Please have a look at this golf occurrence and provide me
with the correct ruling:
While playing golf with friends:
I struck my golf ball badly and the ball disappeared
into a hole, in the sandy face of a bunker, made by a burrowing animal
(Rabbit).
Peering into hole (in fact it was long enough to describe it
as a tunnel), I could see the ball some 6 to 7 feet further in but had
difficulty reaching it to properly identify it as mine.
My playing partners then, by looking down another hole (same
tunnel), outside of the bunker, spotted a ball which I retrieved and identified
as mine. The ball was still in the “tunnel,” which extended through the bunker
to an area outside of the bunker.
Clearly, my ball, where it came to rest, was
unplayable and I needed to take a penalty drop in order to continue play.
What, between us, we could not agree on, was whether the
ball should be dropped in to the bunker where it had originally entered into
the tunnel, or as close to the area of retrieval, which was beyond the boundary
of the bunker where the ball had come to rest.
Whether the ball had been retrieved, from either point of
entry, it appeared to have rolled and come to rest outside of what you could
deem “the bunker.”
In the end, after considerable debate, I dropped my ball
outside of the bunker, taking a vertical line from where the ball had come to
rest.
Still today, we are discussing this incident and we
obviously are still completely unsure of what the correct procedure should have
been. (I have asked many experienced golf club members and I keep getting
different answers.)
Because the ball had rolled so far into the tunnel, how
could it possibly be deemed “in the bunker?”
What if the ball had rolled so far as to come to rest,
taking a vertical line, in an area deemed “out of bounds?”
So, please, over to you, can you provide me with the correct
decision as I have trawled through the rulebook and even “decisions” to find
the correct answers?
Thank you in eager anticipation of your response.
Lou from North Wales, UK
Dear Lou,
In essence, you are describing a ball that enters a
burrowing animal hole inside a bunker and comes to rest further along the hole
at a point outside the bunker.
Such a ball is deemed to be outside the bunker. You may drop
a ball within one club-length of the point on the ground that is directly above
where your ball lies in the hole. There is no penalty for this drop. You are
entitled to free relief for a ball in a burrowing animal hole, which comes
under the heading of “abnormal ground
condition.” This drop must, of course, be no closer to the hole, not in the
bunker, and not on the green [Rule 25-1b (i)].
Carrying this scenario one step further, if the ball entered
the hole in the bunker and settled underneath a putting green, your free relief
would not be in the bunker or on the green. In this unusual case, you would
take your drop within one club-length of the point that is nearest to where the
ball lies that is no closer to the hole, not in the bunker, and not on the
green.
Regarding your second question about a ball entering a burrowing
animal hole in bounds and coming to rest out of bounds, such a ball is
officially out of bounds. You will incur a one-stroke penalty and will have to
play your next stroke from the spot where you hit your previous shot. In the
reverse situation (the ball enters a hole out of bounds and settles in bounds
but still under the ground) the ball is deemed to be in bounds. Your free drop
will be within one club-length of the point on the ground that is directly
above where the ball lies underground.
The easiest way to remember all of this is to visualize your
ball directly above where it lies underground in the abnormal ground condition.
Your relief will be governed by the
location on the course of that above-ground spot in accordance with the relief
options provided in Rule 25.
The Decisions you will want to read are 25-1b/23, /24, and
/25.
Linda
Copyright © 2014 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
