Rules of Golf explained: What happens if my fourball partner plays the wrong ball?

If you’ve ever taken part in a summer or winter fourball competition, David Cook’s email may well resonate with you.

“I have just finished playing our club 4BBB final,” he wrote. “On the tee of the 11th hole me and my partner were 1-down. 

“My partner played his second shot with the wrong ball – it was a stray ball that he mistakenly took for his own. I won the hole.

“However, when it was realised that my partner had played the wrong ball, we didn’t know the ruling. We phoned our club pro, who said he was 95% certain that it was loss of hole for us, so we were 2-down rather than level. We played the rest of the match believing that we were 2-down after the 11th. What is the correct ruling?”

Rules of Golf explained: Does a penalty apply to both partners in fourball?

This once happened to me – long before I began my journey into the Rules – and I believed the penalty applied to both partners in the side. I was wrong.

Rule 23.9a (1), which looks at penalties other than disqualification in fourball play, states that when a player picks up the general penalty in match play – as is the case for playing a wrong ball – their score can’t count for the side.

“But this penalty has no effect on the partner, who may continue to play for the side on that hole.”

Rule 23.9a (2) outlines three situations where a player’s penalty also applies to a partner: when they breach the limit of 14 clubs, shared, added, or replaced clubs; when the player’s breach helps their partner’s play; and, in match play, when a player’s breach hurts an opponent’s play.

But this situation is not one of them. In fact, it’s expressly stated as an exception. It says that a player who makes a stroke a wrong ball is “not treated as having helped [their] partner’s play or hurt opponent’s play”.

So, to repeat, while David’s partner gets the general penalty for playing the wrong ball, which is a breach of Rule 6.3c, that penalty doesn’t affect David.

The exception states that this is true “whether the ball played as a wrong ball belongs to the partner, an opponent, or anyone else”.

If you’re playing a format with slightly different rules to individual stroke play, make sure you take a look through Rule 23 on fourballs and Rule 22 on foursomes and familiarise yourselves with the differences.

Have a question for our Rules of Golf expert?

Despite the simplification of the Rules of Golf at the beginning of 2019, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. And as I’ve passed the R&A’s Level 3 rules exam with distinction, I’ll try to help by featuring the best in this column.

Have a question for our Rules of Golf expert?

Despite the simplification of the Rules of Golf at the beginning of 2019, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. And as I’ve passed the R&A’s Level 3 rules exam with distinction, I’ll try to help by featuring the best in this column.