches behind the ball. The resulting divot stood straight up behind the ball, such that I couldn’t play toward the target on my next attempt. I tamped the divot back down, counted the whiff and played the next shot. Was the tamping allowed, or is there a penalty for altering my lie after the whiff? —Dan Bundy, Lawrenceburg, Ky.
Dan, are you related to the hapless shoe salesman Al Bundy from Married With Children? (Rules Guy knows more than just his Shakespeare.) Because, in this instance, insult was added to injury.
You were not allowed to repair the divot, alas, because it improved your lie and, from your description, your area of intended swing too. Rule 8.1 protects those areas from improvement in certain ways, and altering the ground is one of them. In addition to the whiff, shoe-horn two more strokes onto your score.
For more divot-related guidance from our guru, read on …
Upon reaching our drives, my playing partner and I found that our golf balls were touching and perfectly lined up toward the hole. My ball was in front, so I marked it. His approach produced a massive divot; to replace my ball in its original spot would have meant being in this newly created divot. I claimed I was entitled to a free drop, he said I wasn’t. Who was right? —Brick Rigden, Parkville, Mo.
In a word, neither.
Under Rule 14.2d, you were entitled to relief but not a drop.
When you lifted for interference, you were required to replace the ball … but when the lie of a ball to be replaced is altered, you must replace it in a specific way. Namely, by replacing it on the nearest spot with a lie most similar to the original lie that’s within one club-length of said spot, no nearer the hole and in the same area of the course.
(Your scenario, we will note, more commonly occurs in bunkers, but the process is the same.) We hope this info doesn’t hit you like a ton of bricks, Brick!
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