Dear Linda,
The local rule says: Yardage posts are immovable obstructions.
Post “251 yards” is to tell the player "end of
fairway" (for a dog leg right to left), and it is fixed to the tree next
to the fairway. [The reader enclosed a
photo of a vertical board, the same width as the tree, affixed to the trunk.]
If the swing is interfered with by post 251, do we
get a free drop? In this case, if no 251 sign, the player is still interfered
with by the tree…
Regards,
Lou from Thailand
Dear Lou,
No free drop.
The Exception to Rule 24-2b (Relief from Immovable
Obstructions) states that "a player may not take relief under this Rule if
interference by anything other than an immovable obstruction makes the stroke
clearly impracticable…." This Exception clearly applies to your situation.
It is not the distance marker that impedes the player’s swing; it is the tree.
If the marker were pried off the tree, the player would still have the
identical problem. There is no free relief for a backswing impeded by a tree.
The purpose of the Exception is clearly explained in the
answer to Decision 24-2b/19, which includes the following statement: “The
purpose of the Exception…is to prevent the player from fortuitously obtaining
free relief when it is clearly impracticable for him to make a stroke because
of interference by something from which free relief is not available." In
the situation you describe, where the yardage marker is attached to the tree,
the tree is clearly the problem.
Linda
Copyright © 2015 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
