THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK IS...

Q. This question came in from one of the Fringe Faithful.

Bob--

I had a rules question come up in a friendly round we were playing a few weekends back. The situation:

I hit an awesome fairway shot during a tournament, but my ball struck a foreign object in the fairway and gashed my ball open. I wanted to replace the ball, but was informed that doing so would be a two stroke penalty. I went ahead and played the broken ball without replacing it, but it ended up taking off (actually wobbling through the air) and into a water hazard (looks like I should have taken the two-stroke penalty).

What's the rules say in a situation like this? I doubt too many players have had this happen to them before. Definitely a first for me!

Thanks,

Rich

___________________________