putting rule?

Question
If two balls are on the green,the furthest away putts first,right?if the other players ball is not marked, and the 1'st putter hit's there ball, and happens to knock the ball in the cup. How should this be scored? just while i,a,m here,if the ball is chipped from the fringe, what's the ruling on that ? just wondering this happened just last week, and we both wanted to know the difference. thanks for your time JOE....

Answer
Hi Joe,

There are two sets of rules. One for stroke play and one for match play. In stroke play, every shot counts and a player's total strokes determines the end result against the rest of the field. In match play, two players play against one another on a hole by hole basis. A player wins the hole whether he beats the other by one stroke or any number of strokes. The total score of the player for the round does not matter.

In both stroke play and match play, the player farthest from the pin is away, regardless of whether any player is on the green. So, a player could be on the fringe, 20 feet away, while the other player is 40 feet from the hole, and on the green; the player 40 feet is away.

Many times in stroke play, the player off the green chips on first, even though he is not technically away. Not an issue. In match play, if a player plays out of turn, he can be asked to replay his shot. The person farthest from the hole is always away and has the call.

So, your example of hiting a ball into the cup. In stroke play, when putting from the green, if your ball hits another ball or the flagstick, you incur a 2 stroke penalty. The other player's ball must be taken out of the hole and placed back where it was (in stroke play, your deemed to be playing the rest of the field, so you cannot have an advantage).

In match play, the player putting has control over the other ball. He can request that the ball be marked and removed, or marked and left. There is no penalty for hitting your opponent's ball. So, you could use the ball to deflect off on and into the hole. However, in your case, the putter's ball hit the other ball into the hole. The owner of that ball just holed his ball without counting a stroke.

In chipping onto the green, if a ball hits another ball, the ball that was hit should be replaced back to where it was before being hit. The other ball is played as it lies from wherever it ended up.

Hope this helps.

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Best regards,
Ken Tannar