Failure to Hole Out- More Incidents

As stated in my last post, failure to hole out in stroke play competition invokes the penalty of disqualification. Many such breaches occur when the ball is nestling against the flagstick.
Jaiveer Singh, a tiny tot(less than 10 years old) making one of his first appearances in the Junior circuit in KGA had one such distressing incident. On the last hole,his ball, after a chip, was resting against the flag.He thought he had holed out, picked the ball and walked out of the Green.The fact that he walked out of the 18th Green was not established at the time when I was called and was apprised that the player had not holed out.I asked the player to correct his mistake as per R 17-4 and added a penalty of one stroke for lifting the ball. Later, eye witnesses including Vijay Divecha, one of the well known referee and coach,confirmed that the player had clearly left the 18th Green, after failing to hole out and the correction under R 17-4 was too late.. Under the circumstances,the committee had no choice but to disqualify him. The youngster was in tears as he missed out for one of the runner up prizes.
A more complicated variation of this incident recently took place at the Eastern India Juniors in Tollygunge, Kolkatta.On the last hole,Khalin Joshi's chip on the par 3 18th, was resting against the flag.His fellow competitor Rommel Majumdar ran in and picked up the ball.All the players left the Green.Shetty, tournament Director and I saw a part of the ball from a distance.When we questioned Rommel, he was sure the ball was below the lip of the ball. Khalin was not sure about the status.One of the committee members indicated that because of the sloping nature of the Green, a part of the ball could be visible, even if it is below the lip of the hole.Allen Singh, one of the famous names in Indian golf and now assisting IGU in grooming young talent, recreated the scene and convinced both the referees that a part of the ball could be seen, even if all of it is below the lip of the hole.The error of parallax saved Khalin from disqualification.
Khalin would have learned a valuable lesson.In the above case,in case of doubt about the ball being holed out, the correct procedure for Khalin would be to invoke R 17-4 and place the ball against the flag. There would have been no penalty as the fellow competitor Rommel who picked up the ball is an outside agency.