Lou from Virginia
Dear Lou,
Excellent point. If a player hits his ball into an immovable
obstruction (such as a trash can), he is entitled to free relief. It wouldn’t
matter if the player could not recover the ball, as long as his fellow
competitor(s) witnessed the ball enter the obstruction.
The player must drop the
ball (if he recovers it) or a ball
(if he cannot retrieve it or it is lost in the obstruction) within one
club-length of the nearest point of relief that is no closer to the hole [Rule
24-2b or 24-3b]. If the ball is not found, the ball is deemed to lie at the
spot where it last crossed into the obstruction; in measuring relief he will
use that spot as his reference point.
This is a free drop. If the player prefers not to seek
relief near the obstruction (perhaps the area in which he would have to drop is
deep rough), he may play another ball under stroke and distance and add one
penalty stroke to his score (which was the procedure chosen by the subject of
Ask Linda #782).
Linda
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