The Shifting Sands of the Rules

I wanted to say this as it's the type of question that gamers regularly face once they get an ungainly lie in the sand. Haru Nomura is leading the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, but she needed to get a ruling after she completed. Did she build a stance in the sand at 6?

This is the unique record Whit and Karen filed. The one they filed after the ruling become made wasn't up yet on golfchannel.Com after I did this submit, but Haru was ruled NOT to have constructed a stance after approximately forty five minutes of questioning and repeated viewings of the video through LPGA officials.

Why was this ruling so difficult? It's because The Rules of Golf allow a player to 'fairly take a stance' when playing a shot. And it appears that a couple of factors were in play here:

• Haru was unable to keep from slipping in the sand after a typical 'digging in' move, even after repeated attempts. Every time she made a practice swing, her right foot would slip. In fact, if you look at her initial attempt to take a stance -- right around the :58 second mark -- you can see tracks in the sand where her right foot slipped quite a way just by trying to step into the trap.
• Apparently the officials looked to see if the angle of her foot was noticeably changed by her attempts to take her stance. You hear Karen mention that there didn't seem to be much difference but if her foot looked to be on 'flatter ground' after digging in, they would have likely ruled that she altered the ground and thus built a stance.

That last one seems to be the most obvious way to tell if someone is building a stance, at least on a slope like Haru was on. As long as her foot still followed the slope so that her spikes were holding her in place -- as opposed to a flattened area of sand -- she was allowed to dig in enough to find that solid ground.

I don't think she would have gotten a positive ruling had the slope been much less excessive or the sliding of her foot less obvious. Even with the ones two things in her want, it still took 45 mins for officials to make the ruling!

The result is that Haru Nomura has a 3 shot lead rather than a 1 shot lead going into the very last spherical. It become a prime ruling that might have modified the manner matters play out today. Bear in mind that the chief was at -9 after the primary spherical however the present day chief is best at -10 after a positive ruling. And situations aren't in all likelihood to be a whole lot less difficult these days.

Remember: You have to be careful when digging into the sand. It's a fine line between a fair stance and a built stance.