The Fitness Caddie Blog: “The Lip”

I can’t believe my fifth year as a high school golf coach has just wrapped up!  Seems like this season went by really fast, and it was definitely another eventful one.  I had a great group of golfers this year and am so proud of all the hard work they put in!  But with the close of every season, there are always lessons to be learned.  One theme that reared it’s ugly head one too many times the past 3 months was the amount of cheating and rule violations I witnessed during matches and in the post season!  In 20 years of competitive golf, it’s not the first time this has happened, I think any golfer can attest that you will run across it at some point.  I remember a few times in high school when cheating happened (oh my gosh I just realized my 10 year reunion is this year, uggh!)  Now that I have had the chance to be a coach though, I find it pretty amazing how quickly I can pick out the players that are trying to sneak one by.  Here’s a little recap of my favorites!

• A coach informing me before the match that the number one player was a cheater and I needed to have my best scorer with her (call me crazy, but should she really be playing then?)
• This same girl trying to convince my player to take more penalty strokes then was necessary
• Players forgetting that it’s a penalty stroke when your ball goes in a hazard
• These same players trying to make their point of entry 50 yards closer to the pin then it was
• And my favorite, winter rules, aka the 6 inch rule, or as I now call it after watching so many golfers this season fluff the grass up before placing the ball back: the lift, clean and cheat rule!

So with this subject on my mind today, I wanted to pass along this great video I found on one of my former junior golf opponents blog, Wei Under Par.  It’s Michelle Wie trying to argue a clear rules violation…….I guess the nonsense isn’t just happening at the high school level!

Michelle Wie Babbles for 12 Minutes to Appeal Penalty from Stephanie Wei on Vimeo.

If the Rules of golf did not seem complicated as it is, here is a rules question that will have you turning the pages of the USGA manual trying to figure out the answer…………

Here’s the scenario:
A golfer is on the putting green, about 8 feet from the cup using a traditional mallet putter. They address the ball, and begin to take their putting stroke. But as they go to make contact with the ball, the putter ends up topping the ball. This is not a normal topped putt though, the putter continues to have contact with the ball until the stroke is finished and the golfer ends up making the putt. The stroke ends up being the equivalent of placing your putter on top of the ball and rolling the ball from there.

The question:
Is this allowed? Or is it considered a double hit thus needing to add a penalty stroke? Technically the putter only had contact with the ball once, it was just continuous contact.