At Begg this past week the walking path in front of the basket on hole 17 was designated OB. A player's tee shot rolled onto the path and was curling back towards IB when a casual walker intentionally stepped on the disc causing the disc to stop OB. It is unclear whether or not the disc would have rolled IB.

A rule book was produced and 803.07(A) was read. No re-throw was taken.

The group and later a marshall ruled that since nobody could be sure that the unimpeded disc would have ended up OB, the disc should be spotted IB where it went out with no penalty.

Was the ruling correct, giving the benefit of the doubt to the player? Or was 803.07 circumvented?

sounds like ob with option to re-throw (which would obviously be preferable) to me.

Sounds like 803.07 was circumvented to me. Should have been a re-throw (with no penalty).
Placing it IB may have been a nice thing to do - and in practicality terms - may have not been far off from where the disc was going to end up. But that's why we have rules. To eliminate actions like this.

Sounds to me like the player should have had the option to Re-Tee or Mark it where the interference occurred. But being that it happened in O.B. I would think the player would need to Re-Tee.

A. A thrown disc that hits another player,
spectator, or animal shall be played where
it comes to rest. A thrown disc that is
intentionally deflected or was caught and
moved shall be marked as close as possible
to the point of contact, as determined
by a majority of the group or an official.
Alternatively, for intentional interference
only, the thrower has the option of taking
a re-throw.

It didn't occur to anyone to just re-throw, as I recall. It would be good to add the phrase, "...without penalty" to " the thrower has the option of taking a re-throw", though....