Golfing in the era of COVID-19 is like a nest on lofty solitude

My first refereeing experience in the game of golf was in 2014 when I was invited to assist at the All Africa Challenge Trophy that was played at Muthaiga Golf Club.

I soon discovered that golf referees spend so much time in solitude and every so often, there are panic-stricken moments when golfers ask for an interpretation of the Rules of Golf at a time when the mind has gone to sleep.

Despite not having the video assistant referee (VAR) like in football, golf referees have the phone-a-friend lifeline which they can use as many times as necessary.

As I have spent long quiet moments out on the golf course, I started enjoying my surroundings. That is how I picked bird-watching as a hobby and even though I am not an expert in birds, I no longer refer to the ubiquitous black kites as hawks as most Kenyans do.

So, it was with a lot of interest that I studied a picture that was sent on a golfing WhatsApp group where a golf ball had come to rest in a bird’s nest. The question that was asked was how the player should proceed in that situation.

After I gave up trying to figure out which bird may have made the nest, I turned to the debate that was going on about how to proceed in that situation.

There were many who thought that the player should get free relief as some referred to the nest as a movable obstruction.

In the Rules of Golf, an obstruction is defined as an artificial object. In older versions of the Rules of Golf, an obstruction was defined as “man-made”. The nest in the picture was made by a bird and therefore did not qualify to be classified as an obstruction.

Then someone in the group vowed that he had read somewhere in the Rules of Golf that there is free relief for bird’s nests. He just couldn’t remember which Rule it was.

When I was asked for my opinion, I found it quite obvious to me that the ball should have been played as it lay.

If the golfer did not want to obliterate the bird’s nest, then he would have had to declare the ball unplayable and take a penalty stroke. The bird’s nest, in this case, is a loose impediment and there is no free relief for the same.

I received the same picture from a number of other golfers asking the same question.

However, there were a few doubts from some of the people who forwarded the same picture. The doubt was brought about by the free relief given for bird’s nests.

In the Definitions section of the Rules of Golf, Ground Under Repair includes “any animal habitat (such as a bird’s nest) that is so near a player’s ball…”

According to this definition, then a golfer would get free relief for a bird’s nest. I would, however, not consider a nest that is no longer in its original place, to be fit for habitation.

There are many birds that make their nests on the ground but this particular nest was definitely not one of those. It must have fallen off the tree before completion or was probably blown off by the wind or removed by other forces.

In any case, the nest was not going to be used for habitation by the bird that built it.

As a result of many dissenting views, I decided to use the ‘Phone a friend’ lifeline and sent the image to a seasoned referee. He agreed with my judgement.

Since the picture was taken in this COVID-19 era where there are no golf competitions going on and the few who are still playing find themselves like eagles nests in lofty solitude, I do hope that the golfer chose to remove the ball from the nest and that he enjoyed the next shot.

Wang’ombe is the General Manager of Kenya Open Golf Limited