Immovable obstacle – Where is the player allowed to drop?
Question:
This hinders the player’s stance or swing.
Where is the player allowed to drop the ball?
Answer:
Procedure:
1. Determine the nearest point of complete relief
- The nearest point where neither the position of the ball, the player’s stance nor the swing is affected by the obstruction.
- Not nearer the hole.
- This point may also be in the rough!
2. Determine the relief area
- One club-length from the nearest point of full relief
- Not closer to the hole
- In the same area of the course (i.e. the fairway remains the fairway)
3. Dropping
- From knee height
- The ball must come to rest within the relief area.
Important for discussions:
It is not a question of the ‘best’ spot, but of the nearest point of full relief – even if this is less favourable.
Hans-Kienesberger, specialist in regulatory affairs
Hans Kienesberger took up golf in 1988; he passed the ÖGV referee examination in 1998; in 2000, he became a member of the ÖGV Championship Committee; in 2005, he passed the R&A referee examination in St Andrews with a score of 80 per cent; ÖGV Tournament Director and has also officiated on the European Tour – for example, as a referee at the ‘Dunhill Links’ in St Andrews at the invitation of the European Tour.
Anyone who says, ‘Let’s not be too strict about the rules of golf – we’re not playing “The Open” after all’, is playing some sort of ball game, but certainly not golf.
Fundamentally, golf is all about the ‘Spirit of the Game’
Contact:
Hans Kienesberger
ÖGV Championship/Rules Committee
Tel: +43 664 4430602 or +43 664 88524740
Email: hans.kienesberger@golf.at