golf swing tips
Friday, May 21, 2004
club head accidentally hit the ball
golf swing tips
Q: I was doing a practice stroke on the tee box of a certain hole and the club head accidentally hit the ball, moving it about 10 feet. My playing partner said that wasa penalty. I thought there was no penalty since I hadn'tteed off yet. Who's right? -- John E., Manila, Philippines
A: You are right. There is no penalty.
|Here are the two pertinent definitions:
1. Stroke: A "stroke" is the forward movement of the clubmade with the intention of fairly striking at and movingthe ball.
2. Ball in Play: A ball is "in play" as soon as a playerhas made a stroke on the teeing ground. So since you didnot make a stroke (you had no intention) and since theball was not in play (the ball was on the teeing groundand you had not yet made a stroke), you incur no penalty.Simply start over. The situation would be different ifthe ball was in play (for example, on a second shot). Inthat case you would incur a penalty for moving a ball inplay, and it would have to be replaced.
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Jack Nicklaus' sons, Jack II, Gary, Michael and Steve, were-n't all that successful playing golf as a business (althoughGary got his PGA Tour card and nearly won the 2000 BellSouthClassic, losing a sudden death playoff to Phil Mickelson),but they fit right in with Jack Sr.'s other business --Nicklaus Design. The four boys (as well as Nicklaus' son-in-law Bill O'Leary) are all design associates for Jack's com-pany, which maps out golf courses all over the planet. Theyare all darn good at it, too. In fact, last year both Garyand Steve designed courses that were named among the top 10new private courses in the United States. Every golf fan hasheard of Nicklaus' playing prowess (18 professional majors),but he has also operated a hugely successful design businesssince 1966, with 262 courses open for play around the world.
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The USGA has been running golf tournaments for more than 100years, but in 2003 it crowned both the youngest and oldestwinners ever for its adult championships. In June, 13-year-old Michelle Wie of Honolulu captured the U.S. Women'sAmateur Public Links, 1 up over Virada Nirapathpongporn atOcean Hammock Golf Club in Palm Cost, Fla., to become theyoungest player ever to win an adult USGA event. And at theage of 69, Canadian Marlene Streit became the oldest whenshe won the Senior Women's Amateur Championship at BartonCreek Resort and Club in Austin, Texas, in September. Wiealso recorded a ninth place finish at an LPGA major champ-ionship, the Dinah Shore. But just how good the currentcrop of junior girls is was evidenced at the 2003 U.S.Girls' Junior Championship where, in spite of her accom-plishments against the adults, Wie did not even make itto the semi-finals against her fellow teenagers. Streitjoined Jack Nicklaus as the only other person to win USGAchampionships in at least four different decades. This isremarkable when you consider that none of her victoriesoccurred in the 1960s and '70s. Her first USGA champion-ship came at the age of 22 in the 1956 Women's Amateur.She won again in the '80s, '90s and 2000s.
golf swing tips
Q: I was doing a practice stroke on the tee box of a certain hole and the club head accidentally hit the ball, moving it about 10 feet. My playing partner said that wasa penalty. I thought there was no penalty since I hadn'tteed off yet. Who's right? -- John E., Manila, Philippines
A: You are right. There is no penalty.
|Here are the two pertinent definitions:
1. Stroke: A "stroke" is the forward movement of the clubmade with the intention of fairly striking at and movingthe ball.
2. Ball in Play: A ball is "in play" as soon as a playerhas made a stroke on the teeing ground. So since you didnot make a stroke (you had no intention) and since theball was not in play (the ball was on the teeing groundand you had not yet made a stroke), you incur no penalty.Simply start over. The situation would be different ifthe ball was in play (for example, on a second shot). Inthat case you would incur a penalty for moving a ball inplay, and it would have to be replaced.
|||||||||||||||||
Jack Nicklaus' sons, Jack II, Gary, Michael and Steve, were-n't all that successful playing golf as a business (althoughGary got his PGA Tour card and nearly won the 2000 BellSouthClassic, losing a sudden death playoff to Phil Mickelson),but they fit right in with Jack Sr.'s other business --Nicklaus Design. The four boys (as well as Nicklaus' son-in-law Bill O'Leary) are all design associates for Jack's com-pany, which maps out golf courses all over the planet. Theyare all darn good at it, too. In fact, last year both Garyand Steve designed courses that were named among the top 10new private courses in the United States. Every golf fan hasheard of Nicklaus' playing prowess (18 professional majors),but he has also operated a hugely successful design businesssince 1966, with 262 courses open for play around the world.
|||||
The USGA has been running golf tournaments for more than 100years, but in 2003 it crowned both the youngest and oldestwinners ever for its adult championships. In June, 13-year-old Michelle Wie of Honolulu captured the U.S. Women'sAmateur Public Links, 1 up over Virada Nirapathpongporn atOcean Hammock Golf Club in Palm Cost, Fla., to become theyoungest player ever to win an adult USGA event. And at theage of 69, Canadian Marlene Streit became the oldest whenshe won the Senior Women's Amateur Championship at BartonCreek Resort and Club in Austin, Texas, in September. Wiealso recorded a ninth place finish at an LPGA major champ-ionship, the Dinah Shore. But just how good the currentcrop of junior girls is was evidenced at the 2003 U.S.Girls' Junior Championship where, in spite of her accom-plishments against the adults, Wie did not even make itto the semi-finals against her fellow teenagers. Streitjoined Jack Nicklaus as the only other person to win USGAchampionships in at least four different decades. This isremarkable when you consider that none of her victoriesoccurred in the 1960s and '70s. Her first USGA champion-ship came at the age of 22 in the 1956 Women's Amateur.She won again in the '80s, '90s and 2000s.
golf swing tips
