• The Practice Area: Introduction to Ball in Motion 

As you and all golfers know, despite our well-intended preparation, anything can and will happen once that little white ball is in motion. This concept, “Ball in Motion,” and all that can happen during its journey, is the focus of this round of the USGA’s Short Course on the Rules of Golf. 

There are a couple important points that underpin Rule 11 (Ball in Motion Accidentally Hits Person, Animal or Object, Deliberate Actions to Affect Ball in Motion). Understanding and recognizing these points will strengthen your ability to properly apply this Rule. 

We’ll start by noting a pattern you can find throughout the Rules – accidental acts are treated very differently than those that are deliberate. Let’s then start by looking at the differences in Rule 11 between accidental and deliberate deflections. 

Generally, when an accidental deflection happens, there’s no penalty and you play your ball as it lies. This was previously defined as a “rub of the green,” which has for decades been synonymous with bad luck by golfers. In reality, the definition didn’t speak to luck at all, rather it meant there had been an accidental deflection by something that was outside of your control. We’ve all experienced our fair share of accidental deflections, including the “lucky” good bounces as well as the “unlucky” bad ones. In golf, you are left to accept and overcome whichever version comes your way. As for “rub of the green,” the Rules no longer have this definition, and what some call a term of art, in part because it was rarely used correctly anyway. 

Deliberate actions in Rule 11 are very different. Let’s start with the generalization that someone will almost always get a penalty, further when a deliberate action does breach Rule 11, the ball cannot be played as it lies – something of a rare occurrence in the game of golf. 

In this round of the Short Course, many questions test your ability to differentiate between these two different outcomes and procedures. 

The second point ties into the deliberate actions noted above and also serves as a foundational principle of how the game is played. That is, once you set your ball into motion with a stroke, you can expect for your ball to take its natural path, without you or anyone else taking deliberate actions to alter that path. 

Another way to think about this principle is to compare golf to the sport of curling … golf is not like curling (except, perhaps for the many colorful outfits). In curling, players will enthusiastically work to deliberately affect where the stone will come to rest. In golf, most deliberate actions taken to affect where your ball in motion might go or come to rest result in a breach of the Rules. So the Rules serve to protect this principle by prohibiting most objects from being deliberately moved out of the way of your ball in motion and also serve to prohibit you or anyone else from taking an action to deliberately deflect or stop a moving ball. 

思考练习区: 介绍运动中的球 

你和所有的球手都知道，尽管我们做了精心的准备，但一旦小白球运动起来，任何事情都有可能发生。“运动中的球”，以及在其运动过程中可能发生的一切，是本轮USGA高尔夫规则Short Course的重点。 

规则11 (运动中的球意外地击中了人、动物或物体，故意行动来影响运动中的球)有几个重要的知识基点。理解和认识这些重点将增强你正确应用这条规则的能力。 

我们首先注意到在整个规则中可以发现一个模式–意外行为与故意行为的处理方式非常不同。然后，让我们先看看规则11中意外变向和故意变向的区别。 

一般来说，当一个球意外的变向发生时，你不会受到处罚，你在球静止的位置击球即可。以前这被定义为“rub of  the green”，几十年来，这一直是高尔夫球手倒霉的代名词。实际上，这个定义根本就和运气没有关系，它的意思是由于你无法控制的某个事物造成了意外的变向，正如我们都机会均等地经历过“幸运”和“不幸”的两种着地。在高尔夫中，无论你面临的是什么形式的意外变向，你唯有接受和克服。至于rub of  the green，规则中不再有这个定义。也有人称之为艺术术语，部分原因是无论如何它都很少被正确使用过。 

规则11中的故意行为是非常不同的。先说说一般情况：那就是几乎总有人被罚；再进一步说，当故意行为确实违反规则11时，球不能在其静止的位置继续打–这在高尔夫比赛中是很少见的。 

在这一个轮短课程中，许多问题测试你区分这两种不同结果以及处理过程的能力。 

第二点与上面提到的故意行动有关的，同时也是这项比赛如何进行的一个基本原则，也就是说，一旦你以击球的方式让你的球动起来，你就可以期望你的球在一条没有你或他人采取故意行动去改变的、属于它自己的自然路径上运动。 

另一种思考这个原则的方法是把高尔夫和冰壶（curling) 运动相比较……高尔夫不像冰壶运动（也许色彩缤纷的着装是列外）。在冰壶比赛中，运动员会全情投入地故意影响冰壶的停点。在高尔夫球运动中，大多数故意影响运动中球的去向或静止位置的行为会导致违反规则。。因此，规则的作用是保护这一原则，规定禁止大多数物体从球的运动路径中被故意移开，同时禁止你或任何人采取故意使运动中的球变向或停止的行为。