Hi Linda,
Today during a competition there was a situation that nobody
definitively could answer; hence I’m calling on the master herself.
The situation was that the four of us drove off and our balls
ended up in different places. The hole was a par 4 and there was a concrete
cart path running down the right-hand side of the hole, running from tee to
green in a straight line. One guy’s ball landed on the right-hand side of the
cart path and ended up in ground marked GUR. The area of GUR was approximately
5 metres long and 3 metres wide and the left edge of the GUR bordered the right-hand
edge of the cart path. The guy’s ball was approximately 1 metre in from the
left side of the GUR.
Upon approaching his ball he stated: “GUR, I’ll take a drop.”
It was said to him that the Nearest Point of Relief (NPR) was to drop to the
right-hand side of the GUR, taking the guy further off line from the hole he
was playing. The player said ‘NO, I drop on the cart path and then re-drop,”
taking him to the left side of the GUR and then the left side of the cart path
For reference, if the guy took this option the ball would
not have stayed within 1 club length of landing on the path so it would have
resulted in him placing the ball on the path at the point where it first
touched down. With this in mind, he would then have engineered the drop spot,
placed the ball on that spot and then taken relief from the path to the left
side, because the left side would have been the NPR. If this process were
followed, then relief would have resulted in a 7 metre drop rather than a 2
metre drop if he had have dropped to the right of the GUR.
Can you drop and then drop again, knowing in advance you
will be dropping twice?
What was the correct ruling for this situation?
Kind regards,
Lou from Sunshine Coast, Australia
Dear Lou,
In seeking free relief for a ball that lies in ground under
repair (GUR) through the green, the player must drop within one club-length of
the nearest point of relief that is no closer to the hole [Rule 25-1b (i)]. The
player may not drop in a hazard or on a putting green, but he most certainly
may (and must) drop on the cart path
if that is the nearest point of relief.
The correct procedure is to drop the ball on the cart path.
Assuming the ball does not roll into a position that would require a re-drop
(please read Rule 20-2c), and the dropped ball remains on the cart path, the
player now faces a new situation (and a new reference point for taking relief).
Since he is entitled to free relief from the cart path, he may now drop the ball
within one club-length of the nearest point of relief from where his ball lies
on the cart path, no closer to the hole.
The player in your narrative would not drop on the right
side of the GUR unless the nearest point of relief for his stance and swing were
on that side. Assuming a right-handed golfer and the ball lying a third of the
way into the GUR, the nearest point of relief will be to his left, on the cart
path.
I would like to clear up two misunderstandings for you. You
wrote: “For reference, if the guy took this option the ball would not have
stayed within 1 club length of landing on the path so it would have resulted in
him placing the ball on the path at the point where it first touched down.”
When a player is required to drop a ball within one club-length of a specific
spot, the ball, when dropped, may roll up to two club-lengths from the spot
where it first hit the ground [Rule 20-2c (vi)]. It does not have to remain in
that one-club-length area. It is entirely possible for the ball to hit the cart
path, roll two club-lengths, and settle off the cart path on a spot where there
is no interference for the player’s next shot. It is also possible for the ball
to settle on the left side of the cart path, and for the player to end up
hitting his next shot (after his drop from the GUR and his subsequent drop from
the cart path) a significant distance from where his ball originally lay in the
GUR [Decision 20-2c/1].
Also, please be aware that a drop from GUR that settles on a
cart path does not require a re-drop. If the drop gives the player complete
relief from the GUR, the drop is good. The player has a new situation when his
ball lies on the cart path (interference by an immovable obstruction). He must
now decide whether to take free relief from this new situation. His drop from
the cart path is not a re-drop, but rather his first drop under a different
Rule (24-2b (i)].
Linda
Copyright © 2017 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
