Can I let my partners hold up a branch while I play a shot?

You name it and I’ve definitely been there. It’s a standing joke among some of my pals that if there is a bunker in the vicinity my ball will find it like some sort of sand-seeking missile.

Right behind a tree, stuck halfway up a gorse bush, buried within a crown of thorns, I’ve negotiated it all. I’m sure many of you are also nodding your heads in recognition.

So I’d like to think I have a bit of knowledge when it comes to obstacles on the golf course and how the rules apply. Enter this email scenario:

“During a round of golf a friend’s ball was in a clump of brambles. I and another player pulled the bramble to the side and held it there, without moving the ball, so he could play the shot. We did not break or uproot the bramble. Penalty?”

What’s the verdict? I think you might be able to guess the answer, but let’s send it upstairs to the golfing VAR for the final confirmation…

Golf ball in a bush rule: Be careful about moving branches and brambles

This isn’t football, but we could be looking at penalties all round.

Let’s start with the players holding the bramble in place. Here’s a rule some of you may not have seen before. It’s Rule 8.3 and it covers a “player’s deliberate actions to alter physical conditions to affect another player’s ball at rest or stroke to be made by that other player”.

Rule 8.3b says a player must not “improve or worsen the conditions affecting the stroke of another player”. There are some limited exceptions but is that what’s happening here?

If that bramble is attached, and we can probably assume it is because it’s being held, if it’s improving conditions affecting the stroke it is a problem because moving a growing or attached natural object is outlawed in Rule 8.1a (1).

Those conditions apply not only to the lie of the ball at rest but also to the area of the player’s intended stance and swing as well as their line of play.

So it doesn’t matter that the bramble wasn’t broken or uprooted. It’s been moved. If that’s improving said conditions then those players are in bother.

Now let’s get to the player who took the shot. This is worth repeating so let’s say it again. Rule 8.1a says a player must not certain take actions if they improve the conditions of the stroke and moving, bending or breaking a growing or attached natural object is one of those.

Some of you may try and argue they didn’t – that it was the partners who may have been doing that.

Nice try. But here’s how the shot-taker can get skewered. A clarification to Rule 8.3 spells it out.

It says if a player asks, authorises or allows another player to deliberately alter physical conditions to improve their play “the player acting on the request will get the general penalty under Rule 8.3, and the player who requests, authorises or allows the improvement will also get the general penalty”.

I always think general penalty is a meek way of describing a pretty savage sanction. For a breach, everyone involved in stroke play would be adding two strokes to their score.

That’s quite the punishment for shifting a bramble.

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. Get in touch with your questions by emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com

What do you think about this golf ball in a bush rule? You can also let me know by leaving a comment on X.

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