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 the 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, his partner scored well enough it wouldn't matter for the team score.

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