Round 1 – Playing the Course As You Find It – The Back Nine

10) Before playing your ball from under a tree, you hook one tree branch that interfered with the backswing underneath another branch, improving the area of intended swing. Before the stroke, another player questions your actions. What is the ruling in stroke play?

11) In which one of the following situations are you not allowed to restore the original conditions under Rule 8.1d?

12) You attempt to lay up short of a penalty area fronting the green. While you are walking toward the penalty area, your caddie is lagging a bit behind and notices two large divot holes in the fairway and quickly repairs both by returning the divots that were left nearby into the divot holes. When your caddie catches up, you have learned the approach shot took an unfortunate bounce off a sprinkler head and ended up in the penalty area, so you decide to take penalty area relief under Rule 17.1d(2) (Back-on-the-Line Relief). You drop a ball near the reference line and it rolls back and to the left about two feet, coming to rest within the relief area established by where the ball hit the ground. You play the next stroke, and in doing so are standing on one of the large divots that your caddie had recently replaced. How many total penalty strokes do you get, if any?

13) Your ball comes to rest in bounds but very close to a large boundary stake. Before playing, you remove the stake from behind your ball, improving the area of intended swing. When you removed the stake, the stake broke into two pieces (one piece is about a foot long and the other is about 3 feet long). Before the stroke, another player questions your actions. What is the ruling in stroke play?

14) Before playing the ball from the general area, you notice that your left foot for the intended stance would be in a deep divot hole. You find the divot from that hole and improve the intended stance by replacing it in the hole. You then decide to play in a different direction and the new stance is unaffected by your previous actions. At that point, another player questions your actions. What is the ruling in stroke play?

15) Your ball comes to rest in a position where there are various artificial objects on your line of play. Most objects are movable obstructions but a sponsor sign has been defined as a temporary immovable obstruction by the Committee. Without any instruction, but while you are watching and waiting for the green to clear, another player removes a number of the objects believing that they are in your way, including a directional sign, some roping and staking and the sponsor sign, which you and the other player both believe to be a movable obstruction. You then make your stroke to the green. What is the ruling?

16) True or False: Your ball is embedded in its own pitch-mark in the fringe just off the putting green. After lifting the ball and before taking relief, you tap down the pitch-mark to care for the course and then realize the repair of the pitch-mark could help you if the ball came to rest in a position where you might have to play through it. The dropped ball hits and comes to rest in the relief area and you play a low running chip shot directly over the repaired pitch-mark. You get the general penalty under Rule 8.1a for improving your conditions affecting the stroke.

17) In Four-Ball stroke play, your ball comes to rest in the fringe between the putting green and a bunker. Your partner’s ball comes to rest in the bunker behind your ball. Your partner plays from the bunker and deposits sand on and around your ball. Which one of the following is correct?

18) True or False: Your ball comes to rest in the fairway with a worm cast immediately behind the ball. Before playing the ball, you press down the cast, improving your lie and area of intended swing. You get no penalty.