Rule of the Week 12th June 2009 - Roads & Paths

 

The most asked question on our golf course would have to be, is this a road or a path and do I get free relief.

Roads and Paths are not covered by the rules of golf as many clubs class them as integral parts of the course. A good example of this is the 17th hole at St Andrews. Thus to obtain free relief from a road or path, it must be classed as an obstruction in the Local Rules (see the back of our scorecard).

The Rules of Golf define an obstruction as, anything artificial, including the artificial surfaces and sides of roads and paths and manufactured ice, except:

a. Objects defining out of bounds, such as walls, fences, stakes and railings:

b. Any part of an immovable object that is out of bounds; and

c. Any construction declared by the committee to be an integral part of the course.

 

The definition of artificial surfaced road or path in the Rule book is, a road or path to which any foreign material, e.g. concrete, tar, gravel, woodchips, etc has been applied is artificially surfaced and thus an obstruction.

 

So the answer to the question is quite simple.

If you ball lies on a part of the course which has had some foreign material applied to it to form a roadway, you are entitled to free relief.

If your ball lies in the rough, 20 metres from the edge of the fairway on a bare area you do not get any relief.

 

Below we have a few examples.

Figure 1, shows a ball on the worn area between the 9th & 10th holes. This is simply a bare patch in the rough and NO RELIEF is available here if your ball lands on this area.

Figure 1a, shows two balls on the path coming off the 5th tee. This is a path which has had crusher dust applied to it and is therefore an obstruction and you are entitled to relief.

 

Ok, let's look at a couple of scenarios of artificial paths that you do get relief from but can cause problems at our course.

You hook your second shot into the 3rd hole; it just misses the hazard and runs up the path towards the 4th tee. Do you get a free drop?

The path between the 3rd green and the 4th tee has had crusher dust applied to it;therefore it is classed as an obstruction, so yes you do get a free drop.

Fig 3, shows the ball on the path, close to the scrub. The red "X" shows your nearest point of relief; from there you have one club length in which to drop the ball. By now I can hear all of you saying "I can't drop it in there, I won't have a shot". Well you are right, you won't have a shot, but if you want to take relief without penalty that is the only place you can drop the ball. You can of course play the ball as it lies or deem the ball unplayable and proceed under rule 28.

 

The roadway between the 2nd & 8th holes has road base applied to it and is therefore an obstruction. Fig 4 shows a ball on the road, again if you land here you are entitled to a free drop within one club length of your nearest point of relief, point "X". Once more we find ourselves in the same situation; if you drop the ball within one club length of point "X" you have to drop it under the tree. Again this is just bad luck so you can either drop it under the tree without penalty, play the ball as it lies or deem the ball unplayable and proceed under rule 28.

 

OK, lets say you land on the bare patch as in Fig 1, you ask your marker for a drop and he refuses, rightly so it is not a path. The next plan of attack for most golfers would be, I'm in a wheel mark can I get a drop? Well that depends, is it a wheel mark or is it a rut or depression.

Under a local Rule for our course we allow free relief for this type of situation. This is on the back page of the scorecard where it says:

All wheel ruts and depressions created by a mower, tractor or other motor vehicles, through the green are classed as G.U.R.

On almost every bare patch in the rough you will find a mark of some kind where a buggy has been driven over it or a push buggy has been pushed over it. In most cases this has not left a rut or a depression, simply a impression in the dust which does not allow for a free drop.

Below are some examples.

 

 

Figures 1-1 shows an area in the rough where a tractor or some vehicle has been through and left a depression, the ball is clearly under the surface of the ground and you would be entitled to relief from this situation.

Figures 1-2 & 1-3, shows a bare area in the rough during wet weather. Again the balls are clearly in a depression and under the surface of the ground and you would be entitled to relief from this situation.

Remember you are only getting relief from the tyre rut. Once you find your nearest point of relief, you have one club length in which to drop the ball which may mean you have to drop the ball on the dirt.

Fig 2-1 shows 3 balls lying on the bare earth between the 9th & 10th holes. All of these balls MUST be played as they lie. Some people would try and argue that ball "C" was in a tyre mark, ball "C" is simply sitting on bare earth that a motorised cart has been driven over recently and the tread of the tyre can be seen in the dirt. This is NOT a rut or depression.

 

Note: This is not a Rule of Golf, it must be classed as a Local Rule and this rule will vary from Club to Club, indeed I checked 24 scorecards from various clubs around Australia that I had in my office and only 3 of these scorecards have this as a Local Rule, the rest of them make you play the ball as it lies.

 

 

Footnote: Apart from when we have the misfortune of hitting the ball into an unfilled divot in the middle of the fairway we rarely have a bad lie at Horton Park, but when we hit it sideways into the scrub chances are we are not going to have a good lie or a shot to the green, THATS LIFE.

 

On the back cover of the rulebook, there is a wonderful paragraph that has been used in golf for hundreds of years, we should all take a few seconds to read it and understand what it means.

 

Play the ball as it lies

Play the course as you find it

And if you can't do either,

do what is fair

But to do what is fair,

you need to know the

Rules of Golf