Hi Everyone,
Johanna or Ron I need a ruling from a 'Rules Official' please.
Last night I played a team foursomes matchplay for my Club.
My partner picked up our ball on a green without marking it.
I called it as a one stroke penalty, the ball was replaced in the correct place and he holed out.
A discussion ensued as to whether it should have been loss of hole.
I showed our opponents page 74 of the R&A Rule book.
Rule 18-2. a. General - start of para 3 in blue - 'the players incurs a penalty of one stroke'
Could you confirm that I was right, it is only a one shot penalty and not loss of hole - the wrangle continued for the remainder of the match and after.
Cheers,
Michael.

Good morning Michael,

You are absolutely right, it is only 1 penalty stroke. Show your opponent Rule 20-1.

Hope this makes your day!

Johanna

Where do you play golf Toxandria, the Netherlands

Hi Johanna,
Thanks for that.
I showed our opponents the very page with the Rule in print, and they still refused to accept it. But they were so strong in their conviction, that I started to wonder if I had missed something (which would not be unusual for me).
And as you might guess that one hole became key to the match.
Thanks again,
Michael.

HI Michael,
I just picked up your question this morning, and was beaten to the post by Johanna.

Your opponents were obviously of the opinion that ANY penalty in MP is an automatic loss of hole to the side. It only applies to a BREACH of a rule,unless otherwise stated as in R18-2a, R20-1,(1SP) etc. Hopefully they now know diffrerently.

Just for completeness, as you are probably aware,any penalty of loss of hole in Foursomes MP is applied to the "side", as would have been the case had the ball not been replaced, as opposed to a 4Ball,(MP/SP) where the penalty only applies to the player who committed the breach, unless there was collusion between them. Regards, Ron.