dm4
Apr 21 2011, 04:26 PM
Recently, during a tournament, I observed a player trying to take a stance inside a large Cedar Tree (he was about 5' in from the edge of the tree, right in line with the basket). While doing so, another player on our card started saying things like "no, no, no", and "You can't do that"! He went over to the fourth player on our card and asked "did you see that? He's breaking branches"! The other player said nothing. Then he came to me, quite animated "you were right there"! "Didn't you see that"? "He was breaking branches all over the place"! "He can't do that"! "You saw it, didn't you"? I said "you mean like with his hands"? He said "Yes, with his hands"! "they are all over the place in there"! I said "No, I didn't see it"! (I said that because the guy wasn't breaking any branches). So, the player making the accusations putted out and stormed off (he putted out of turn, so I should have called him on that)! The player in the tree then went on to putt, and made it! I was on the edge of the tree and missed mine. My question is, is this legal? Can a player make false accusations? I think he was just trying to "work" the player in the tree, or me. And he did so! I almost brought it up several more times during the round, but thought better of it.

This player probably could have made a better argument that the stance was not legal because too many branches were being moved out of the way. I still would not have agreed with him. I thought the player in the tree did the best he could at getting a legal stance!