Today, on a par 5, I lay 3 on the green.... 20 ft north of the hole....One of our foresome lays 4.... 20 yards off the green to the West. I didn't realize he was not on the green so I putted at the same time he was chipping. I would have missed the putt about 2 ft to the right of the hole but his chip hit my ball and it went into the cup followed a half second later by his ball...........we scored it as a par and a birdie.....is this correct?.....By the way, I swear this happened today.
Last year at the Hilton Cancun #10 my drive was hit in mid arc by an errant driving range ball and knocked from what would have been a near center of the fairway into the lagoon on the right. I just reteed with no penalty. Is this correct? Hey I'm not making this stuff up.

NO WAY. I don't think I can believe this until the other mentioned parties join this forum and provide some validation...

While I do think it's pretty crazy what you are proposing, I think I can belive it. Your story at least lines up.

Screw the scoring of the hole though. When you're getting that lucky- you need to walk off the course and go find a poker game, or buy a lottery ticket.

Sounds like God was on your side yesterday M2D.

As far as the range ball hitting your ball in mid flight- that's unreal! Much harder to believe- but I guess you have no real reason to lie. WOW!
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Kickntrue-
Duffing since 1993

While it is incredible that both of these events happened to you, I believe the question still remains if the hole was scored correctly. I know that if your ball laying on the green and another member was hitting from the fairway and ended up hitting your ball, you would return the ball to its original spot and the other golfer would play it as it lies. No penalty involved. Since you were both near the green and one member played out of turn there has to be a penalty involved. What that is... I'm not sure. My guess: Whoever played out of turn would return the ball to the original mark with a 1 stroke penalty, and the other member plays it as it lies. Its kind of like if you hit your ball on a practice swing you need to place the ball back where you were originally hitting from with a 1 stroke penalty. That's all I got

Wait, if you hit your ball on a practice swing, why wouldn't you just hit it from wherever it ends up? Why move it back?

I agree, I think the person putting out of turn would need to take a stroke and move the ball back to its position. But the person who was chipping was scored correctly.

Is hitting in or out of turn a rules issue or an issue of ettiquete? (i cant spell- you guys should know that by now).

People let people tap out and whatnot all the time. Usually it is with blessing- but is it illegal? I don't think it is.

Also, is there a penalty for putting with the pin in? I've heard maybe there is- but again- i dont know. But Im guessing if someone was chipping- the pin could've been in.

Also- M2D- was your ball stopped or did they hit while both moving? If your ball was coming to a complete stop- and made it to a complete stop, then technically it should've been marked- and that would be your penalty. If it wasn't stopped- you cant move it back to its spot- there was no "dead" spot to move it back to.
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Kickntrue-
Duffing since 1993

Klangdon here is your practice swong answer and ruling:
Rule 18, "Ball at Rest Moved."
If you accidentally move a ball in play with a practice swing, it's a one-stroke penalty. You must replace the ball to its original position and play it correctly.

Failing to replay the ball from its original position results in a total penalty of two strokes in stroke play or loss of hole in match play.

The colliding balls happened yesterday in our regular Wednesday dogfight. A video of that would surely have won the $10,000 on AFV.
As we are teamed up by handicaps from a pool of usually 120 or so players that happen to show up that day, and there are probably 500 guys that play occasionally , I don't really know too many of them personally. The names of the other 3 gentlemen were Meents, Noel, and Fontenot. I was the "C" player with a 14 handicap Mr Noel was the "B" player. None of us noticed that Mr Noel was not on the green and the Captain pulled the flag fo me to putt. The reason I had not marked my ball is that it was still rolling. The reason I felt it was my turn to putt was that I saw two markers close to the hole and thought that they belonged to the Captain and Mr Noel.
The reason we decided that it was a birdie was because my ball stopped rolling, after only one putt, in the bottom of the cup. We reasoned that you can't say that you would have MADE a putt if only it hadn't hit that pebble that made it turn away.
We decided Mr Noel's shot was a par for the same reason.
Out of turn hits I believe are a courtesy thing. ??

merlin2driver, regardless of what the rule book says I would have scored it the same way you did. AND if I was playing with you, I may have even deducted an extra struck from your score for pullin off something so freakin crazy.

to answer kickntrue questions regarding playing out of turn:
Playing Out of Turn
If a player plays when his opponent should have played, there is no penalty, but the opponent may immediately require the player to cancel the stroke so made and, in correct order, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played.

So if your opponent played out of turn and hit a great shot you can make them hit it again with no penalty.

I played a course in Canada that has a high tension power line crossing one fairway. There is a sign on the tee box stating that if your tee shot hits the wire ,you get a free second tee shot. So as improbable as it might seem, it happens. I still say the odds of two balls following each other into the same hole after colliding has to be in the millions. A hole in one is about 33,000 to one I think.....How about the Professional golfer in New Zealand this week who 5 putted from 1 foot.???crazy game.

kickntrue the answer I gave you last night for playing out of turn is for match play... the answer for stroke play is as follows:
Playing Out of Turn Rule 10-2
If a competitor plays out of turn, there is no penalty and the ball is played as it lies. If, however, the Committee determines that competitors have agreed to play out of turn to give one of them an advantage, they are disqualified.

Furthermore:
Rule 16-1f
Making Stroke While Another Ball in Motion:
The player must not make a stroke while another ball is in motion after a stroke from the putting green, except that, if a player does so, there is no penalty if it was his turn to play.

A lot of the rules are written so that they are very hard to understand. Do you interpret "MUST NOT" to be the same as "SHOULD NOT" since there is no penalty if you DO make a stroke while another ball is in motion?
In the aforementioned case, there were no balls in motion when each of us made our stroke.

M2D- do you have a link for that?

I would love to post that story of a 5 putt from 1 foot. Esp by a pro.
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Kickntrue-
Duffing since 1993

The Pro at a local golf course says it was a birdie and a par for the putted and chipped balls that collided and then found the bottom of the hole .005 seconds apart. No penalties. Colliding balls in motion remain where they lay. The ball knocked into the Lagoon by another ball in flight is no different than hitting a tree or animal and going out of bounds. Re tee and hit third stroke. I think they said it's the "rub of the green"
This is his opinion. I would like to hear from an official rules guy just because it was such a fluke. I brought it up on the practice putting green yesterday and before it was over, about 30 people were involved in the conversation and thankfully Mr Meents was there to verify the fact that my birdie putt and Mr Noel's par chip collided and both holed out.