Over the course of a year, Todd Stice estimates the USGA receives upwards of 20,000 rules questions, either via phone call, email or the Rules of Golf app. Many of them are fairly common according to the association’s manager of rules, content and education: How do you determine the nearest point of complete relief from an immovable obstruction, like a cart path? (Roughly 10 percent of all questions deal with Rule 16.1, the most commonly queried rule.) Or how do you take relief from a red penalty area compared to a yellow penalty area (Rule 17.1)?
“We have a copy and paste type of thing we do because we get the same question a lot,” Stine says.
But not all questions the USGA received in 2025 had a simple straight-forward answer. Among Stice’s favorites was an inquiry the rules department got regarding a golfer hitting an alligator in its forehead, with the ball ricocheting into a water hazard/penalty area. Could the woman who hit the ball drop on the gator side of the penalty area or must she hit a ball from the other side?
“They sent us a picture of the gator,” Stice laughed, while then explaining that the issue here (and with many questions) requires establishing facts that only the golfers can provide. In this instance, Stine says he offered four rulings depending on the possibility the ball was in the penalty area or not and where it ultimately came to rest.
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There were two particularly unusual questions that did have enough facts for Stice and the USGA to offer a ruling that stood out to the rules expert as memorable. Here’s the first:
Match play. Player A hits tee shot. Can’t find it. Goes back to tee and elects to hit third shot from tee. The players eventually get to green. Player B hits a putt. Behind them a golfer in the group behind thinks they found player A’s original ball. They decide the best course of action is to hit it back to him. The ball they hit back lands on player B’s ball while in motion two feet from hole. What does Player B do in this situation?
“I remember this one saying, Did this really happen? This is crazy,” Stice said. “At first I thought this was going to be a lost ball question.” After stopping to appreciate the weird improbability of the entire incident, Stice explained how the players should have proceeded.
“The way the rules work and the way we answer them, once we get a fact, the rule is pretty straight forward. The fact here is a player took a stroke on the putting green, the ball was in motion, and an outside influence came in and deflected it. OK, so that’s simple: It’s just going to be cancel and replay. Because a ball in motion is considered a movable obstruction and the rule specifically says if your ball hits a moveable obstruction, we’re going to replay that stroke … a stroke from the putting green.
“The story just kind of builds up to a crazy situation but the answer is just that you replay it. The stroke never counted.”
And what if the question was about Player A’s ball being found? Stice has an answer here, saying that when the player puts a ball in play, depending on what area of the course this is happening, the original ball is out of play. “So in this situation, since he was replaying a tee shot the ball he was replaying was the second ball, he made a stroke from the teeing area so that original ball becomes out of play.”
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Arguably this wasn’t the weirdest rules question Stice encountered this past year. He also shared this other one that involved another rule that gets many questions (Rule 9.4/Ball at Rest Moved by Player):
My buddy and I were partners in a four-ball match, and he shanked a shot from the fairway straight out of bounds. I ran over to mockingly chest bump him and when I did I accidentally kicked my own ball, is that a penalty?
“This is pretty funny,” Stice says. “I was just visualizing the guy going up for the chest bump and then coming down on the top of his ball.”
Unfortunately, Stice didn’t have good news for the partners. “This is a little bit of gas on the fire for the side because you know, there was a penalty here. Even though it’s an accidental motion, he caused his ball to move in the fairway.”
Interestingly, though, Stice notes that had this happened in the teeing area or the putting green it would have been no penalty, as the rules are more lenient in those areas of the course.
Long story short: Next time you’re sarcastically giving your playing partner a chest bump, just be aware you’re doing it.
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I hit myself with my own ball. Is that a penalty anymore?
What exactly is an embedded ball?
Touching the green to see if it’s wet: Penalty or no?
I hit a horrible shot. I’m way better off if I don’t find it. Can I just declare it lost?
Does a ball have to be unplayable to declare it unplayable?
I accidentally hit my ball with a practice stroke … does it count?
I’m on the green. My opponent is not. Who’s away?
I bent my putter and it actually works better. Can I still use it?
Somebody just picked up my golf ball! Now what?
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
