Every two weeks MGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions Gene Westmoreland will answer one question posed by the readers of the MGA e-Revision Newsletter (click here to sign up). A reader from Westchester County asked Gene the following Rules question:

“Player A and Player B are partners in four-ball match play. Player A putts and leaves his ball eight inches behind the hole. Player B putts and his ball is stopped by A's ball. Am I correct that there is no penalty to either player?”

Gene responds:

You are correct – there is no penalty to either player. Keep in mind that either of Player A or Player B’s opponents could have required Player A to mark and lift his ball near the hole before his partner putted, thereby taking away the “backboard” you had in the example.

Read Gene’s latest “Inside the Rules” column