Samuel Ryder Cup | THE GRQ PODCAST EP47

Samuel Ryder Cup - Episode 47  

Now I didn’t get to say the GRQOTW 46 live on air after last week’s tech debacle, that is an tech IVOR, but here it is: 

Between play of holes 9 and 10, Ross took Big P’s putter and hit 3 putts on the practice putting green whilst waiting for the fairway on the 10th to clear so they could tee off. Does Ross incur any penalties for this action? 

Now it does sound quite strange, Ross has borrowed a putter during a round and had a practice putt, which wasn’t on the green of the whole he had just finished on. But the answer which may surprise you is, no penalties to Ross in either match or stroke play. 

Why? Firstly, using someone else’s putter is only a breach if you do it to make a stroke during the play of a hole. As this was between two holes, there is no penalty. Secondly, you are permitted to practice putt or chip on or near the last green played, the next teeing area, and any practice green on the course, this practice must also be between the play of two holes. If you had read Interpretation 4.1b(2)/2 you would have nailed the answer. 

Now speaking of practicing, you will see this week’s tournament is the Ryder Cup, which is an amazing spectacle of team golf and one on one competition in match play. Practicing on the green after a hole has finished is permitted, unlike in most stroke play tournaments around the world. This restriction in stroke play isn’t the Rule but a Term of the Competition, in the effort to speed up pace of play.

Now speaking of the Ryder Cup, firstly let’s chat about the format, and then we will go through some of the more interesting scenarios over the years:

In 1989 Paul Azinger refused to let Seve Ballesteros replace a scuffed ball. Whether the ball was cut/cracked or only scuffed we will never know, but it was the hostility between the two that neither man would give an inch to the other in one of the fiercest rivalries in golf.  Then in 1991 they were to face off again, and this time Ballesteros accused Azinger of changing balls on different holes depending on how they wanted to play, i.e. soft compression balls on holes where the pin was situated at the front and hard compression balls where the pin location was at the back.

So although we wish for a clean and excellent match of character and golf skills in the cauldron that is the Ryder Cup, some of us do enjoy the theatre of a few Rules issues thrown in there.

Now GRQOTW47, is worthy of a match play question: 

Stuart and Ray are playing Big P and Gerry in a handicapped four-ball match at Wombat Hills GC. On the second hole of the day, Ray steps on his ball in the middle of the fairway when he was talking excitedly to Stuart about how he was getting 15 shots for the match. Ray replaced his ball where he thought he had moved it from, whilst Stuart and Big P were watching. Although Ray thought he was exempt from penalty under Rule 7.4, Stuart knew this was a breach of Rule 9.4, but said nothing. Big P assumed their was no penalty either. Ray then played an amazing shot which resulted in a conceded putt and what Big P and Gerry thought was a birdie, which they could not beat. On the next teeing area, Stuart played from outside the teeing area, which Gerry pointed out and asked Stuart to cancel the stroke and replay. Big P then joked to Gerry about the side making a blunder on the last hole when Ray stood on his ball in the middle of the fairway. Was there any course of action that Gerry could take for Ray’s blunder on the second hole?  

Remember without rules, there is chaos.