Q. Larry's drive was in the woods. Upon taking his back swing, he hit a low lying branch knocking off a couple of the many leaves, but not breaking any branches. Larry stopped his swing, regrouped, and proceeded with a three-quarter swing. At this point Scott said, I think you have at least one and possibly two penalty strokes. You had two swings and you improved you lie.
What is the correct ruling?
A. No penalty.
B. One stoke penalty. Add a stoke to Larry's score for his first discontinued stroke.
C. Two stroke penalty. Add two stokes for improving the area of intended swing.
D. Three-stoke penalty, Add two strokes for improving the area of intended swing and one for the discontinued stroke.
Rules, rules, and more rules
Q. Larry's drive was in the woods. Upon taking his back swing, he hit several low lying branches breaking and bending a number of them. The severe contact with the branches didn't seem to slow Larry down as he successfully punched out of the woods advancing his ball about 150 yards. Scott said, "My goodness, it looks like you took a chain saw to that tree, I think that's a two stroke."
What is the correct ruling?
A. No penalty.
B. One stroke penalty for improving area of intended swing during the process of making a stroke.
C. Two stroke penalty for improving area of intended swing during the process of making a stroke.
So I'm curious to know the correct answer on #1...
i'll go with C, a 2 stroke penalty for improving the swing path. But I see this happen on my course a lot and everyone goes with A), no penalty. But I think there should be.
For #2...I would go with A) No penalty since it was during the act of his swing. If he can manage it and control it, more power to him!
Golf is a game that can only be played...
GolfGearReview.com Administrator
I'm sorry to see that I only got ONE person to give these two rulles questions a try. The correct answer to both questions is answer A. No penaly for #1 because he only knocks some leaves off the branch, he did NOT break the branch or move it out of this way. So it seems that the people at your range are doing it correctly for this one. Scott.
Don
Putting is easy if you have the Right Putter.
Q. A player's ball lies near a tree or bush. The player takes a practice swing near his ball and knocks down leaves in the area of his intended swing. Is this a breach of Rule 13-2?
A. The answer depends on whether the area of the intended swing is improved. In some cases, the knocking down of a number of leaves would not improve the area of the intended swing as the player still has to swing through a number of remaining leaves when making his stroke. In such circumstances, there would be no breach of the Rules. In other cases, the knocking down of one leaf might improve the area of the intended swing, in which case there would be a breach of Rule 13-2.
If a player has improved the area of his intended swing by knocking down a leaf or a number of leaves, he cannot avoid penalty under Rule 13-2 by subsequently changing the area of his swing when he actually makes the stroke.
Golf is a game that can only be played...
GolfGearReview.com Administrator
I was thinking the same thing as you were, But if you read the original post, you will notice that they say he knocked down a FEW of the MANY leaves, That would seem to mean that there were still plenty of leaves in his intended swing path. So it would mean he didn't do much to improve his intended swing area. So for this reason I would have to go with A as being correct.
Don
Putting is easy if you have the Right Putter.