Some mornings start out a little bit better than others.
On Thursday, Jay Norman of White Bear Lake, Minn., had a tough start getting out of the gate. He hit a ball into the left greenside bunker on the first hole. His fellow competitor, Mike Diffley of Pelham Manor, N.Y. did the same. Norman’s ball was away, or so he thought. Norman hit the ball further away from the hole, exited the bunker and marked and lifted the ball on the green. At that point, he realized the ball he was holding was not his ball.
Norman told his walking referee of his situation. The referee advised the players to recreate the lie which the ball had prior to the stroke in the bunker and place the ball in that lie in the bunker. This is in accordance with Rule 20-3b.
Diffley was then able to play his own ball from the proper location and with the lie he had prior to Norman hitting his ball. Norman played his ball, which was still in the bunker, and incurred a two-stroke penalty for hitting a wrong ball (Rule 15-3). He ended up with a total score of 7 on the hole.