Mark from Boca Raton found himself in a pickle, the kind that makes you want to trade your clubs for a very, very strong margarita. He was lining up a birdie putt, picturing himself as a golfing demigod, ready to shave strokes and, more importantly, escape the dreaded ranger’s glare. But just as his ball was embarking on its majestic journey toward the cup, another ball, launched with the grace of a startled badger, decided to join the party. The result? His birdie chance went from "money" to "major bummer," and Mark went from serene putter to sonic screamer. A true rules dilemma, indeed.
Mark’s lamentation dances around the hallowed, yet in this case, utterly irrelevant, concept of ‘ready golf.’ Look, picking up the pace is great, especially when the guy in the cart behind you is gnawing on his putter grip. But the rules of golf, bless their intricate little hearts, operate on a plane far removed from the frantic urgency of a slow foursome. Think of it this way: a golf cart’s speed doesn’t magically move the flagstick.
The nitty-gritty here falls under Rule 11.1b. When one ball in motion decides to play bumper cars with another, the ball that got whacked gets a do-over. For Mark, that meant his stroke was toast. He got to replay that putt from where he’d lined it up like a seasoned pro. For the perpetrator of the aerial assault, their ball was played as it lay – which, incidentally, might have been a lucky break for them, and a source of existential dread for Mark.
Then there’s Sean’s tale, a story so wonderfully bizarre you’d swear it involved a rogue unicorn and a misplaced set of clubs. His buddy, after a drive that resembled a drunken stumble and a topped provisional (two shots already down!), managed to hit that provisional with his third shot after miraculously finding his original ball. Talk about a shot in the dark, or perhaps, a shot out of sheer, unadulterated panic! This ricochet landed within a foot of the hole, setting up a tap-in birdie. Talk about getting lucky on the green while getting a masterclass in fairway fumbling.
This whole kerfuffle lands in a peculiar kind of golf purgatory. The provisional ball, having been bashed by another ball in play, is treated like a particularly fortunate “rub of the green.” Since the provisional was technically no longer in the running (having been replaced by the found original), it didn’t incur any penalties. The ball was played as it lay, making for a wonderfully weird, yet perfectly legal, birdie opportunity. It’s a strange bird, as they say, but it certainly flew true for Sean’s pal.