On September 1-3 Perry Arthur of Plano, Texas added his name to the trophy of the HealthOne Colorado Senior Open at Green Valley Ranch Golf Course. While Arthur took the first place check, the tournament spotlight was captured by the one and only “Number 7″ ““ John Elway. Elway played very well and was in contention for low amateur during the event before a tough final round dropped him out of contention. But the highlight for the Rules of Golf, and probably the lowlight for John, was his run-in with the Rules on the 7th hole, that cost him a triple bogey, 7!
During the first round of the championship Elway hit his tee shot to the par four 7th hole into the left rough. Elway was playing a TaylorMade 2 that had a logo on it but had no other identifying marks. When he arrived in the landing zone Elway found a TaylorMade 2. He assumed it was his ball and played the ball out of the rough toward the green. After hitting the ball, John then discovered another TaylorMade 2, (this one with the logo) and realized he had played a wrong ball. Elway correctly abandoned the wrong ball and resumed play with his original ball, assessing himself a two-stroke penalty for the mistake.
Rule 15 covers Elway’s unfortunate, but not uncommon faux pas but does not come without fair warning. Rule 6-5 states, “The responsibility for playing the proper ball rests with the player. Each player should put an identification mark on his ball.” Elway made a very common mistake””assuming that a single identifying mark on a golf ball is sufficient””that’s only slightly better than no identification mark at all! It is not uncommon to see experienced players put identifying marks in a minimum of four places on a ball to avoid making the same mistake. Rule 6-5 states that the player “should” put a mark on a golf ball. The word should in the context of the Rules means, it is recommended but not required. There is no penalty for not putting an identifying mark on a ball, but, as Elway learned there is a penalty if you play a ball that does not belong to you.
One other note while we are talking about Rule 15. This rule was changed in 2008 to make the rule more consistent and eliminate an exception that previously prohibited a player from lifting a ball for identification when his ball was in a hazard and, by extension, absolved the player from penalty in the event he played a wrong ball from a hazard. This exception was eliminated from the Rule book in 2008 so that a player is now allowed to lift a ball for identification anywhere on the golf course and is therefore penalized if he chooses to bypass this opportunity and play a ball from a hazard that turns out not to belong to him.
The moral of the story: Be sure to place several identifying marks on your golf ball so that you can see that it is yours regardless of how it is lying in deep grass. If you still can’t tell, by all means, call over your fellow competitor or opponent and lift the ball following the procedure outlined in Rule 12. In other words, if you know rules 6 and 12, you won’t have to worry about number 15″”and that’s true even for number 7!
