rogolf

Just rent the whole course for the day, and pay the price!

Thanks, but I would prefer to hear from him.

Just for clarity and understanding, what are "leagues"? Are the players in these "leagues" members, non-members (member's guests) or what? Who organizes them?

Sure. But because it's touching the line, it is in the penalty area.

That's an unnecessary local Rule and the Rules of golf already say that there is no free relief for boundary objects. A useful reminder though.

Perhaps a bit pedantic, but what you have described is fourball match play, not team play. A and B are playing together as a side, not a team. Rules for team play are quite different and are in Rule 24.

The outcome is correct - two penalty strokes incurred. But the analysis is not quite right. The player breached Rule 9.4 (ball in play moved on fairway), one penalty stroke. Ball not replaced and played from the "new" place, which is playing from a wrong place (Rule 14.7) which is a penalty of two strokes. But via Rule 1.3(4), Applying Penalties to Multiple Breaches of the Rules, with no intervening event, the player gets only the higher-level penalty, ie, two strokes in this case.

"on the course" being the critical part for free relief!

By Local Rule, the stakes do not define the out of bounds, they only indicate that there is out of bounds present. The edge of the road itself defines the out of bounds. See Committee procedures 2A(1)c and d for clarification between white stakes "indicating" and "defining" out of bounds.

The paved entrance road to our club is on the left side of the first hole. We put white stakes along the course side of the road to indicate out of bounds. Out of bounds is defined as the course side of the pavement - anything on or over the road is out of bounds. There is no free relief for artificially-surfaced roads or cart paths that are not on the defined golf course.

Not all “pros” know the Rules of golf. This situation is pretty simple.

Expertise?

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on where the ball and stance are located (ball could be in temp water, stance on cart path or vice versa). The player may well have a choice of which condition (temp water or cart path) to take relief from first. The careful player will check out the relief options (and the next relief options) before lifting the ball. Or, how about temp water on a cart path?

Be aware that "being in the fairway" does not guarantee a perfect lie or perfect conditions, and that "fairway" is not defined in the Rules.

We have that situation on one hole at our course and review it with the referees every time we host an event. Of course, members do it in one step every time. If I'm in the group, I do explain to my playing partners the correct procedure, but don't insist that they use it.