Covid 19 golf rules

[Wholeinone]

I;m having a good natured argument with one of my playing partners.

During this wonderful Covid-19 year I have played several courses where they have put a foam ring around the flagstick in the hole to make retrieving your ball easier. Here is my question. When a putt hits the foam ring and rolls out of the cup, is it considered a made putt? He says no, I say yes. What say you?

 

[BigMac]

From the USGA's page about Covid modified play:

3. My ball went into the hole, but due to the foam insert, it bounced out. How do I record my score for handicap purposes?

Although your ball has not been holed and you have yet to complete the hole, if you determine that, in your best judgment, your ball would have been holed more than 50% of the time had there not been a foam (or other material) insert, you must record your score for handicap purposes as if the ball was holed.

When making this decision, you should consider the speed at which your ball was traveling when it first entered the hole.

 

[wazzubrew]

Yeah, my playing group usually gives the benefit of the doubt to the putter to make the judgement, but when we're competing it's definitely a group call on "would that have gone in under normal circumstance". On the courses around here, if it hit the foam there was a pretty good chance it was going in.

 

[USAF Retired]

It's in the hole!

 

[Snickerdog]

Yes holed. If the foam is so high in the cup that the ball can still roll across and out then holed as long as the speed was reasonable when it went in.

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

If the foam causes it to stay out where it probably would have been in, it’s good! I played over 30 rounds this year and only ran into this situation three times. But it did make for a fun joke on awful putts. “That would have been in if it wasn’t for the pool noodle” on a putt that came up 5 feet short

 

[Daddio]

Most groups I've played with just use best judgement. USGA echoes that sentiment. Majority of time I've seen those balls 'ruled' as made in whatever group I'm playing with. Only remember four times with the foam where someone was so vehemently against it that it was counted as a miss and those four instances were all objected to by the same two guys. Had quite few more instances attributed to inverted holes or wire raisers. Common sense. Those that went against the putter were usually the right call.