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The rules of golf are tough! Fortunately, we have a guru. Our Rules The man knows the book from front to back. Got the question? He has all the answers.
The rear tees were on their way back, so we dropped the carry bags with more front tees. A low shriek flew to the top of my bag and buried itself inside. After we picked ourselves off the floor, my partners gave me a roving chuckle. But what is the official verdict? – Dave Bowen, Rockingham, Virginia
Dave, you have good friends, and not taking yourself too seriously is definitely key to enjoying our crazy game.
This was quite ‘subjective’, as newer keyboard warriors might describe it…but no penalty was necessary if you were going with things according to Howell rather than taking the obvious illegal traveling mulligan.
Because the ball has come to rest in a moving obstruction, Rule 15.2a(2) allows you to get a free relief by dropping a ball into a relief area one length of paddle based on the spot just below where the ball has come to rest in the bag.
One question: Were you half in the bag when this happened?
For more drop-in tips from our expert, read on…
I am a longtime player with a solid understanding of most of the rules, but this situation made me very confused. I know you can’t move a ball out of a big hole. But what if, as happened to me for the first time in 30 years of playing golf, your ball ended up on top of a separate hole and thus sat higher on the fairway grass? Dennis Nikowski
As balancing goes on, Titleist on a wig cap is right up there with a bear on a unicycle.
The answer is more common, and indeed the most common in golf: play it as it is, just as if your ball were resting on top of a pile of cards.
You could, we suppose, instead get relief by taking an unplayable one-hit penalty…but it’s a shovel, not a landmine. Take it and see what happens!
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