Before you meekly accept that penalty check the rule book

What you need to know:

  • I met one gullible golfer last Saturday after he had been wrongfully penalised on account of such Rules at Limuru Country Club.

I took my first train ride to Mombasa when I was 12 years old.

The trains then were not as fast as the Madaraka Express. The ride from Nairobi to Mombasa took fourteen hours. For my scouting friends and I, the long ride was not a problem at all.

We had a whole carriage to ourselves and the games and stories that we shared kept us thoroughly entertained for the entire trip.

That was until one of the kids, who always seemed to know everything, started telling us stories of the genies in Mombasa.

He told us that the genies would turn themselves into black cats that spoke especially if one threw stones at them.

The genies could even turn into 100 shillings notes (this was the highest denomination note at the time) and if one picked it up it would politely ask to be returned to where it was picked.

These tales of genies scared some of us so much that we were not our usual selves. When we arrived at Tudor Primary School where we were staying, we were on very good behaviour so as not to offend any genies. We did not even dare kick pebbles on the ground lest they turned out to be genies.

There are few golfers today who, due to their failure to read the Rules of Golf, are being harassed by others on fictitious Rules that are akin to the genie stories.

I met one such gullible golfer last Saturday after he had been wrongfully penalised on account of such Rules at Limuru Country Club.

The golfer’s tee shot ended up in the rough in an area that had safari ants. The club’s Local Rules provide for relief under the immovable obstruction Rule.

The fellow competitor did not have a problem with the relief from the safari ants. Everyone who has had the misfortune standing in an area infested with these feisty little creatures knows how fast they may be forced to disrobe when a few manage to crawl up the legs and perform synchronised attacks.
The problem came after the player picked up the ball and dropped it in an area he considered to be the nearest point of relief.

The fellow competitor asked an all too common question; “how do I know where the ball was lying since you did not mark the position?”

For not marking the position of the ball before picking it up, the player was penalised two strokes by his fellow competitor. He accepted the penalty because he thought that the question was a valid one.

I have heard many seasoned golfers asking this question and it is invariably followed by a penalty stroke or two depending on how peeved the marker is.

The question also suggests that the player needs to get permission from the marker before they can take relief under a Rule that grants relief.

The Rules of Golf require that a player must mark the position of the ball before lifting it if they will replace the ball in the same position.

So if the player is picking the ball on the green or to identify it, they must mark its position before picking. However, this is not necessary in situations where the ball will not be replaced in the same position.

I see many golfers marking the positions of their golf balls before picking them up from ground under repair, immovable obstructions, young trees and many other places where they are entitled to relief.

It is good practice for one to mark the position of the nearest point of relief in order to have a reference point when dropping. This is, however, not a requirement.

If a player picks their ball from say ground under repair without marking the position of the ball or the nearest point of relief and proceed to drop it, there will be no penalty as long as the ball comes to rest and is played from a point that is within the allowable area. One does not need to get permission from anyone to do this but it is always a good idea to notify the people one is playing with.

I did not encounter any genie when I first visited Mombasa and all the subsequent times that I have visited the beautiful city.

I have not seen a Rule that requires one to mark the position of the ball in play before taking relief from ground under repair or immovable obstruction either.

These are both figments of fertile imagination.