Your Turn To Do The Math

Maria Kostina was having some trouble on the 17^th hole. She hit her third shot and thought it could be out of bounds. She, properly, made her announcement and hit a provisional ball. It looks like it could be out of bounds as well. She makes another announcement, hit a second provisional and it was in good shape on the green.

The first two balls were found to be out of bounds. She proceeded to two-putt with the ball on the green. What is her score on the hole?

Pat Newmark of California was there to help with the math. Decision 27-2a/4 is helpful for us in this situation. It’s not quite exact but it does give us some guidelines. It tells us that each ball bears a relationship only to the previous ball played. Therefore, Maria’s score on the hole is a 10. When her third provisional ball became the ball in play it was under a penalty of stroke and distance to the previous provisional ball, which was under stroke and distance to the original ball. Therefore she laid eight when her ball was on the green. The two putts made it a 10.

Phew!

Wendy Uzelac

USGA Director of Regional Affairs, Midwest Region