A ball at rest being moved could be one of the more complicated Rules situations you may face during your round as it requires knowledge or virtual certainty as to whether or not you have caused the ball to move, as Jin-Woo Kim of The R&A explains…
When it is known or virtually certain that you’ve caused your ball at rest to move – in other words, it’s at least 95% likely you’ve caused it to move – you get one penalty stroke and must replace the ball on its original spot, just as Rory McIlroy had to do at the 2023 Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia.
During the third round, McIlroy’s ball came to rest on a slope in front of a green in the general area. He put his club behind the ball, and within a second of doing so, it rolled back a few inches. In discussion with a referee, McIlroy determined he was the cause of the ball’s movement and, with one penalty stroke, the ball was replaced.
