The post Rules Guy: I added an alignment sticker to my putter. That’s legal, right? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: I added an alignment sticker to my putter. That’s legal, right? appeared first on Golf.

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.

I bought an Odyssey Ai-ONE putter last year; this year’s model added a white half-circle on top for alignment. Rather than plunk down my credit card again, I bought white circle stickers, cut one in half, affixed it to my “old” putter and — voilà! — I have the new putter, or a reasonable approximation. But is it a Rules violation? — Thomas Kapp, Hartsdale, NY

Thomas, we have a name for your putter: the Kapp Sticky Half-Moon DIY. All we ask for is a 10 percent cut of future sales….

For definitive word, the USGA would certainly want to view at least an image of your modification; essentially, however, it depends upon the nature of the adhesive used to affix the sticker to the top of the clubhead.

Let us introduce you to the applicable Equipment Rule — Part 2, 1a, the external attachment clause. Historically, the Equipment Rules prohibited any external attachment to the club other than a few exceptions based on traditional use. Two well-known examples were lead tape for weighting and fixing a suction cup to the butt of the grip to facilitate lifting the ball from the hole. (These exceptions, and a couple of others, still apply.) The exceptions were all regarded as temporary in nature — that is, they weren’t bonded to the club and, if so, they were considered a part of the club such that the club would have to confirm to all provisions in its altered form.

Rules

Rules Guy: I made my own USGA-conforming putter grip. Can I use it in competition?

By: Rules Guy

Still with us? We’re proud of you. In the 2000s, the Equipment Rules were modified to allow for other forms of adjustment on all clubs upon review by the governing bodies. (Yes, weight adjustability had been permitted as far back at the 1980s, and other forms expanded to putters later.) A guideline was created to provide guardrails around what could be permitted.

And breathe…. So, why all this background? Provided that the sticker you affixed doesn’t encroach into the face and is considered in nature either permanent or semi-permanent (durable, not easily removable, and not reusable and/or must be essentially destroyed upon removable), the application of such a sticker would be permissible.

You got that? Permissible.  

Had enough? No? Okay, see Equipment Rules, Interpretation 1.a(5). Its most relevant part: “Attachments to the clubhead (other than the face), such as protective coverings, decorative items or alignment aids, provided the item is semi-permanent. However, such items must not excessively protrude from the clubhead and must conform to the shape of the clubhead. Permanent additions to a clubhead would be considered part of the head and, therefore, the head, in its modified state, would have to conform to Part 2, Section 4 of the Equipment Rules (i.e. for dimensions and “plain in shape”).”

And with that, Rules Guy is off for a long nap.

Odyssey Ai-DUAL 1/2 Ball Square 2 Square Max Cruiser Custom Putter

$449.99$349.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

For more club-modification guidance from our guru, read on …

I’m a player who can’t wait to see the ball go in (or miss) the hole when putting, so I tend to look up too early. To cure this habit, I wrote “Don’t look” up on top of the putterhead as a reminder. A buddy hinted that I may be violating a rule. Am I? —Romy Dionisius, Tempe, Ariz.

In a word, no … assuming that you’re using, say, a Sharpie. Engraving is also legal. (Rules Guy has “Make this…or else!” tattooed on his own flatstick.)

You could run into issues that might render the club nonconforming by taping or otherwise fastening instructions to old Billy Baroo. So, please, no Post-It notes or dry-erase boards.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: I added an alignment sticker to my putter. That’s legal, right? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to touch your intended line to remove loose impediments? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to touch your intended line to remove loose impediments? appeared first on Golf.

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.

At this year’s Players Championship, Xander Schauffele’s caddie appeared to touch the green on Xander’s line while picking up a loose impediment. What is the rule? —Jim Kelly, Lewisville, NC

Rules 8.2b and 8.1a(2) both mention in that you can’t (a) alter conditions to effect where the ball may go after the next stroke, or (b) move loose impediments to improve the line of play, which seems to restrict the amount of moving of loose impediments you can do. In a scenario where someone wants to putt from a long distance off a green, can they remove all loose impediments along the line all the way to the hole? —Mark McBride, via email

With apologies to the Audubon Society, we’re going to kill two birds with one stone here.

Jim, your question likely arises from the pre-2019 prohibition on touching the line of putt, which no longer applies. Under the relevant Rule, 8.1, the player may touch their line of play on the putting green so long as they don’t improve the conditions affecting the stroke; this covers the player’s caddie, too.

As for you, Mark, yes, the player can remove all those loose impediments, which is allowed anywhere on the course; Rule 8.1 leads off by saying this. Rule 8.1a(2) primarily concerns moving loose impediments into position to build a stance. While nothing prohibits a player from removing said impediments from one’s line, providing it can be done without delaying play, one caveat: per Rule 15.1, you can’t move loose impediments once the ball is already in motion. Most golfers aren’t that quick anyway.

For more loose-impediment guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: Is a dead animal considered a loose impediment?

By: Rules Guy

My home course has large rocks bordering several ponds, and my ball came to rest about two inches from some of these rocks, which are loose and easily moved. Question: Can they be treated as loose impediments and moved without penalty, or are they considered part of a hazard and must be left undisturbed? There are no red lines marking a hazard boundary. —Ted Staroscik, Darien, IL

As long as the rocks are easily movable — by you, not a backhoe — they are in fact considered loose impediments.

Under Rule 15.1, they can be moved, whether they’re inside, outside or defining a penalty area, or anywhere else, under the most recent revision. So you can rock-and-roll on rolling the rocks! (Or just lift them….)

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to touch your intended line to remove loose impediments? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: A bounce off the OB stake kept my ball in play. Is that legal? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: A bounce off the OB stake kept my ball in play. Is that legal? appeared first on Golf.

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.

If my ball hits the out-of-bounds marker, which blocks it from going out of bounds, does that count as going out of bounds? Thank you! – Michael Stover, age 12

Hello, Michael! It’s nice to know that Rules Guy has some young readers — and maybe someone to take over the column from him when he retires.

While golf can be a harsh game at times, it’s not that harsh. The Rules of Golf aren’t opposed to good luck when it comes, and if a boundary object such as a stake prevents your ball from going OB and instead keeps it in play, then your ball is just that —in play.

Rule 18.2 says that the entire ball must come to rest out of bounds to be OB, and the Rules don’t care what the ball may have accidentally hit on the way to staying in bounds. Thank the golf gods for your good fortune and happily move along. Here’s hoping that fortune follows you throughout your journey in the sport.

Rules

Rules Guy: What do you do if the nearest point of relief is OB?

By: Rules Guy

For more OB guidance from our guru, read on …

Our course has an in-course OB to protect players on an adjacent fairway. About 240 yards out, in said fairway, is the last OB stake. Our pro says the OB extends on a line parallel to the last two OB stakes “indefinitely.” I say OB ends at the last stake. Who’s correct? – Tim Slauter, West Lafayette, Ind.

The answer should be specified by the local rule that creates the boundary; if not, the pro, as the de facto committee, is the decider.

Important to note: Boundaries and markings don’t just “stop,” and when a marking “ends,” typically it is by either tying into another marking or is extended to infinity. Your pro appears to be alluding to the latter, which is generally indicated by a “double-stake” marking, with two stakes placed within a yard of each other.

As to what the marking should be, that depends upon the nature of this internal OB and the geography — and is above our pay grade.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: A bounce off the OB stake kept my ball in play. Is that legal? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: I abandoned my lost ball — then found it in the hole! What now? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: I abandoned my lost ball — then found it in the hole! What now? appeared first on Golf.

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 friendly 4-ball, teeing off on a blind par-4, my playing partner could not find her tee shot. The group searched for more than 3 minutes for her ball. My partner decided to “pick up” rather than head back to the tee. Soon enough, another player in the group checked the hole for fun — no one had thought to look there, since it was a par-4 … and there it was. A hole-in-one! But was it really, given the circumstances? – Teresa White, Purchase, NY

Really, it was, even if it sounds like the group didn’t get the free round of drinks owed at the 19th hole.

Your partner indeed made a hole-in-one — and, even rarer, an albatross to boot! The fact that the ball wasn’t found in the search time didn’t matter, nor did her “picking up,” because she had already completed the hole. Rule 6.5, “Completing Play of a Hole,” completely covers this situation.

For the answer to another hole-in-one query, read on …

Rules

Is it a hole-in-one if a ball hits a modified hole and bounces out? Rules Guy

By: Rules Guy

A member at our club made an ace, then called a penalty on himself, claiming he teed the ball ahead of the marker. All this to avoid paying for drinks after the round, when tabs have reached $2,000. Was this legal? – John Karam, St. Petersburg, Fla.

The thrill of victory and the agony of… the bar tab.

Let’s say this occurred in match play. Under Rule 6.1b, which covers playing from inside the teeing area, the opponent gets to choose whether to cancel Mr. Cheap Ace’s stroke, so if that opponent prefers a free drink and losing the hole, so be it — don’t cancel the stroke and the hole in one stands.

In stroke play, once the player has called the penalty on himself, he gets two penalty strokes — but remember, the stroke into the hole now doesn’t count and the player has to correct the mistake by playing from within the teeing area (as opposed to “That’s a 1 with a 2-stroke penalty for a 3”).

If he doesn’t correct the mistake, he’s disqualified. Some might argue that a player calling a penalty to gain an advantage is antithetical to golf’s spirit, and the Committee could go the DQ route via serious misconduct under Rule 1.2a.

But the game of golf assumes honorable golfers and takes them at their word, unless there’s hard evidence to the contrary. Suspicions aren’t facts, and the “advantage” here is purely financial, not competitive — quite the contrary, since he has cost himself strokes. Maybe it seems a bit naive, but Rules Guy, for one, prefers it that way, even if it means paying for his own single-malt Scotch at the 19th hole.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: I abandoned my lost ball — then found it in the hole! What now? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: My playing partner’s ball collided with mine while it was still in motion. What now? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: My playing partner’s ball collided with mine while it was still in motion. What now? appeared first on Golf.

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.

In my local men’s league, we’re required to play ready golf. We were already 9 minutes behind, and the ranger warned us to pick up the pace or risk having to skip a hole. Long story short: one of the (super-slow) guys in our group stubs a chip. I’m all set and decide to putt while he’s apparently switching to a putter. My ball is two feet from the pin, looking like it might drop for birdie, when from out of nowhere his skulled chip collides with my putt, working out a lot better for him than for me. We played the next ones from where they lay— after I laid into him verbally. My questions: Does “ready golf” have any legal standing? Does he have any responsibility to look before playing his shot? And did we do the right thing, never mind the yelling? – Mark Toor, Boca Raton, FL

The act of playing ready golf is admirable, so kudos to your time-sensitive league officials. That said, it is as relevant as whether one’s shirt is tucked in — nowhere does the notion of ready golf change the outcomes of relevant Rules.

In your understandably irritating scenario, you made a stroke from the putting green, and it was then accidentally deflected by another ball in motion — which happens to be a movable obstruction. The correct procedure, under Rule 11.1b, was for him to play it as it lies but for you to cancel your stroke and replay it. Had you known this, well, it might have saved you some agita, though it wouldn’t have saved you any time.

For more collision guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: On a par 3, my partner's shot knocked my ball into the hole! Is it an ace?

By: Rules Guy

On a par 4, my buddy hit a drive into the trees. He topped his provisional down the fairway but managed to knock his next shot onto the front of the green. While looking for my own wayward drive, I found his original ball. Sure enough, his second shot with this ball hits his provisional on the fly and ricochets to within a foot of the hole for a tap-in birdie … I think. Does his provisional ball count as an outside agency and get treated as a rub of the green, or would it be considered part of his equipment and so subject to a penalty? – Sean Harvey, via email

As the noted Scottish golf rules expert Rod Stewart once put it, “Some guys have all the luck/Some guys have all the pain/Some guys get all the breaks/Some guys do nothing but complain…” Which guy is your pal? The lucky one (which, if this was match play, makes you the pained one).

Since the provisional was no longer in play, Rule 19-5 doesn’t apply. In equity and by analogy to Rule 19-5a (check out Decision 19-5/5 if you’ve got a minute to kill) there’s no penalty and the ball is played as it lies. So it’s a strange bird, but a bird all the same.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: My playing partner’s ball collided with mine while it was still in motion. What now? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: My playing partner accidentally hit my ‘lost’ ball. What now? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: My playing partner accidentally hit my ‘lost’ ball. What now? appeared first on Golf.

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.

A fellow competitor and I both hit our drives into the left rough. While I was looking for my ball, the other player found what he thought was his ball and chipped out to the fairway. Eventually, three-plus minutes later, I started back to the tee under the lost ball rule…at which point the other player realized the ball he chipped out was mine. Can I replace my ball and play on with no penalty? Or does the three-minute search rule mean my ball was “lost”? Does the other player just go back to the tee and proceed, or is he also penalized for playing the wrong ball? – Chad Allred, via email

This is, well, a rough situation. Also unfortunate. The fact that you didn’t find your ball or learn the ball the other player had chipped out was in fact yours within the three-minute search time is the, er, driving factor here: Your ball is lost and your only option is to proceed under stroke and distance and go back to the tee.

This may be cold comfort, but your fellow competitor does still get a penalty for playing a wrong ball, and now he must correct his own mistake with an additional two penalty strokes tacked on to his score, per Definition of Lost, Rule 6.3c, and Known or Virtually Certain/3. His stroke at the wrong ball doesn’t count; assuming he didn’t find his own ball within any search time that remained to do so, he is hitting 5 off the tee.

Rules

Rules Guy: In a best-ball match, are both players penalized if search time expires for a lost ball?

By: Rules Guy

For more lost ball-related guidance from our guru, read on …

A local course I often play has several permanent Ground Under Repair areas that have provoked discussion. If a ball is hit so far into one that it can’t be found, is it a lost ball, or does the GUR take precedence? – John Reed, via e-mail

Has all this GUR been designated a national park? It sounds quite impressive.

As to Rules ramifications, the issue boils down to certitude. If it is known, or virtually certain, that the ball is lost within the GUR — say, 95.012 percent likelihood or above, for you statistical types — then the player is entitled to free relief.

Use the point that the ball last entered the GUR, determine the nearest point of complete relief from there, and drop within one club length, no closer to the hole. If the player thinks that maybe the ball entered GUR (or just wishes it were so), the dreaded stroke-and-distance penalty applies.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: My playing partner accidentally hit my ‘lost’ ball. What now? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: My divot impeded my next shot. Can I stomp on it? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: My divot impeded my next shot. Can I stomp on it? appeared first on Golf.

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.

I had a short chip off an uphill lie and ended up hitting about six inches behind the ball. The resulting divot stood straight up behind the ball, such that I couldn’t play toward the target on my next attempt. I tamped the divot back down, counted the whiff and played the next shot. Was the tamping allowed, or is there a penalty for altering my lie after the whiff? —Dan Bundy, Lawrenceburg, Ky.

Dan, are you related to the hapless shoe salesman Al Bundy from Married With Children? (Rules Guy knows more than just his Shakespeare.) Because, in this instance, insult was added to injury.

You were not allowed to repair the divot, alas, because it improved your lie and, from your description, your area of intended swing too. Rule 8.1 protects those areas from improvement in certain ways, and altering the ground is one of them. In addition to the whiff, shoe-horn two more strokes onto your score.

For more divot-related guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: The drop zone is full of divots. Can I drop behind it instead?

By: Rules Guy

Upon reaching our drives, my playing partner and I found that our golf balls were touching and perfectly lined up toward the hole. My ball was in front, so I marked it. His approach produced a massive divot; to replace my ball in its original spot would have meant being in this newly created divot. I claimed I was entitled to a free drop, he said I wasn’t. Who was right? —Brick Rigden, Parkville, Mo.

In a word, neither.

Under Rule 14.2d, you were entitled to relief but not a drop.

When you lifted for interference, you were required to replace the ball … but when the lie of a ball to be replaced is altered, you must replace it in a specific way. Namely, by replacing it on the nearest spot with a lie most similar to the original lie that’s within one club-length of said spot, no nearer the hole and in the same area of the course.

(Your scenario, we will note, more commonly occurs in bunkers, but the process is the same.) We hope this info doesn’t hit you like a ton of bricks, Brick!

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: My divot impeded my next shot. Can I stomp on it? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to lean on a tree for support while hitting? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to lean on a tree for support while hitting? appeared first on Golf.

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.

To save yourself from having to take an unplayable, is it legal to lean on a tree for support while hitting a ball in an awkward lie? —Jane Fussell, Arlington, Texas

Lean on Rules Guy when you’re not sure and he’ll be your friend. He’ll help you carry on….

Anyway, while you are not allowed to accept physical assistance from another person to help make a stroke (Rule 10.2b( 5)) or use other equipment for this purpose (Rule 4.3), leaning on nature isn’t going to get you in trouble here.

Rules

Rules Guy: Can you take free relief from newly planted but unstaked trees?

By: Rules Guy

Please note: This applies to leaning on, for example, a sturdy oak that is supporting you and not a skinny fledgling that you’re bending out of the way, which would be a different matter altogether.

For more tree-related guidance from our guru, read on …

If I dislodge leaves or break a branch during my backswing, do I incur a penalty? —Robert Santoli

If a tree falls and no one hears it, is it still a loose impediment? What is the sound of one hand gauging wind direction? We digress.

Rule 8.1b covers actions you’re allowed to take even if you improve one of the conditions affecting your stroke, and you’ll be pleased to learn that there is no penalty in the case of you breaking something that creates an improvement during a backswing for the stroke that you go on to make.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to lean on a tree for support while hitting? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: What do you do if the nearest point of relief is OB? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: What do you do if the nearest point of relief is OB? appeared first on Golf.

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.

A friend and I were playing when her ball landed just off the cart path. Because she would be standing on the cart path to hit her ball, she could take free relief. The course, however, had staked out of bounds such that she didn’t have enough room to drop her ball and still be off the cart path. The quandary: Are you allowed to drop the ball nearest the point of relief on the other side of the path, no closer to the hole? Or do you go back to the nearest point of relief where you can drop on the same side of the path the ball originally landed to a point where you would not be standing on the path? – Maurine Karabatsos, Jackson, Wyo. 

Not only allowed, Maurine, but that’s what Rule 16.1b would tell you to do.

If you can’t keep the ball on the course where you’d get free relief, you must find the nearest point that is on the course — and in the general area—no nearer the hole that does give complete relief, then you get a club-length from there. That’s the straight and narrow path.

For more OB-related guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Rules Guy: My ball hit a lawnmower and bounced OB. Is that a penalty?

By: Rules Guy

Our course has an in-course OB to protect players on an adjacent fairway. About 240 yards out, in said fairway, is the last OB stake. Our pro says the OB extends on a line parallel to the last two OB stakes “indefinitely.” I say OB ends at the last stake. Who’s correct? – Tim Slauter, West Lafayette, Ind.

The answer should be specified by the local rule that creates the boundary; if not, the pro, as the de facto committee, is the decider.

Important to note: Boundaries and markings don’t just “stop,” and when a marking “ends,” typically it is by either tying into another marking or is extended to infinity. Your pro appears to be alluding to the latter, which is generally indicated by a “double-stake” marking, with two stakes placed within a yard of each other.

As to what the marking should be, that depends upon the nature of this internal OB and the geography — and is above our pay grade.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: What do you do if the nearest point of relief is OB? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is a dead animal considered a loose impediment? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is a dead animal considered a loose impediment? appeared first on Golf.

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.

In a recent round, my drive wound up near a decomposing animal carcass that interfered with my swing path. After my group said a quick silent prayer for the dearly departed, we decided it was a loose impediment … but nobody wanted to watch me heave up my breakfast by trying to move it, so we decided a free drop was appropriate. Is there an actual rule that covers this situation? – Mickey Boland, via email 

Thank you, Mickey, for not specifying the animal, so that Rules Guy doesn’t have too clear a picture in his head.

The first decision you all made was correct — the dearly departed was indeed also a loose impediment. Here’s where it gets a little … messy: As a loose impediment, your free relief was to remove the carcass, which you are allowed to do in any way, so you need not have put your hands on it, and so forth, but a free drop would only be granted if the Committee decided to grant relief for ground under repair (see Definition of Loose Impediment and Rule 15.1).

If it were the remains of a larger animal, that might have been the appropriate solution. Regardless, Rules Guy will pass on the steak tartare tonight.

Rules

Rules Guy: What are the legal limits when removing loose impediments?

By: Rules Guy

For more loose-impediment guidance from our guru, read on …

When playing under winter rules, is it permissible to place your ball on a worm cast to elevate your ball prior to your shot? – Mike Dearden, via email

Mike, Rules Guy is going to be honest with you: we had to look up “worm cast.” You’re always learning in this business.

As to legality, when put into effect by the committee “winter rules,” a.k.a. the preferred lies local rule, lets you place the ball within a specified distance.

Beyond that, however, it’s still undergirded by the notion of playing the course as you find it. If there is worm cast (a loose impediment) within the specified radius of where your shot came to rest, you are by all means free to place your ball atop it — you just can’t pull some from beyond that area, or from your pants pocket or your golf bag, et cetera.

That said, if before you make your stroke the ball were to move due to natural forces, you’d have to play it as it lies — no replacing the ball atop the worm cast. And, with that, Rules Guy hopes and expects never to type “worm cast” again.

Need a handicap? Get started here.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

The post Rules Guy: Is a dead animal considered a loose impediment? appeared first on Golf.