The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.
During a stroke-play tournament, I drove a ball into the bush of an unfenced backyard with no stakes or markers in sight. As we rode up, we found a woman retrieving my ball from the bush. She asked whose ball it was and tossed it to me. Given that the ball was clearly in the bush before it was retrieved, I decided to take lateral relief for an unplayable. Another player in the group said there was an additional two-stroke penalty for playing from the wrong place: His view was that I needed to have the woman replace the ball where it had been before taking relief. After a calm discussion, he was overruled. Did we get it right? —Al Zolin, Brookshire, Texas
Sounds like it, although Rules Guy would have paid good money to see you ask the nice lady to please put the ball back in the bush where she found it — that would have been a hoot!
Rule 9.6 does require you to replace your ball when it’s been moved by an outside influence, but Rule 14.2c allows the player to take relief without first replacing the ball, in this case so long as the correct reference point (the original spot of the ball) was known and used.
For more relief guidance from our guru, read on …
Rules Guy: When parts of the cart path are marked as a penalty area, can you still take free relief?
I hit my tee shot on a par 3 well over the green onto the tee box on the next hole. As I prepared to hit my recovery shot, I noticed that the ball washer interfered with my intended swing. I notified my playing partner that I was taking free relief. He said that the ball washer was a permanent structure, and I had to play my ball as it lies. Instead, I took proper relief, no nearer to the hole, hit an amazing chip, and made the putt for par. He said I should put down a bogey for taking an unplayable lie. Who was correct? —Matt Davis, Woodbury, Minn.
Matt, the answer depends on whether there was any fluid in the ball washer. Kidding! The answer depends on whether the ball washer was movable or not.
Based on your description, it sounds like it was permanently installed, in which case you were allowed to take free relief since it interfered with your area of intended swing, per Rule 16.1a(1). Thus, provided the relief taken was correct (i.e., nearest point of complete relief, one club-length, no nearer the hole) then there is no penalty.
It is worth noting that the other outcome would have been playing from a wrong place, which earns you the general penalty of 2 strokes, not 1 stroke for unplayable, since you had no intent to proceed under the unplayable Rule. That is also the outcome if the washer were in fact movable, since the free relief permitted for movable obstructions is to move the object out of the way.
