When I officiated the 2011 US Mid-Amateur Championship in Houston, the city was going through an extreme drought until, as fate would have it, the first day of the championship. Over the first two days of stroke play qualifying to get into match play, there were over 5 hours in weather delays. Qualifying had to be completed on Monday– the day that the match play portion was supposed to begin. Consequently, there were a lot of first-round matches that did not get completed on Monday and had to be resumed on Tuesday.
When we arrived at the golf course on Tuesday morning the weather was better, but it was a little foggy. I was refereeing a match that was going to resume on the 16th tee when that little bit of fog turned into a lot of fog leaving the golf course unplayable due to visibility issues. This was not a dangerous situation so the USGA left the players on the course to allow the fog to lift, and after about 30 minutes the players on 16 began to get restless and asked me what their options were pertaining to practice and warming up.
Before I give the answer, let me preface this by explaining that the US Mid-Amateur is similar to the US Amateur in that two courses are used for stroke play qualifying due to the 264 players that compete in the championship. The Houstonian Golf & Country Club was the supporting course for the championship, much like CommonGround Golf Course next year is for the US Amateur when it is played at Cherry Hills Country Club. The convenient part about the Houstonian is that it is adjacent to Shadow Hawk (the championship course) and both courses even have some holes that border each other separated by a wooden split rail boundary fence.
Players asked me if they could hit balls on The Houstonian to try and stay warm, or if they could practice putt and chip on the green of the previous hole they completed. Rule 7-2 defines what a player’s options are during a round with regards to practice. It says that during the round a player may not make a practice stroke on the competition course, except that he can practice putt or chip on the putting green of the last hole played, on any practice putting green or on the teeing ground of the next hole to be played. And even though in this case play has been suspended, the exception in this Rule states that because their match has started they are not permitted to hit full practice strokes on the competition course.
Knowing this, the players asked if they could hop the fence and practice on The Houstonian before play was resumed. I told them that because The Houstonian was no longer being used as a competition course, they were permitted to use this course to warm up; however they were going to have to use their own golf balls. They were also permitted to practice putting and chipping on the previous hole played in accordance with Rule 7-2.
If you were foggy on 7-2, I hope this cleared it up for you.
