Rules Guy,
Playing in a tournament, my partner had a downhill shot from a bunker. He shanked the shot and his ball hit me in the shin, bounced on the green and into the hole. Was that a birdie or not?
Phil Dupont, via Facebook
Unfortunately, that shot does not count as a birdie, but, believe it or not, it does still count. According to Rule 19-2, if a player's ball is accidentally deflected or stopped by his partner, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke and must then play the ball as it lies. In this case, the ball lies in the hole, so your partner made an (accidental) par. Keep in mind that you've had a bit of luck, since this Rule was actually changed relatively recently. Prior to 2008, this would have cost your partner two strokes in stroke play, or the loss of the hole for both of you in a match play event. You're also fortunate that the USGA rescinded the controversial "HORSE Rule" in 2005, which would have cost you the hole unless your partner called a bank shot.
 

Rules Guy,
Playing in a tournament, my partner had a downhill shot from a bunker. He shanked the shot and his ball hit me in the shin, bounced on the green and into the hole. Was that a birdie or not?
– Phil Dupont, via Facebook
Unfortunately, that shot does not count as a birdie, but, believe it or not, it does still count. According to Rule 19-2, if a player's ball is accidentally deflected or stopped by his partner, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke and must then play the ball as it lies. In this case, the ball lies in the hole, so your partner made an (accidental) par.
Keep in mind that you've had a bit of luck, since this Rule was changed relatively recently. Prior to 2008, this would have cost your partner two strokes in stroke play, or the loss of the hole for both of you in a match play event. You're also fortunate that the USGA rescinded the controversial "HORSE Rule" in 2005, which would have cost you the hole unless your partner called a bank shot.
 

WHO: Hunter Mahan
WHAT: 43-foot putt from just short of the green to 11 inches
WHERE: 320-yard par-4 15th hole at Dove Mountain
WHEN: Championship match of the WGC-Accenture Match Play
Two years ago at the Ryder Cup, Mahan choked by flubbing a chip from an almost identical position as he had at the 15th hole in the final at the Match Play. In a singles duel against Graeme McDowell that would decide the Cup, Mahan was just off the green and in a little swale at the 17th hole. Mahan chose to chip the shot, but he hit it so poorly that his ball didn't even reach the green. McDowell won the match, Europe won the Cup and Mahan was devastated.
 
At 15 on Sunday, Mahan, who's been working hard to improve his short game, wisely used his putter, effectively taking the flub and skull opportunities out of play. McIlroy had driven his ball onto the green and was putting for eagle, so Mahan, clinging to a 2-up lead, needed to equal McIlroy's almost certain birdie. Mahan deftly rolled his ball to tap-in range, and he closed out McIlroy on the next hole.
 
THE DRILL: Most people hit little shots around the green with their hands and arms, but doing that easily causes flubs because you're prone to losing control of the club. Instead, keep the hands quiet, and hit short shots primarily with your body turn, allowing the body turn to bring the club down to and through impact. During impact, you should feel like you're rotating your chest toward the target.
 
To practice short chips, pick a spot a few inches ahead of the ball. Place a coin or a tee in that spot. When hitting, focus your eyes on the coin or tee. Doing that will help you do two things: 1) hit down with a strong body turn, rather than flailing your arms at the ball, and 2) contact the ball first, then the turf.
Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Jim Suttie teaches at The Club at TwinEagles in Naples, Fla.
 

SAND SWEEPER
Here's a 'sand on the green' question that came up last Sunday. What is the proper way to remove the sand from the putting line without being called for testing the condition of the green?
– Jim Dolliver, via Facebook
These days, super-tough greenside bunkers can let a few hackers turn the green into the beach in a matter of hours. Luckily, you have some recourse. The definition of "loose impediments" clearly states that "sand and loose soil are loose impediments on the putting green, but not elsewhere." This means that, so long as you're on the putting surface, you can treat sand just like you would rocks, leaves or twigs, which is to say that you can move them without penalty.
Rule 16-1a (i) does make it clear, however, that when removing a loose impediment from your line of putt, you may not press anything down into the green, and 16-1d forbids you from "roughening or scraping" the surface of the green (which refers to your question about testing the condition of the green). So, to put it more succinctly, feel free to sweep away the sand, but sweep carefully.
 

• Got a Rules question? Zip it to rulesguy@golf.com
CART CLIMBER
Rules Guy: My home course is lined with large, prickly bushes. I hit my drive into one of them and found the ball cradled gingerly on the outside of the bush, almost begging to be swung at. The problem? It was four feet in the air. Thinking quickly, I called my buddy over in the golf cart and climbed on top. I didn't get much on my next shot, but it beat taking a drop. When my friend stopped laughing he told me there's no way what I did was legal, but I figured there's no way there's a rule against it. Is there?
– Stephen C., via e-mail
While you may have felt like Sir Edmund Hillary, you're not the first man to scale a golf cart. As weird as your situation was, the Rules of Golf still have it covered, although you're going to wish they didn't. According to Decision 13-3/5, using your golf cart as a ladder is considered building a stance, which violates Rule 13-3. You should have taken a 2-stroke penalty for your mistake. Sure you've got the story to tell, but in this case you would have saved a stroke by taking the drop and skipping the Tarzan impression.
MATCH-PLAY MIXUP
Rules Maven: I was playing a match with a friend and he was one hole up on 18. We were both lying three when he two-putted for bogey. Thinking he had sealed the match, he then picked up my ball. He was stunned when I reminded him that I still had a chance to win the hole and halve the match. Neither of us knew what to do, so I just replaced my ball and played on. Needless to say, I missed the putt, but I think I should have won the hole by default.
– Ed Gonnel, Tenafly, N.J.
I'm going to give your buddy the benefit of the doubt and assume his mistake was one of poor math and not poor sportsmanship. While picking up your ball is not the same as conceding your next stroke, your friend also doesn't get off free and clear. According to Decision 2-4/4, your buddy incurred a penalty of one stroke for touching your ball and violating Rule 18-3b. That means you had not one but two chances to win that last hole and halve the match. If your buddy is fair, he'll give you a rematch, and if he's smart he'll get a math tutor.
OUT ON A LIMB
Rules Reporter: I was playing with my father when my ball landed under a small tree. As I took my backswing, my club swung up and snapped a branch behind me. I stopped my swing quickly and assessed the damage. I then took my shot (which I admit was easier without the branch). My dad said I had to take a penalty for improving my lie, but I disagreed, since I broke it during my swing. Who was right?
– Bruce C., via e-mail
Sometimes it's not what you do on the course that gets you in trouble, it's what you don't do. By stopping your club mid-swing, you did not actually make a stroke at the ball. Consequently, according to Decision 13-2/14.5, breaking the branch constituted improving the area of your intended swing, a violation of Rule 13-2 and a two-stroke penalty. If you had completed your swing, breaking the branch would have simply been a result of your stroke and you would not have been penalized.
 

LONG-TERM MARK
What are the proper/allowable ways to mark a golf ball if play is suspended, and what to do if you cannot find your mark when play is resumed?
– Mark A. Komives, via Facebook
If for some reason play is suspended you are always allowed to pick up your ball as long as you properly mark it. You can use regular markers, a tee, or anything suitable to your liking. Personally, I use a diamond-encrusted Spanish escudo, given to me by King Juan Carlos. But if you've got a quarter, that usually works pretty well too — as long as it's easy to spot when you get back from the delay. According to Rule 6-8, if your marker has moved due to wind, or water, a ball must be placed on the spot where the marker originally was. If you can't determine where the ball marker was, simply estimate the closest spot possible to the original lie and place your ball.
 

WHO: Phil Mickelson
WHAT: 30' 7" par putt
WHERE: 202-yard par-3 12th hole at Pebble Beach
WHEN: Final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
In the final round, Mickelson was paired alongside Tiger Woods. When they teed off at 12, Mickelson was leading the field by a couple of shots and he was five ahead of Woods. Mickelson hit a poor tee shot that landed 26 yards short of the hole and in thick rough, while Woods hit into a greenside bunker. After Mickelson hit a weak pitch to 30' 7" from the hole, Woods holed his bunker shot for a birdie. Suddenly, Woods, who had played poorly to that point, had life, and it looked like Woods would cut his deficit to three strokes. But Mickelson holed his putt and took the wind right out of Tiger's sails.
Mickelson's putt was the type of in-your-face reply that Woods used to routinely deliver to opponents. Three holes later, at 15, Mickelson holed another par bomb (38'3"), and he cruised to victory from there. On both par putts, Mickelson wasn't trying to make them. He just wanted to start the putts on line and put good rolls on them. Holing the putts was a bonus.
THE DRILL: When working on long putts, most golfers make the same big mistake. They drop three balls 30 feet from a hole, hit the balls and miss all three putts. Then they go to another hole and do the same thing. Soon, they've missed nine straight putts and their confidence is gone. They've done nothing but reinforce failure.
Here's a good way to practice long putting and develop feel. Take 10 balls and stand on the fringe of a putting green. Then walk 10 feet into the green and put a tee in the ground. Now walk another 20 feet in so you're 30 feet from the edge of the green. Put down the balls, and try to putt all 10 balls so they stop between the tee and the edge of the green, but putt with the following pattern. Hit the first ball as close to the edge of the green as possible. Hit the second ball just short of the first ball. Then hit the third ball just short of the second ball. Follow that pattern for all 10 balls, making sure that the 10th ball stops between the tee and the edge of the green. If any ball goes past the ball at which you're aiming, you have to start over.
Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Mike Adams teaches at the Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Fla.
 

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a yearlong series featuring golf icon Johnny Miller and his takes on the best swing moves from golf’s greatest legends. To kick it off, we asked Miller to talk about a legend with whom he’s intimately familiar—himself.
Two things made my swing unique compared with what you see now on the PGA Tour: a weak grip, with the Vs formed by my thumbs and forefingers on both hands pointing at my left shoulder, and a reverse-C finish, with my back arched, lower body leaning toward the target and my head back. The reverse C wasn’t just for looks—shifting my upper body back on my downswing allowed me to keep the clubface square to the target line longer, and to move it straight down the line through the impact zone instead of cutting across. The reverse C is one of the reasons I was so accurate, especially with my irons. Guys like Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Mike Reid and Calvin Peete—four of the straightest hitters ever to lace up a pair of spikes—also had reverse-C finishes. In 1986, Calvin hit every fairway at the Memorial Tournament all four days, and then did the same thing the very next year.
You don’t see the reverse C as much anymore—today’s players like to be more on top of the ball at impact and to create speed by rotating hard around their center. To me, that shrinks the amount of time the clubface is actually square to the target line to a fraction of a millisecond. Sure, it’s a faster swing, but it has a smaller margin for error, and those that use it often need three caddies to find the ball.
A reverse C happens naturally—you can’t force it. It results from solid swing mechanics, which you can get by working in front of a mirror. All the guys I know with great swings do mirror work. As a kid, I’d copy my favorite player’s technique out of books and magazines position by position, going from the printed page to the mirror at all the key points. If you’re struggling with your motion, this is the best—and only, really—way to get the moves you need to hit the ball farther and straighter.
This article first appeared in the March 2012 issue of Golf Magazine. The February issue is on newsstands and the tablet version is available for free for magazine subscribers on iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, Nook Color and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Learn more
 
 

SPRINKLER SITUATION
I'm in a fairway – when all of a sudden a sprinkler goes off. Can I take free relief from the sudden flood of recycled wash water? Or do I have to sit under the pesticide spray unless I want a penalty?
–Jason Cherpak, via Facebook
First of all, recycled wash water and pesticide spray are two completely different things. I’m concerned about that course you are playing on. But I digress, if your ball currently lies in a puddle of water from the sprinkler after math it is called casual water. According to Rule 25-1, you may then lift the ball and drop it within one club-length, no closer to the hole, from the nearest point of relief without penalty. Whether or not you choose to stay in the pesticide spray is up to you.

WHO: Kyle Stanley
WHAT: A 50-yard pitch from under a cactus to the green
WHERE: 332-yard par-4 17th hole at TPC Scottsdale
WHEN: Final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open
To come back from the emotional roller coaster of two weeks ago, when Stanley blew a huge final-round lead, is spectacular. But last week, he had a big advantage: he was playing from behind, which put him in an aggressive — rather than a defensive — mode of thinking. He showed that at 17.
Stanley was aggressive off the tee by hitting driver rather than laying up on the short par 4 with water down the left side. After his tee shot landed under a cactus bush, Stanley could have chipped out and then pitched to the green. Instead, he boldly played a pitch from an awkward stance and with a hooded clubface. The aggressive play could've backfired with a whiff, a skull or another bad outcome. But Stanley was playing to win. He executed the shot perfectly, nipping the ball so it flew over a bunker, landed a bit short of the green and then rolled onto the green 22 feet from the hole. Stanley two-putted for a par.
Stanley is a player to watch. Not many guys could lose so badly one week and come back the very next week with a victory. The turnaround shows a quality of character than is very unusual on the PGA Tour.
 
THE DRILL: My favorite way to practice and learn recovery shots is to play one-club golf. Last week, I played an entire round with only a 6-iron. Another option is to hit driver off the tees and then play with one club (I prefer a 6-iron) for all other shots, including putts.
Playing with one club teaches you to be creative. You learn how to hit different shots and how to manipulate a single club to create a wide variety of outcomes. You're forced to be imaginative and to develop a sense of adaptability with your clubs.
Practicing like that prepares you for spots like Stanley found at 17. You may not have practiced shots from the exact situation you're in, but you'll be able to create a shot.
Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Mitchell Spearman teaches at Isleworth Country Club in Orlando and at Doral Arrowwood in Rye Brook, N.Y.