RULE 17-3

Zamir's caddie is attending the flag stick while he chips from just off the green. After making the stroke, the flag stick becomes stuck in the hole and the caddie is unable to remove it before the player's ball strikes it. Wahab asked if there has been a rules breach and, if so, what is the penalty?

Zainudin Answers: Unfortunately, even though it was an accident on the caddie's part, Rule 17-3 dictates that a two-shot penalty is incurred in strokeplay and the hole is lost in match play.

Zamir can choose to have the flag attended before making a stroke from anywhere on the course. An example may be when he is playing from a position where he cannot see the flag as he is standing off the green but way below the hole. He can ask for the flag to be held up above the hole so that he can judge where the hole is. In this case, and any others where the player authorises the flag to be attended, whether his ball is on or off the green, there would be a two stroke penalty if the ball hits the attended flagstick (which includes the flag itself).

Posted by @pgabsec on 6:36 PM. Filed under Rules In Action .You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0