Golf Rules for 2019

I noticed during the play of the LPGA Tour stop in Evian, France, that Shenshen Feng putted with the flagstick in the hole -- all perfectly legal as we all know.  When she holed her ball and it was at rest against the flagstick, but not at the bottom of the hole, she always wiggled the flagstick to allow the ball to fall to the bottom.  She apparently didn't know (as my faithful readers do) that the ball is holed if the ball is touching the flagstick and any part of the ball is below the surface of the green (Rule 13.2c).  She could have simply removed the ball as it was suspended, resting against the flagstick. I know from personal experience that it is easier to remove the ball near the top of the hole, than it is to reach all the way down to the bottom of the hole. (from a Morbidly Obese (according to my Wii Fit) fellow golfer.

Aloha, this is courtesy of Gordon Cho. During a particularly windy 4 Ball stroke event, Partner A was on the green and putting.  His Partner B's coffee cup, which was in the shared cart, blew out and struck Partner A's ball as he putted, causing it to move off line.  No one knew what to do in this circumstance and Partner B went ahead and played the ball as it lay without penalty. Because the coffee cup belonged to his partner, should it have been considered equipment belonging to the partnership or would this be considered accidental movement of the ball on the green? A paper cup, having blown out of the cart was not anybody's equipment, it was an outside influence, thus t he answer lies . . . not in the wind, but in Rule 11.1b, Exception 2.  The stroke is cancelled and must be replayed.  When Player A putted from where his ball came to a stop, he played from a Wrong Place and should have incurred the General Penalty, or two strokes in this case.  Hopefully, h

Joe MacDonald (who was all over this) had an interesting call on the 18th hole at Kapolei during the USGA Amateur Qualifier this week.  After marking his ball on the back of the 18th green, the player tossed his ball to his caddy, who fumble-fingered as he was, dropped it and it rolled into the red penalty area next to the green.  They couldn't retrieve the ball, so the player substituted a new ball and placed it on the green.  Then the fun began as the players tried to figure out if a penalty was involved.  They all seemed to know that if you dropped a ball anywhere on the course, you could freely substitute a ball, but on the green?  Joe to the rescue.  Rule 14.2a requires a ball to be replaced on the green must be the original ball.  However, an exception to this rule says that if the original ball cannot be recovered with reasonable effort and in a few seconds, so long as the player did not deliberately cause the ball to become unrecoverable, another ball may be used.  Thus,