Golf is unlike many sports in many respects. For those of us who love the game, these differences are what we love about our sport. In golf you serve as your own referee and call penalties on yourself. In golf you initiate the stroke against a static object rather than reacting to a moving ball. Another important distinction in our game is that only one player plays at a time. One Rule that underscores this principle is Rule 16-1f one of the more interesting and complicated Rules in the book.
Rule 16-1f states: “The player must not make a stroke while another ball is in motion after a stroke from the putting green, except that if the player does so, there is no penalty if it was his turn to play.” These 38 words are full of intrigue, layer and just plain confusion. Let’s break them down this rule into “six easy pieces” to see what makes it tick.
1. The first thing to note is that the Rule applies to both stroke play and match play and that the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play apply if this rule is violated.
2. Second, this Rule falls under Rule 16″”the putting green. This tells us that it only comes into play when at least one of the balls involved lies on a putting green. So, if a Rules question arises when neither ball lies on a putting green you know you can ignore Rule 16-1f.
3. The second important ingredient in Rule 16-1f is that there are two or more players involved””like “the tango” it takes two to create a violation of this rule.
4. The next key in understanding this rule is to understand who “the player” is and who struck “another ball.” To help, let’s give “the player” and the owner of “another ball” some flesh and bone. On the final hole of the 18-hole playoff at this year’s U.S. Open Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate were both on the green. Tiger faced a lengthy eagle putt and Rocco had a 15-foot birdie putt. Tiger missed his eagle putt leaving himself a testy five-footer for birdie. This gave the stage to Rocco who had a putt to win the U.S. Open. You know what really happened, but let’s pretend it had a different ending. Rocco strikes his birdie putt and Tiger, in his haste to force extra holes, replaces his ball and putts while Rocco’s ball is still in motion. Tiger is “the player” and Rocco is the player who played “another ball.”
5. Next we need to determine who is penalized. Keeping with our U.S. Open example, Tiger is “the player” who “must not make a stroke while another ball is in motion after a stroke from the putting green.” Since it was not Tiger’s turn to play (he was 5 feet away and Rocco was 15 feet away) he has violated this Rule, receives a two-stroke penalty and Rocco taps in for the U.S. Open victory.
6. Notice that Tiger is penalized regardless of whether the balls collide. Rule 16-1f says nothing about balls being deflected or stopped””that is covered by Rule 19 which we will save for another day.
The principle behind this Rule is to prevent players from playing while other balls are in motion. The rule only applies on the putting green since that is the area where the probability of balls colliding is higher, and where players are close enough to one another and to the hole to know better. One at a time, please!
