Should Pádraig Harrington have been penalised when his ball moved on the green at Augusta last year?

BY THE RULES:IT'S A good question and one we are looking at. This Rule came into sharp focus at Birkdale. The winds there were extreme and, with fast putting surfaces, this sort of thing can happen. In particular, it's where players address the ball – get their feet in position and ground the club – but are then worried it's going to move before they play. If they then step away, which is what Harrington did, the current Rule says that unless they've marked and lifted the ball, they haven't "unaddressed" it – if that's the right terminology – so they're going to get a penalty.

When it happened to Harrington at the Masters, there was a feeling that that was a penalty that didn’t seem right.

The current Rule provides a clear line – if the ball moves after you’ve put your club immediately behind it, it says, “we’re not going to get into did you or didn’t you touch it; we’re going to deem it to be as a result of your actions”.

But Harrington’s situation highlights our concern in that his ball clearly moved because of a gust.

So we are looking at it.

The next Rules revision is in 2012 and one possibility is that grounding a club behind the ball will still incur a penalty, but only if the club is literally grounded behind the ball when the movement occurs.

If it happens some other time and there are other events going on, we could excuse the penalty. So we’d have a bit more wiggle room there.

That’s one possibility. The other is simply to withdraw the Rule altogether and rely on Rule 18-2a which is, “has the player caused the ball to move or not?”

Why not just differentiate between the putting green and “through the green”?

YOU COULD, but the feeling is – and contrary to what some may think we do try to make the Rules simple – if we can avoid separating parts of the course, we will.

Why is there no relief from divots on the fairway?

IT’S A fundamental principle that the ball is played as it lies. There are exceptions to this, but these are limited in number, and restricted to circumstances where relief is considered appropriate and necessary: immovable obstructions, casual water, ground under repair – that sort of thing. Course conditioning has improved considerably over the years to the extent that some golfers now feel they have an entitlement to a perfect lie. But I think it’s a fundamental principle that you have to accept good and bad lies as part of the game.

The good shot that ends up in a bad lie – that frustrates people, we understand that. But the bad shot that ends up in a good lie is accepted more readily. It’s all part of golf’s challenge, and I think very good players can deal with it. I’d be astonished if there were any movement here as there’s no sympathy within the Rules of Golf committee for changing that fundamental principle.

David Rickman is director of rules and equipment standards at the R&A. For further information visit randa.org.