RULES NEWSLETTER
PART 5
Dear Member,
As there have been several changes to the Rules of Golf and various questions have been asked of committee members after competition rounds, it was agreed that we would address some of the more common scenarios that occur when playing the Indiana Course, with a series of regular Rules Newsletters, of which this is the fifth in the series.
Part 1 (for those who missed it) can be found here Part 2 here and Part 3 here Part 4 here
The Committee
The silence around the fire was broken by the sudden clamour of a mobile phone going off in someone´s pocket.
Young George started guiltily and reached into his pocket. Squirming into his seat, and covering the phone with his hand, he mumbled as quietly as he could into the phone “yes, hello”.
“No, of course, I hadn´t”.
“Yes, I know they´re very dear to you”.
“Yes, but I can´t leave just yet”.
“No, no, it´s, well, difficult, to explain”.
“Well, dash it, that´s all very well, but I have to play here, you know. I don´t want to risk not being invited on Tuesdays”.
“Yes”.
“Yes”.
“Yes, of course”.
He hurriedly stuffed the phone back in his pocket. The Oldest Member was casting him a glare with his best eye.
“I take it you´re finished now?” said the Oldest Member.
He sighed, “get me another Coke while I continue, there´s a good chap, and we´ll say no more of the incident”.
George signaled for another drink and shrunk as far into his seat as any man could.
The 12th hole passed by without remark, remarked the Oldest Member, but the same could not be said for Oh Mama!, the 13th hole.
Three good tee shots were played down the fairway, with even John electing for a sensible lay-up.
The problems started, however, with the second shots.
Bob´s shot with his 3 wood was a little low, clipped some trees on the right side of the fairway and came down on the intermediate fairway, running down the cart path towards the second barranca.
John´s shot was hooked badly, easily clearing the second barranca, but skipping across the desert area and towards the 14th tee.
“Oh, I´ll hit another one, just in case”, said John and proceeded to hit his next shot towards the green.
“I think you have to actually state it´s a Provisional Ball, don’t you?” said Bob. “Does that mean that´s now the ball in play, Chris”?
“No” replied Chris, “actually, the rules only say you have to state your intent to play a provisional ball, so ´just in case´ will do nicely. He could have said ´play another under Rule 18.3´ also, or something similar. As long as the intent is clearly there, it´s fine. You just can´t say ´think I´ll reload´ or ´I´ll hit another one´ or things like that, without qualifying it.
“Oh”, said Bob, surprised. “Well, I never”.
Chris played his second up towards the green, and they walked up the fairway.
As they reached the barranca, they could see a ball just short of the rocks bordering the barranca, which turned out to be Bob´s ball, almost wedged between two rocks.
“I can´t play that” he said, on getting to the ball.
“No” said Chris, “doesn´t look like it, that´s a bit unlucky”.
“And, you´re not in the Penalty area, so, you´ll have to declare it Unplayable and use Rule 19 relief options, if that’s what you want to do.”
“And those are?”
“Well, like the options John had from the Red Penalty area, you have Stroke and Distance, so, go back to where you last played from”.
“I´m not walking that far, it´s too ´ot” interjected Bob.
“No, well, you can also go Back On the Line from there, as far back as you like” he gestured at the ball, “or you can take Lateral Relief and drop within 2 club lengths of where the ball is, not nearer the hole, obviously”.
“Hmmm”, grunted Bob. “Let me see where 2 club lengths gets me”.
He measured off 2 club lengths, then asked, “if I drop it here, can it bounce another2 club lengths”?
“No” replied Chris, “it has to land and stay inside the 2-club length relief area”.
“Hmmm, not sure I like that, if I drop it there, I´ll be on the cart path, and I want to be on grass”.
“Let me think about going Back on the Line to the pin. If I drop it back there on the grass and it rolls onto the cart path, do I get to re-drop it”?
“Well, that depends”, said Chris.
“When you drop Back on the Line, just like mine from the Yellow Penalty area on 7, it has to land on the line to the pin and then stay in a 1 club length circle. If it rolls outside that, you must re-drop it, but not because it rolls on the cart path”.
“If it did roll onto the cart path, but was still inside the 1 club length, you´d have to play it from there, because the cart paths are all defined as Integral Objects, so you have to play from them”.
“Ok”, said Bob, “I think I´ll do that”.
While Bob took his penalty drop and prepared to play, John had walked over the barranca to find his ball.
After a minute of searching, he spotted his ball lying on the desert area near the edge of the 14th tee and called Chris over.
“So, my ball is here, but the seat for the tee is in the way of my swing, can I move it?”
“I don´t think that can be moved easily” pointed out Chris, “I think that´s an Immoveable Obstruction. Let´s have a look at your shot that you could play”.
John picked out the club he was planning to use to play towards the green and made a practice swing. It was obvious that the seat would be in the way of his follow through.
“Aye, you get relief from that”, said Chris. “An Immoveable Obstruction is covered by the same Abnormal Course Condition rule as your animal hole back on 11, so, you get the same relief again. Casual Water would come under the same rule too, you know.”
“So, I find the nearest point of complete relief and then have 1 club length relief area, no nearer the hole, right?”
Chris nodded agreement and they verified and marked the nearest point where his swing and stance weren´t obstructed by the seat.
John measured out his 1 club length from that point, then said “hey, if I drop it this side, I can drop it on the tee, is that allowed? I´ll have a great lie, then!”
Chris rolled his eyes, “jammy so and so” he thought to himself “why am I never that lucky?”
“Aye, lad,” he said “that, you can”, and he wandered back off to his own ball, leaving John to his good fortune.
RELIEF OPTIONS FOR UNPLAYABLE BALL IN GENERAL AREA
WHEN RELIEF IS ALLOWED FOR ABNORMAL COURSE CONDITION
