Every round of golf is different and the Rules must cater for all sorts of strange scenarios. I had one last week with regards a playing partner and an unplayable lie. Here’s what happened:
He pulled his tee shot on a long par-4 and we thought it might have gone into the gorse bushes lining the hole. He played a provisional but when we got down there, we found his ball just into the bushes. It was unplayable.
As we’d found his original ball, the provisional was out of the picture. His options under Rule 19 were – To go back to the tee and take stroke and distance relief, to take back on the line relief or to take two-club length lateral relief.
He didn’t fancy the first option as it was quite a hike. Back on the line relief was no good as the bushes were too deep and the rough further behind them was hideous. He elected to take the lateral drop under penalty of one shot.
He measured two club lengths to establish his relief area. It was some pretty sketchy rough, but he found a flattish looking spot and dropped correctly from knee height. The ball landed and bounced on that flattish spot as the grass was quite mossy and springy. It bounced sideways right into the middle of a plant that looked like a cabbage and disappeared.
After a bit of searching, he found it deep down at the root of this strange looking plant. He was about to pick it out to attempt the drop again when I stopped him.
It was one of those where I was not keen to break the news to him, but I had to as I wanted to win the hole! “Erm, the ball is still in your relief area isn’t it?” I said. “Yes, but it’s unplayable,” he replied. “Yup, it is I said.”
Unfortunately, the ball was unplayable, but it was in play! There’s no guarantee that the ball will be playable after taking unplayable ball relief – that’s clarification 19.2/1. Once the ball is dropped in the relief area, it’s a new situation. If it’s unplayable again, you have to take unplayable relief again for an additional penalty shot.
So, he had to measure his two club lengths again from the cabbage plant and, fortunately, second time round he found a far more forgiving area for dropping. After quite a bit of mumbling about “bloody Rules” and “terrible luck,” he played on but had to add two shots to his score rather than just the one. Ironically, I did win the hole but only by one shot! The Rules are the rules. … I should add that he eventually won the match so he was able to see the funny side.
