Hi Linda
I may have missed this, but I couldn’t find the situation
covered in any of your answers.
On our course we have protective fences beside several tees.
We get free relief from the fences as immovable obstructions.
Recently I hit my tee shot into one fence, and it stuck
there, too high to be safely retrieved. The ball could be clearly identified as
mine (because of brand and the distinctive marks I put on it).
It seems that there are three possible courses of action:
1. Treat it as unplayable, but use another ball, and take
stroke and drop/distance.
2. Treat it as lost, even though it can be seen, and return
to the tee.
3. Take free relief from the obstruction, but use another
ball.
After discussion with my fellow competitors I went with #1,
but I’m not sure whether that’s correct.
I also wonder what would have been the correct course of
action had I been able (or foolish enough) to retrieve the ball.
Regards
Lou from Melbourne, Australia
Dear Lou,
Relief from immovable obstructions is covered in Rule 24-2b.
If you look at Note 2 at the end of that Rule you will see that you are
permitted to substitute another ball if you are unable to retrieve your ball.
Accordingly, your #3 option (free relief, dropping a different ball) is the
correct procedure.
Incidentally, if you are able to identify your ball it is
not “lost.” There is no requirement to retrieve it. This is another situation
that demonstrates the importance of putting a personal identification mark on
your ball.
Linda
Copyright © 2016 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
