Rules Guy: Is it legal to use a handkerchief to test the wind?

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Rather than toss grass to check for wind, I use my handkerchief. Legal? — Mike McConnell, Goodyear, Ariz.

Finally, a fellow hankie fan!

Alas, Mike, you can’t use an “artificial object” to measure or gauge the wind, per Rule 4.3(a), and a handkerchief is considered artificial (yes, even one made from cotton).

The first breach is the general penalty; the second breach, disqualification. To avoid crying in your hankie, become a tosser of grass instead.

For more wind-related guidance from our guru, read on …

In a four-ball match on a windy day, I marked my ball on the green and cleaned it with my towel, which an opponent then asked to borrow. Sure, no problem — I’m up first. The ball has barely left my putter when the wind blows the towel on top of my ball, stopping it dead. Chuckles all around … and I end up three-putting for bogey and a halve. I argued, unsuccessfully, that my towel was our opponents’ towel when it impeded my shot, and that they should be penalized somehow. Everyone else said it was my towel, and so my fault.
—Tom Noga, Huntington Valley, Pa.

You were wrong to throw in the towel so soon, Tom. Under Exception 2 to Rule 11.1b, the stroke was canceled, with the ball replaced and the stroke replayed, since it was made from the putting green and accidentally hit a movable obstruction.

If your playing partner and your opponents agreed that you should play on from the point of the towel incident, that agreement stands; otherwise, you should have proceeded in the way you thought was right, and your opponent would have had until a player teed off on the next hole to request a ruling.

Had this happened in stroke play, and you erred by not replaying the stroke, the general penalty of two strokes would be added to your score. Next time, don’t be so generous with your towel — and try to find a partner who won’t throw you under the bus!

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