Several rules issues have arisen in the last few tournaments
regarding where to drop a ball. I’m sure you will agree that a competition is
not fair if everyone is not following the same rules. Therefore, I am taking
out a few minutes to review the rules regarding dropping a ball, and I hope you
will take out a few minutes to read what I have to say.
There is a big difference between free drops and penalty
drops with regard to where you are entitled to drop.
The most important
things to remember:
• Free relief is
limited to the area within one club-length of the nearest point of relief, no
closer to the hole.
• When you pay for
relief with a penalty stroke, you have more options.
• You may never drop
on the so-called “line of flight.” Under no circumstances is this ever a
relief option.
Let’s start with free drops.
Players are entitled to a free drop when an immovable
obstruction interferes with their lie, stance, or area of intended swing. For
example, you get free relief if your ball lies on a cart path, or you have to
stand on the cart path to hit your ball, or your swing at a ball that lies next
to the path will contact the path. (Incidentally, “immovable obstructions” are
man-made objects that cannot be moved, such as cart paths, water fountains, tee
monuments, and maintenance sheds.)
For free relief from an immovable obstruction, you must find
the point nearest to where you ball lies (known as the nearest point of relief,
or NPR) that is not closer to the hole where you will get complete relief. In
seeking this point, you should take your stance with the club that you would
ordinarily use to hit the shot if the obstruction were not there. Once you find
this point, you may use any club in your bag to measure the one-club-length
area beyond the NPR in which you are permitted to drop the ball (most players
pull out their drivers for this measurement).
As you can see, free drops will always end up very close to
where the ball originally lay. Now let’s turn to penalty drops.
If you decide that your ball is unplayable, you will add one penalty stroke to your score
and choose one of the following options:
1. Return to where you hit your previous shot, drop a ball
(you may re-tee if you are returning to the teeing ground), and play. This is
known as “stroke and distance.”
2. Drop anywhere on the flagline. (The flagline is the line-of-sight to the hole. IT IS NOT THE LINE OF FLIGHT!!! THERE IS NO
SUCH THING AS DROPPING ON THE LINE OF FLIGHT.) Imagine a line that begins
at the hole, passes through where your ball lies, and continues straight back
behind your ball. You may drop anywhere on this “flagline,” behind your ball.
3. Drop a ball within two club-lengths of where the
unplayable ball lies, no closer to the hole. Note that if two club-lengths
don’t give you the relief you want, each successive two-club-length drop will
cost you an additional penalty stroke.
You have similar relief options for a ball in a water
hazard, all of which include a one-stroke penalty:
1. Play another ball under stroke and distance (see #1
above).
2. Drop a ball on the flagline (see #2 above).
3. Additionally, if the ball lies in a lateral water hazard
(marked with red stakes), you may drop a ball within two club-lengths of the
spot where your ball last crossed the margin of the hazard (or on a spot on the
opposite side of the hazard that is equidistant from the hole). Your relief is not measured from where your
ball landed in the water; it is from where your ball passed the stake or
crossed over the red line on its way into the lateral hazard.
Tournaments are only fair if everyone is observing the same
rules. Please take some time to review your rulebook. For those of you who are
unaware, I write a rules column online that answers questions about the Rules
of Golf in plain English (not in Rules-speak). It is called “Ask Linda: Golf
Rules You Can Understand.” This is a blog that you can subscribe to for free.
Check it out: http://lindamillergolf.blogspot.com
Regards,
Linda
