The rules of golf are difficult! Luckily we have the guru. Our Rules Man knows the book from cover to cover. Do you have a question? He has all the answers.
At a recent tournament, my tee shot landed in a grassy area on the fairway and hit the ball of one of my playing partners, with my ball in front of his. Obviously I had to mark my ball so he could play his approach shot – which I did, on the side of our balls. His subsequent shot made the original gap much wider and deeper. We agreed that since it was not possible to recreate my original lie in the divot, I should place my ball next to it and continue playing. Call right? – Edward Kelly, Jr., via email
While it doesn’t affect our answer, Rules Guy assumes you played first rather than your drive skipping or turning back against your playing partner’s ball… but we digress.
So, did you make the right decision? Maybe.
Rules Guy: If I play favored lies, can I place my ball in the first cut instead of the fairway?
By means of:
Rules dude
First, recreating the lie would have been factually wrong; You only do that if your ball is in the sand and the position is changed. Under Rule 14.2d and Clarification 14.2d(2)/1 (which is a very similar scenario) the correct procedure is to place the ball in the nearest lie closest to the original, within one club length, no closer to the hole and still in the general area. Even though that lie may have been worse after your playing partner’s shot, it’s entirely possible that the new divot was the most similar. Or perhaps there was a similar divot within a club length in which you could have placed it.
Needless to say, it’s usually not the beautiful location on the fairway that is most similar, but it’s not impossible. Not more impossible than placing balls against each other in a divot…
For more lie-based guidance from our guru, read on…
We have the most unfair bunker in the world across from our 17th green. It’s two meters deep, but that’s the easy part. The shape is shaped like a funnel and there is only 0.001 centimeter of sand at the base. If I find myself in this abyss, can I lift my ball as unplayable, rake sand from the walls into the base, and then drop my ball to play, one penalty less? Thanks for listening. – Bill Herrick, East Moriches, NY
Rules Guy always tries to be a listening ear, and we were there with you for a moment – when you wanted to treat the ball as unplayable and avoid penalties. That’s kosher.
But like the sand in your cruel bunker – “the most unfair in the world” puts things to the test – your request was eroded when you thought about raking the sand where you plan to drop the ball, which, by improving your relief area, is verboten.
You simply drop the ball under one of the four options in Rule 19.3, three of which (stroke and distance, back on the line in the bunker, side relief in the bunker) incur a one penalty stroke and the other (back on the relief line outside the bunker) a two penalty stroke.
Other options: Try a sand wedge with less bounce or find a new home course.
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Do you have a question about the Rules? Ask the rules man! Send your questions, confusion and comments to ruleguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.
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