Golf Deflected Balls

If your moving ball is deflected or stopped by an outside agency you have to accept it as the rub of the green. Playing the ball as it lies is often to your advantage. The most common deflection is when a ball strikes a spectator in professional tournaments. Occasionally the ball ends in a spot worse than it would have done without the deflection, but usually it finds a better lie.

However it finishes, you must play the ball as it lies. There are just a couple of exceptions. If a ball comes to rest on an outside agency which then moves it the ball should be dropped or - on the putting green - replaced. Make the drop as near as possible to the spot where the outside agency was when the ball hit it. This includes the spectator who moves away with the ball in the hood of a duffle coat or the dog who runs off with a ball. If a ball putted on a green is deflected or moved by an outside agency, you should replace the ball and replay the stroke.

Side deflection
If your moving ball is accidentally deflected by yourself, your partner, your caddie or your equipment, you lose the hole in match play and are penalized 2 strokes in stroke play.

If your ball is accidentally stopped or deflected by your opponent, his equipment or his caddie, there is no penalty. You may either count the stroke or play the ball as it lies, or cancel the stroke and replay it. If you choose to replay drop the ball as near as possible to where it lay. If it was on the tee you can tee it up again and if it lay on the green you can place it.