Hi Linda,
My drive ended up about three feet into a very prickly gorse
bush and was unplayable. I decided to take the two-club option. I carefully
measured out with my driver and marked correctly with tees, etc. The two club
lengths got me about two feet out from the bush. However, because of the slight
slope when I dropped the ball, it rolled back under the bush and was again
unplayable. I dropped the ball again but the guy I was playing with said that
if I dropped it again, it was another stroke penalty. What is the proper ruling
here?
Thanks,
Lou from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland
Dear Lou,
This is an excellent question, Lou. I suspect the answer
will surprise you, your fellow competitor, and a number of my readers.
When you take relief from an unplayable lie, the ball is in
play as soon as you drop it [Rule 20-4]. If it rolls back into the same
unplayable lie, or even a different unplayable lie, and you decide to take relief,
your second drop comes with another penalty stroke [Decision 28/3]. So if you
drop the ball three times, you will incur three penalty strokes – one for each
drop.
A player confronting an unplayable situation must carefully
assess his relief options. If the two-club-length option looks like it might be
troublesome (in your case, the sloping ground should have given you pause), and
the flagline option will not provide relief (often the case in a densely wooded
area), the best option might be to play under stroke and distance.
Both you and your fellow competitor confused Rule 28
(Unplayable Ball) with Rule 20-2c (When to Re-Drop). When a player is entitled
to free relief, and the dropped ball
rolls into a position where there is interference by the same condition, he must re-drop the ball, without penalty. After
the second drop, if he still has not gained relief, he must place the ball on
the spot where it hit the ground when it was re-dropped. If he lifts the ball
for a third drop and then plays it, he will incur a two-stroke penalty (loss of
hole in match play) [Rule 20-2c (v)]. This Rule applies only to the free relief that you would get from an
immovable obstruction, an abnormal ground condition (e.g., casual water, ground
under repair, burrowing animal hole), a wrong putting green, and the pitch mark
from your embedded ball.
Linda
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