An interesting situation

[gbower]

I was at the PODS tournament in Tampa today and saw a player tee off on #1 and pull it way left into the trees. This was about 5 yards from where I was standing and myself and the spotter there saw where it came down. The player ended up hitting two more balls off the tee as I assume he didn't know if he'd find the first one. The second one I heard hit the trees deeeeep right and the third one was long down the centre. When the player and his caddie came up to check the ball he saw that it was unplayable with the possibility of no releif where he could hit with a penalty as there was a roadway and fence that he didn't know if it was OB or not. His first reaction was that it wasn't his ball until he realized he could take relief back about 30 yards and hit off the area near the roadway. Then he looked closer at the ball and identified it and then called for a rule official to do things properly. What would have happened if he didn't have an area of releif to play from and he just says that it isn't his ball but we had seen it come down??? I thought at first he was just going to walk to the one in the fairway. As it ended up he played it and doubled the hole but it was better than 5 off the tee.

[Kilroy]

"Not my ball", oh wait I get relief, "that's my ball".

Oh well, some mother's do have 'em.

[Indio]

"Not my ball", oh wait I get relief, "that's my ball".

Oh well, some mother's do have 'em.

Yup, I am living proof

[mpare]

Who was this paragon of virtue?

[Hacker]

Who was this paragon of virtue?

Sheesh it is waaaaaay too early to make a guy reach for his dictionary.....

[mpare]

[dhacker1956]

If the spotter saw it and that is his job to be there to verify such things then how could the player say it wasn't his. All the balls in his bag should be the same model and number with the same marking.. It would be difficlut to say that isn't mine when all the balls in his bag match it right down to the personal mark. I believe he would have been SOL.

[BC MIST]

If the spotter saw it and that is his job to be there to verify such things then how could the player say it wasn't his. All the balls in his bag should be the same model and number with the same marking.. It would be difficlut to say that isn't mine when all the balls in his bag match it right down to the personal mark. I believe he would have been SOL.

True, but Florida law states that an official must first get a search warrant to look at the other balls in his bag.

It is permissible for spectators, spotters, TV viewers and the like, to make the committee aware that an infraction of the rules may have taken place. With Gerry and the spotter having seen the same thing, and if both make a report together, then the player would have a little explaining to do. It would be interesting to see how he would dance around this one.

If he were to have said that it was not his ball, I would have picked it up and reported him and given the ball to a rules official on site. Tour players mark their golf balls distinctively and it would be interesting to see a rules official ask to look at one of his other balls to see if the markings were similar. Or, they could have gotten Horatio Cane and his CSI Miami team of forensics scientists and handwriting experts to take samples of the ink used on the balls for matching purposes.

[jbrace]

Sheesh it is waaaaaay too early to make a guy reach for his dictionary.....

Yeah, really. "Paragon of virtue"? That's hilarious!

Seriously though. Whoever that was, that bit of hijinx was not cool.

[gbower]

It would have been interesting if he had insisted that the ball wasn't his as I would have taken the ball out of the bush and somehow checked what was on it. As it would have been easy to check one of his other golf balls as he was spraying on every hole I should have been able to have a look at one or had the marshall get a rules official. Where it was was difficult for me to see a mark without getting right into the bush which at the time wasn't what I was willing to do as we just identified where the ball was.
Later on I saw this player take relief from a cart path and as I was on the other side of the green I couldn't tell if he did it correctly and the other two guys weren't even close to him as I think they were a bit ticked with continually waiting for him to find balls and hit out of trouble. When he got to the green I overheard a couple of spectators commenting that they didn't think he took proper relief. In the two holes that I saw him there were at least four times that he took either penalties or relief from a cart path. I was only really close to the one situation.

"These guys are good"

[sensfan63]

It would have been interesting if he had insisted that the ball wasn't his as I would have taken the ball out of the bush and somehow checked what was on it. As it would have been easy to check one of his other golf balls as he was spraying on every hole I should have been able to have a look at one or had the marshall get a rules official. Where it was was difficult for me to see a mark without getting right into the bush which at the time wasn't what I was willing to do as we just identified where the ball was.
Later on I saw this player take relief from a cart path and as I was on the other side of the green I couldn't tell if he did it correctly and the other two guys weren't even close to him as I think they were a bit ticked with continually waiting for him to find balls and hit out of trouble. When he got to the green I overheard a couple of spectators commenting that they didn't think he took proper relief. In the two holes that I saw him there were at least four times that he took either penalties or relief from a cart path. I was only really close to the one situation.

"These guys are good"

He's there, you're not...

(Comment void if player was a PGA section professional...aka club pro)

[Sphere Hunter]

It would have been interesting if he had insisted that the ball wasn't his as I would have taken the ball out of the bush and somehow checked what was on it. As it would have been easy to check one of his other golf balls as he was spraying on every hole I should have been able to have a look at one or had the marshall get a rules official. Where it was was difficult for me to see a mark without getting right into the bush which at the time wasn't what I was willing to do as we just identified where the ball was.
Later on I saw this player take relief from a cart path and as I was on the other side of the green I couldn't tell if he did it correctly and the other two guys weren't even close to him as I think they were a bit ticked with continually waiting for him to find balls and hit out of trouble. When he got to the green I overheard a couple of spectators commenting that they didn't think he took proper relief. In the two holes that I saw him there were at least four times that he took either penalties or relief from a cart path. I was only really close to the one situation.

"These guys are good"

Come on "G", tell us who it was.

"These guys are spoiled!"

SH

[BC MIST]

He's there, you're not...

(Comment void if player was a PGA section professional...aka club pro)

This guy is a PGA Tour winner.