Her Cup Pulleth Out

If a player's worst nightmare is flubbing a shot before a gallery, then the caddie's equivalent is costing a player a penalty. Eunhae Kang can tell you from experience that there is nothing worse than suddenly having everyone stare at you, wondering if your actions will mean disaster for your player.

Kang had enjoyed an uneventful week as a caddie at the 99th U.S. Women's Amateur last month, and a wonderful week as mother of a player who reached the 36-hole final. When her daughter, Jimin, faced a 50-foot birdie putt at the first hole against Dorothy Delasin and wanted the flagstick attended, Mrs. Kang stood at the ready. But as the ball rolled toward the hole, Mrs. Kang tried to remove the flagstick — only to realize it was stuck. She pulled hard, then harder still, and with the ball approaching quickly she gave one last yank. The flagstick came out of the hole, but so did the plastic liner, which landed on the green blocking the hole.

The ball scooted well past, narrowly missing the plastic liner. In a hasty reaction, Mrs. Kang grabbed the liner and began stuffing it back into place. The referee of the match stopped her in mid-motion, and for a few minutes the liner protruded above the turf until the golf course superintendent arrived with the tool used to set the liner at least an inch below the surface.

Mrs. Kang's worst fear — that Jimin's ball striking the hole-liner would cost her a loss-of-hole penalty, or two strokes in stroke play — would not have come true. There is no penalty. But what does happen if the ball strikes the hole-liner?

The hole-liner is an outside agency, which by definition "is any agency not part of the match." Examples of outside agencies include yardage markers, maintenance vehicles and even spectators. The application of Rule 19-1, covering a ball in motion deflected or stopped by any outside agency, would turn on whether the hole-liner itself was moving when the ball struck it. As the rule states, if a ball in motion is accidentally deflected or stopped by any outside agency, it is a rub of the green. No penalty is incurred and the ball shall be played as it lies, except when a ball is in motion after a stroke on the putting green and is deflected or stopped by a moving outside agency. In that case, the stroke is canceled, the ball replaced and the stroke replayed.

Clarification of the application of Rule 19-1 appears in a decision under Rule 17, which covers the flagstick. What happens if there is uncertainty over whether the hole-liner was moving when the ball struck it? Decision 17/8 explains that, in case of doubt, the hole-liner is considered not to be moving and the ball is played as it lies.

What would have happened had Kang's ball been on target, avoided the hole-liner on the green and fallen into the unlined hole? Decision 17/7 states that the player incurs no penalty and the ball is holed, because the hole need not have a lining.

When play resumed, Jimin missed the 15-foot comeback putt for par and lost the hole to Delasin, who would ultimately prove victorious. Although they were disappointed with the outcome, the Kangs chuckled over the episode at the first green.

— Kendra Graham

The author is the USGA's director of women's competitions.