Maybe some of can help me with a problem I had.
I finally got out to play a round after a long lay off.On the 7th hole I was putting for bird.The ball was going at the hole.A dog that was was following us ran across the green picked the ball up and took off with it.I never have heard of this happening.What does the rules say on this one?

Shoot the dog first, and then re-play the putt. No penalty as long as it wasn't your dog you shot.

Yep...replay free of charge...plus you got the advantage of seeing how your line and speed was working...so you got a free look at it..Hope you made it count on the next one!

That's what I did.And no I missed but did par.Thanks
After awhile it was funny.My son laughed about it the rest of the round.

I assume you followed the dog and recovered your ball on the hole. The reason I mention this is that you get a 2 stroke penality if you don't finish the whole with the same ball. Since you mentioned that you got a par, I can only assume you used the same ball. Don't you just love this fool game. You have a dog steal your ball, and Scott almost has his cart stolen by a craxy squirrel. What a game this is.

He dropped it . I must have missed the post about Scott's squirrel problem.

How could you mis the squirrel post???? You gotta go check out how that round turned out...


Don, you're joking on that 2 stroke thing......right? otherwise we're all due 2 strokes when we dunk one in the water...

No I'm not. This came up last year when a golfer tossed his ball to his caddy, and it went over his head and fell into a pond. The caddy had to go get the ball so the golfer wouldn't get a penality for not finishing the hole with the same ball. Not sure if it was one or two stroke penality, but it was a penality for sure.

Well, I think in that case, since it was he and/or his caddie that was involved, that's different. If an outside agency, like an animal moves/takes your ball you are to put another in play as close as possible to where the old one was. Here's a cut from a Golf Digest article:

Rule 18-1 says that if a ball is moved by an outside agency (anyone or anything that isn't involved in your round, caddies excluded), the ball must be replaced at the spot where it was moved, without penalty. If the ball can't be found, but you know it was taken by an outside agency, you must put a different one in play.


So if the animal takes the ball, you put another one in play. Now if the ball was moved - or lost - by the player or caddie, then that's different.

Least that's my take on it.

Thx for the input.

And I was only joking about shooting the dog too. Making a little fun and trying to liven up the place with a little humor.

Wow, in the same week, we've had a lot of animal traffic here...Don and Dogs and me and squirrels.....what's next? Bill and Gecko's?

And I'm sure someone got a Birdie to add to the animal farm.

jrlove, Scott is correct.

In the case of the player throwing the ball over the caddies head into the water; all that was, the player threw thier ball in the water and they would incur a two stroke penalty if they didn't play out the hole with the original ball, so the caddie, or the player, would have to retreive the ball.

BTW, No geckos this year, I'm in South Dakota and Wyoming, which is deer, elk, and pronghorn country.

Does the rule book say anything about animal hazzards? When I lived in South Carolina, I had a drive that ended up right next to a 8-9 foot gator. I took a drop about 30 feet away, as their was no way I was going to try hitting that one. I dont expect I took a penalty stroke either. I think the fear factor was enough of a penalty.

Did the above mentioned reptile interfer with your swing or stance?
If not, you should take two strokes for using this extremely minor incident as creative avoidance.

Chief. Bill is just giving you a hard time with this one. Truth is you can take releif from the little gator with no penality. Not sure what the distance requirements are, but should be able to find that in the UGSA website.

Dogs, squirrels, gators,geckos and Bill. This is getting fun

Sorry to have to tell you Chief, but you get no relief from Bill. Unlike that gator, Bill's not dangerous, only seems that way at times.