Grant85
Head Pro
In Mexico, on his first hole (the 10th) Ricky just shanked one badly out of bounds and immediately dropped another ball, but from shoulder height. Not realising his breach of the new rule, which would have allowed a redrop before playing a shot, he played the ball. His caddy didn’t realise either. One penalty stroke for the out of bounds ... but what for the incorrect drop? None of the players, or the commentary team, seem to know. Whatever the penalty, it’s a disastrous start. Not sure why one can’t have the option to drop from the knee or the shoulder.
So the rule is drop from knee height.
Reason for this is the change was made to speed things up. When players are taking relief they often had to drop twice before placing as the ball would often roll too far away, or closer to the hole.
If the rule was changed to drop no lower than knee height, people could still tactically decide to drop from a higher height knowing there might be a reasonable chance of 2 bad drops and get to place.
I do think they could have put a temp or local rule in place to let people away with this for the 1st 6 months or so, but rules is rules.