Golf Nut, I have a really strange golf rules question. This really just happened to me and I want to check what the correct thing to do would have been.

I was teeing off on a par three when I hit a real low golf shot. I hit it thin and it was a real "worm burner" as I like to call it. The strange part of this was that another golf ball, coming from the hole next to us, hit my golf ball in mid air. I swear that this really happened and I believe that a hole in one would be easier to do, but on to the rest of my question.

My ball ended up knocked down into the side of a bank next to water in front of the hole and rolled into the water. I took the penalty for a hazard and ended up with a double bogey. Is this the correct ruling?

Well I must admit that this is the first time that I have received this question on the rules of golf. And I agree that a hole in one might have been an easier golf shot to accomplish.

It looks like you made the correct ruling as I understand the applicable section of the rules of golf. Rule 19 is the rule that involves a golf ball in motion deflected or stopped. The general ruling on Rule 19 says that any golf ball in motion that is accidentally deflected or stopped by an outside agency is played as it ends up or "as it lies"

Now what is an outside agency. Well in stroke play (assuming you weren't in a match play golf competition at the time) it is any agency except your competitors, their caddies, or any golf ball played by them on that particular golf hole.

Now Rule 19-5b. specifically addresses a ball in motion deflected by another golf ball and says that your ball should be played as it lies. So, unfortunately, your golf ball ended up in the water and that is how you must play it. Very strange and very unfortunate, but you played it correctly by the Rules of Golf.

Now I hope that you get that hole in one or at least bought a lottery ticket that very same day. Good golfing!