Golf — Rule 11
An accidental bounce is usually accepted—but not always.
A ball in motion can strike a player, club, cart, animal, spectator, or another ball. The usual outcome is no penalty and play from where it finishes, but the putting green, a ball coming to rest on something moving, and deliberate interference create important exceptions.
Quick ruling: under the R&A and USGA 2023 Rules of Golf, an accidental deflection normally gives no penalty and the ball is played as it lies. First identify where the stroke was made, what the ball hit, and whether it came to rest on a person, animal, or moving outside influence.
Decision path
Classify the contact before touching the ball
- Confirm that the ball was in motion and the contact was accidental.
- Identify whether the stroke was made from the putting green or elsewhere.
- Identify the person, animal, equipment, ball, or other influence struck.
- Check whether the ball finished on a person, animal, or moving outside influence.
- Apply the play-as-it-lies rule or the relevant drop, placement, or replay exception.
- Handle any ball at rest that was displaced as a separate Rule 9 question.
General rule
No penalty for accidental contact
Rule 11.1a imposes no penalty when a player's ball in motion accidentally hits any person, including the player, or an outside influence. That includes an opponent, another player, caddies, and equipment.
For a stroke made from anywhere except the putting green, the ball is normally played as it lies. A lucky rebound and an unlucky rebound are generally treated alike.
Self-deflection
Hitting the player or their bag is normally play on
A shot that accidentally ricochets from the player's body, club, bag, trolley, or other equipment normally carries no penalty under Rule 11.1 and is played from its eventual resting place.
This does not protect deliberate positioning or stopping. If equipment or a person was deliberately placed to affect the moving ball, Rule 11.2 or 11.3 can apply instead.
Resting on something
Do not play from a moving person or animal
If a ball played from off the putting green comes to rest on a person, animal, or moving outside influence, Rule 11.1b requires relief rather than play as it lies.
When the reference point is off the putting green, the player drops within one club-length of the estimated point directly below where the ball first came to rest, in the same area and not nearer the hole. If that point is on the putting green, the ball is placed on the estimated point directly below.
Animal picks it up
The pickup point controls relief
Official Clarification 11.1b/3 treats a ball picked up by an animal while moving as having come to rest on the animal at the pickup point. The player does not play from wherever the animal later drops it.
The course area at the pickup point determines whether the replacement ball is dropped or placed and limits the relief area.
Putting green
Some contacts require replay
When a stroke is made from the putting green and the moving ball accidentally hits specified people, movable obstructions, or animals on the putting green, Rule 11.1b(2) normally cancels the stroke and requires replay from the original spot.
The Rule has listed exceptions, including contact with the player, the club used, a ball-marker, a ball at rest, the flagstick, a person attending it, or an animal classed as a loose impediment. Those cases follow the particular Rule identified for that object or are played as they lie.
Two moving balls
A 2024 clarification can require replay
If it is known or virtually certain that a ball played from the putting green accidentally hits another ball in motion on that green, Official Clarification 11.1b(2)/1 requires the player to replay the stroke.
This differs from the familiar stroke-play case where a ball played from the putting green hits another ball at rest there. When both balls were on the green before that stroke, the player receives two penalty strokes under Rule 11.1a and normally plays the moving ball from where it finishes; the displaced ball is replaced under Rule 9.6.
Later movement
Separate the deflection from what happens next
After an accidental deflection, an animal or other outside influence may move a ball that has already come to rest. Rule 11 resolves the in-motion contact; Rule 9.6 then normally requires a ball moved at rest by an outside influence to be replaced.
A clear ruling records the instant the ball first came to rest. Without that timeline, two different procedures can be confused.
Dropped ball
Rule 14 controls before the drop comes to rest
Rule 11 does not apply while a ball dropped in a relief area is still moving before coming to rest. Accidental or deliberate contact during that period is governed by Rule 14.3.
Once the dropped ball comes to rest and becomes the ball in play, later movement is analysed under Rule 9, with Rule 11 applying only if that ball is again in motion in circumstances covered by it.
Deliberate action
Intent changes both penalty and placement
Rule 11.2 applies when it is known or virtually certain that a person deliberately deflected or stopped a moving ball. A player who deliberately does so normally receives the general penalty, whether the ball belongs to that player or someone else.
The next place is based on where the ball would have come to rest without the deliberate act, using the specific procedures in Rule 11.2c. It is not simply played from the actual stopping point.
Worked cases
Ask where the stroke began
- Approach shot hits a cart and stops in rough: no penalty; normally play as it lies.
- Approach shot is caught by a dog: take relief using the pickup point under the clarification.
- Putt hits a moving leaf: a leaf is a loose impediment rather than one of the listed replay triggers; normally play as it lies.
- Putt hits another moving ball: replay the stroke under the current clarification.
Official references
Source material