RULES & HANDICAPPING


By Lorraine Thies


My brother returns for more punishment


O


h my goodness . . . it’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since my brother, Ted, came to Arizona for


some family bonding and a little golf. He claimed he’s been too busy to make the trip. I think it was because of all the harassment he got from me the last time over his “rules challenge” on the golf course. (He got smoked!) Ted said he was prepared to take


me on this year. “I’ve been studying the Rule Book,” he said. We’ll see about that! He may have been KING when we were kids, but we’re adults now and I’m no longer “Little Sis.” This year he wanted to play the TPC


Stadium Course — home of the Waste Management Open. (I think he’s been studying the flyover maps on their website to gain some advantage). We’re playing stroke play — low score wins. It didn’t take long for some rules action! On the second hole, I hit my tee shot center fairway. He hit his into the right rough. We both hit our next shots onto the green. He one-putted for birdie and I two-putted for par. But wait! When he lifted his ball


out of the hole, he turned to me with a stunned look — IT WASN’T HIS BALL! Before I uttered a word, he exclaimed, “I know this one . . . I hit a wrong ball and I have to correct the error before we tee off on hole No. 3 or I’m disqualified.” WHOA! Was that my brother speaking those words? He was almost more excited about knowing the rule than the fact that he had incurred a penalty (Rule 15-3). Ok, so now what do I do? He


proceeded to tell me that we had to go back to where he had hit the wrong ball from and try to find his original ball. Again, I’m impressed! “How much time do you have to search for that ball?” I asked. “Well, I saw this ball as I approached it so I


38 | AZ GOLF Insider | ANNUAL 2017 Wait a minute, Bro. You’re


right, you didn’t identify the ball within five minutes.


ready to make his stroke. “STOP! I found a ball.” At that point it was about 4 1/2 minutes since we started searching. He jumped into his cart and put the pedal to the metal to get back and identify the ball within the five minutes. But alas, the timer went off as he was approaching the ball. As it turned out, it was his ball. Downtrodden, he said, “I didn’t identify my ball within the five minutes so it’s lost.” With a sad face he jumped in the cart, ready to head back to the tee. Wait a minute, Bro.


You’re right, you didn’t identify the ball within the five minutes. But the definition of a lost ball says that it’s lost if not “found OR identified” within the five minutes. Since the ball was found within the five minutes, you have the right to identify it — even if it takes longer than five minutes. Now that you found your ball, forget the strokes you made with the wrong


ball, add two penalty strokes for hitting the wrong ball and finish the hole. He hit his original onto the green


didn’t spend any time searching — so I have five minutes.” Oh my — this is getting scary — he’s right again. We searched for about three minutes


without luck. We were concerned about holding up the group behind us so he told me to keep searching while he headed back to the tee. He teed the ball, took a practice swing and was getting


and two-putted. His total score for the hole was 6 — one off the tee, two-stroke stroke penalty for hitting the wrong ball, a fourth stroke onto the green and two putts. After we finished the hole, I asked him what would have happened if we hadn’t found his ball. “Well, I would have hit my first stroke off the tee, had a two-stroke penalty for the wrong ball and a one-stroke penalty for the lost ball — so I would have been hitting my fifth shot back on the tee.” BRAVO to my brother — he held


his own and got most of it right. But that stroke I saved him? It ended up being my demise. He won the round and the drink. Yes, by one stroke! n


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