Free drop?

[USER1999]

Ok, so you are playing a friendly (?) match play on a strange course.

There is a way marked foot path across the fairway, that has also been used by machinery. There is a rut about 8" deep all along the path. You hit your shot down the fairway, and when you get there, there it is, 8" below ground level. Pretty unplayable.

You look at the local rules, on the back of the card. Nothing about relief.

Do you ask your playing partners for a drop?

 

[Putting_Green_Pro]

No, you get a free drop.

 

[USER1999]

Why? You only get a drop off a path if there is a local rule?

 

[painterboy]

Path is not man made, so is integral to the golf course so no relief, (unless local rule says differently).
Golf machinery making an 8" deep rut?
Guess it comes down to how friendly the game is!

 

[USER1999]

But that is an assumption, and there were no visible tread marks. It is also primarily a foot path, so needs a local rule for relief.

 

[Putting_Green_Pro]

I assumed that only tractor tyres could create an 8" rut. if so it is a free drop

 

[Putting_Green_Pro]

if there is no evidence of the tractor tyres, i suppose it is just tough luck. get the sand wedge out and put some sand in it

 

[Spinn77]

I'd have allowed you a drop in a friendly game.

Thought I'd lost my 'friendly' matchplay game today against my regular playing partner, 1 hole. Only to return to the clubhouse and discover he'd been cut after a committee meeting and he'd won a hole where he no longer got a shot, ha ha. All square! He was just a little annoyed....

 

[USER1999]

But would you ASK for one?

 

[Spinn77]

With a mate? I'd casually say 'I'm ok taking a free drop out of this farce, right?' and expect a tut and a nod

 

[Imurg]

I'd ask.
If you'd asked I'd probably give it in a friendly. But in a proper match, in this case, its harsh but no drop.

 

[Smiffy]

It's a local rule to get a free drop off of it Murph. Not on the scorecard as they've only just started using that track last year and the cards were most probably printed about 5 years ago but there is a notice up in the changing rooms and I think it was on the blackboard outside (although I may be wrong on that one). I didn't even realise you had landed on it. If I had seen it or if you had asked you would have got free relief. No question. Oh and it was definitely a "friendly" but you'd have got relief even if it wasn't. Unlike my mate on the 5th at Crowborough who asked for relief off of a road that he knew was an integral part of the course as he was a member there. And it was a "friendly"

 

[USER1999]

I did look on the notice boards for any such rules before playing, but didn't see anything.

Question isn't specifically about yesterday, as this sort of thing is quite common. My old course has similar paths, and an unwritten local rule. How useful is that.

 

[viscount17]

I'd have allowed you a drop in a friendly game.

Thought I'd lost my 'friendly' matchplay game today against my regular playing partner, 1 hole. Only to return to the clubhouse and discover he'd been cut after a committee meeting and he'd won a hole where he no longer got a shot, ha ha. All square! He was just a little annoyed....

don't think so, you win as he's DQ'd for playing off a wrong handicap

 

[Parmo]

We don't get relief off paths at our place bloody bugger with a new stick in your hand.

Quick High jack, If you ball ends up next to a wall and you take a pen drop, is it:-

within two clubs length no nearer the hole ?

or

any where no nearer the hole (in like an arc)?

I ask because some rules"worth" made me incur a two shot pen.

 

[bobmac]

Read the rule book.
Simple.

 

[Parmo]

Read the rule book.
Simple.

I'm blind, you a blindist is now Bob

 

[Leftie]

As a general idiot's guide, free drop 1 club length from nearest point of relief, penalty drop 2 club lengths - not nearer the hole. Also remember that the ball can roll up to 2 club lengths from where dropped, again not nearer the hole.

 

[bobmac]

For the visually impaired.
Rule 28
b.Drop a ball behind the point where the ball lay, keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind that point the ball may be dropped; or
c. Drop a ball within two club-lengths of the spot where the ball lay, but not nearer the hole.

 

[Parmo]

Rule 28 / 29

Yep... So this jobsworth who was a foot away from the wall facing the hole moved his ball a good 25-30 feet in a arc was wrong... If only I had known that..