I played a club tournament today. Nothing big, cept Mercedes was the sponsor so there was a car at each par 3 for aces.

About 12 holes in, I'm down to my last ball (an unfortunate consequence of 11 disaster holes and forgetting to top up the night before). I hit a "power fade"off the tee and it heads off into the trees on the right of the fairway.

I found the ball in a little clearing and had a clear shot down the fairway. Thing was, the ball nust have struck a tree, because half of the ball was covered in sticky brown sap which I COULD NOT GET OFF!!!

Since I couldn't clean the ball, I played with the sappy ball for the rest of the hole (double bogey). But get this, even after I put it in the ball washer, scraped it with a tee and practically buffed it with a towel, I couldnt get the damn sap off.

Long story short, I survived the round with that ball, but I have never seen such weird ballflights in my life. On one hole, I managed to squeeze out a fade AND a draw on the same drive

Just so you know, next time your ball clears the trees, your troubles ain't necessarily over.

LOL, definately! I live in upstate NY. My home course Adirondack GC, is very narrow. Like driving a ball down a hall way. (Just wrote this in another post oddly enough) It's surrond my pines, and all types of trees. Its basically cut out in some deep woods, the whole course. Beimg as wild of a driver that i am this happens to me ALL the time!

I know its impossible to get off. You wash it, scrrub it w/ a towel, nothing.

Maybe you should keep a small bottle of GooGone in your bag for this specific purpose.

GooGone or more balls!

You can remove pine sap/tar from almost anything, including your skin, with WD-40. Wash with dish detergent or clothes detergent afterwards.

Learned about that when handling Christmas trees.

EDIT: Goo Gone will work, but the Xylene in it is highly toxic, and it will peel the skin off your hands. I found that out the hard way when deglossing bathroom walls for repainting when I was in my first apartment. Be careful.

Naptha is the best stuff to use - won't take off any of the ball coating and won't desolve your hands!

Yes, but benzine, a.k.a. naphtha, is highly carcinogenic when used on the skin. Plus, it's highly volatile, and doesn't remain in a liquid state long enough to dissolve enough of the pine resin. It'll take you longer to clean the ball due to more applications.

Also, be careful if you have a smoker in your group when using it. Old chemistry joke: "Two guys were carrying an open container of benzine. One struck a match, and they haven't benzine since."

True, but if cleaning sap off of a golf ball becomes hazordous to one's health (ie; having to use it often enough to worry about a carcinogen), might I suggest one is hitting WAY too many trees and should consider taking up another sport / hobby.

I get pine sap on my camping gear pretty much every year. I've found a few tricks to getting if off over the years:

1) avon skin so soft.
2) hand sanitizer (the sanitizing towelettes are great).
3) cooking grease.
4) Dr Bronner's soap.
5) liquid/gel insect repellents.

Most of the above work better with some coarse sand and some elbow grease. Note, I wasn't implying you should combine them all, though feel free to try it out...

Cheers,
Tim

In my case, it happens often enough for me to have to submit forms to OSHA!

What is the penalty for hitting a golf ball with a foreign substance on it?

The sap would only be considered a "foreign substance" if you had purposely put it on the ball.
If you add something to the ball on purpose to change the playing characteristics, you are disqualified. (Rule 5-2)

The ball may qualify as "damaged" and can be substitutued since the sap cannot be removed and affects play.

A ball is not considered damaged/unfit for play because of sap, and can not be substituted without penalty.

The rule is crystal clear here, but this may put a player in a position of having to putt a ball which will not roll straight but simply wobbles making putting almost impossible. And who said this game is fair or did anybody ever say that?