Written by: Darin Green, Senior Director of Rules & Competitions
The FSGA’s Tournament Department is in the middle of our busy season. In just the last two weeks, we have crowned the 105th Amateur Champion, the 93rd Women’s Amateur Champion, the 63rd Girls’ Junior Champions, the Senior Amateur Match Play Champion, the Summer Mixed Champions, and conduct several USGA and FSGA Qualifying events. Below are a few of the rulings from these recent championships.
Relief Denied
The Women’s Amateur Championship was held at Streamsong Resort, which is built on sand dunes. Just off the fairways there are many sandy, natural areas (not bunkers). Several times over the course of the tournament players requested free relief for an embedded ball in these sandy areas. Each time, relief was denied.
Rule 16.3a covers embedded ball relief. To receive free relief for an embedded ball, the ball must be in its own pitch mark and in the general area of the course (not in a penalty area or bunker). Two exceptions where relief is denied are when the ball is embedded in sand that is not in the fairway and when something else interferes with the stroke making the stroke clearly unreasonable to play.
Relief Denied
The Summer Mixed Championship was held at Mission Inn Resort on their El Campeon Course. El Campeon is a hilly course and after heavy rains, some areas off the fairway can become inconsistent due to the water runoff. A player’s ball came to rest in an area where water previously ran off creating a sandy uneven surface. The player requested free relief for a washout. Relief was denied because the area his ball was in was not abnormal to the course and, although challenging, he could play the shot.
Crows
The 105th Amateur Championship was held in Jupiter and the first two rounds the field was split between The Bear’s Club and the Lost Tree Club. Lost Tree informed us when we got on property that they are experiencing a problem with crows stealing golf balls off the course. During the practice rounds, we monitored the situation and sure enough, players were having balls stolen off the course.
For the tournament rounds, we positioned Officials in the areas of the course that had the worst problem with crows taking golf balls. During the first round, our Officials witnessed approximately ten golf balls taken by the crows. Additionally, we heard from the players of five more balls taken.
Crows are an outside influence in the Rules. If it is known or virtually certain (95% certainty) that a ball has been moved by an outside influence, the player must estimate the spot where the ball was and place a ball on that spot.
