When the Rules of Golf were changed on January 1, 2023, one of the biggest and most logical updates related to what happens when a ball moves while it’s on the green.
It used to be a penalty if a ball that was previously at rest began to move after being replaced on the green if it was addressed by the player. But fortunately for Gary Woodland and plenty of others at the 2024 Masters at Augusta National, that rule was changed and they can replace their ball on the original spot without penalty.
And here’s why.
Gary Woodland’s ball just blew 40 feet away on 16 at the Masters! pic.twitter.com/pdr5C5AMDJ
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) April 12, 2024
That’s on the 16th green, one well-known for players hitting it to the right side and high, and watching the ball funnel to the back-left pin placement on Sundays. You’re probably familiar with how much the ball can roll here from some guy in 2005 making a somewhat memorable bunker shot there.
But with the glass-like speed of the greens at Augusta National already, and wind speeds gusting as high as 44 MPH, we could see this all weekend. But as long as players mark their ball when it stops, and don’t replace until things die down a bit, there won’t be any issues with penalty strokes as we play the last 36 holes in the 88th edition of A Tradition Unlike Any Other.
