Today I assessed myself a 2-stroke penalty for knocking down a leaf on my practice swing. When I got home I found this in the USGA Decisions book:
13-2/22 Knocking Down Leaves with Practice Swing
Q: A player’s ball lies near a tree or bush. The player takes a practice swing near his ball and knocks down leaves in the area of his intended swing. Is this a breach of Rule 13-2?
(FYI: This is the rule that says you must not improve or allow to be improved the position or lie of the ball the area of your intended stance or swing, your line of play or the area in which you are to drop or place a ball by “moving , bending or breaking anything growing or fixed…”)
A: The answer depends on whether the area of the intended swing is improved. In some cases, the knocking down of a number of leaves would not improve the area of the intended swing as the player still has to swing through a number of remaining leaves when making his stroke. In such circumstances, there would be no breach of the Rules. In other cases, the knocking down of one leaf might improve the area of the intended swing, in which case there would be a breach of Rule 13-2.
In my case, I now believe that I shouldn’t have taken the penalty, because the leaf that fell made absolutely no difference to the area of my intended swing. I’m sure glad to know this for future reference!!