What do they say about a little knowledge? The well-worn idiom will tell you it’s a “dangerous thing” and it’s often the case when it comes to the Rules of Golf.
How long can you wait to see if a ball overhanging the hole will drop? You all know the answer to this. It’s 10 seconds.
The internet rules officials also knew this, and it’s why Tommy Fleetwood’s birdie putt in the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club caused a bit of debate.
To recap. It was a 30-footer on the final Par 4, it looked in all the way and then hung precariously on the edge. Fleetwood, as you might expect, was as surprised as any it didn’t initially drop.
He made his way round to the back of the cup, gesticulated a little, the ball then dropped and there was delirium in the crowds. But some – with the 10 second timer fixed in their heads – felt otherwise. They argued he’d spent too long waiting for gravity to take effect.
You see? A little knowledge.
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Let’s talk about the bit everyone understands and then I’ll reveal the hidden bit – the insider information you’ve got to delve deep into the book to find.
Firstly, Rule 13.3a says if any part of a player’s ball overhangs the lip of the hole “the player is allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and ten more seconds to wait and see whether the ball will fall into the hole”.
If it goes in during this timeframe, the player has holed out. If it doesn’t, and then falls into the hole before it is played, the player has holed out but they add one penalty stroke for the hole.
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Some people with stopwatches – or pausing and rewinding the digital footage – estimated the entire scene with Fleetwood took some 30 seconds.
But rules chiefs saw nothing amiss and I’m going to try and explain why they reached that decision.
Ball overhanging golf rules: What is a reasonable time to reach the hole?
The key part in this situation isn’t the 10 seconds, or whether the ball was moving or oscillating, it’s the section in Rule 13.3a on “reasonable time”.
That rule, as written, leaves a rather large unanswered question – and one that’s open to a massive amount of interpretation.
What is a reasonable time to get to the hole?
By its very nature, it’s subjective but rules chiefs try to give you a hand in a Clarification to 13.3a.
Read this bit carefully.
“Determining the limits of a reasonable time to reach the hole depends on the circumstances of the stroke and includes time for a player’s natural or spontaneous reaction to the ball not going into the hole”.
That’s right, not only do you get time to walk to the hole if the ball’s hanging on the edge, you also get valuable seconds to rail against the apparent injustice of the putt not immediately dropping or the sensation that it could ever have stayed out in the first place.
And just how far this “reasonable time to reach the hole” situation can be taken is revealed in an example to the said clarification. It details a player who plays a shot from well off the putting green (this happens to me all the time on links courses).
The clarification says it can take the player several minutes to get to the hole, while other players all take their shots and then walk up. The 10 second waiting time only starts when the player reaches the hole.
What if you have to zigzag your way to the cup, fearful of standing in the line of other players? That’s all classed as reasonable time too.
So if you digest that Clarification you’ll understand it’s about far more than just 10 seconds or you’re out. You can laugh, you can cry, you can need a map to get to the hole if need be and it can all still be classed as “reasonable”.
Got a question for our expert?
Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
What do you make of this ball overhanging the hole golf rule? Let me you what you think by emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or by leaving us a comment on X.
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