EMGA Rules Refresher #6
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/n3bBagw2TFo
We had seven more members join in with a quiz reply. Thank you!
Now, as to the rest of you, I will continue to entice you with more clickbait.
This next refresher is all about abnormal stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Pw0xX4DXI
This tells us how to get relief from snow, ice and hoof prints. You know, normal Eisenhower course conditions in March.
Rule 16. Relief from Abnormal Course Conditions
First, the definitions.
Abnormal Course Condition includes any of these four defined conditions:
1. Animal Hole
2. Ground Under Repair
3. Immovable Obstruction
4. Temporary Water
Under our EGC Local Rules, “Areas of damage caused by bears, deer, elk or the like are treated as Ground Under Repair…” Like hoof prints in the bunkers.
A special case of Temporary Water is “Snow and Natural Ice (Other than frost), are either loose impediments or, when on the ground, temporary water, at the player’s option.”
Okay, let’s go through this one step at a time:
16.1a When Relief is Allowed
16.1a (1) Meaning of Interference by Abnormal Course Condition.
1. When the ball touches or is in the Abnormal Course Condition.
2. Physical interferes with intended stance or swing
3. Or when it exists on the green, the intended line of play
16.1a (2) Relief Allowed Anywhere on Course Except When Ball is in Penalty Area. Self-explanatory.
16.1a (3) No Relief When Clearly Unreasonable. This means if your ball is in some snow but it is also in a bush or up against a tree trunk, you don’t get free relief from the snow.
16.1b Relief for Ball in General Area (i.e. Rough, fairway, and wrong tee boxes and greens)
Find the nearest point of complete relief for lie, stance and swing, mark it as your reference point, create a half circle drop area using one club length as its radius and no nearer the hole. Ball dropped must stay within the half circle and stay in the general area.
16.1c Relief for Ball in Bunker.
Two choices here, one free (yay!) and one with a penalty (boo!).
1. Free Relief. Same procedure as above but you must stay in the bunker. There is one caveat. Let’s say the entire bunker is filled with snow or hoof prints. You can use a “point of maximum available relief in the bunker as a reference point.” This allows you to drop the ball in less deep snow or take a stance in the snow/hoof prints but still drop your ball in a clear or semi-clear patch of sand.
2. Penalty Relief. In this case, you use the Back-on-the-Line Relief with one penalty stroke. (DO NOT confuse this penalty when taking this relief option for an Unplayable Ball in a bunker, that’s a two-stroke penalty, Ref Rule 19.3. Too late? Thought so.) Pick a line from the flag to where your ball is in the snow. On this line, go back as far as you want, pick a reference point on that line. Drop the ball on that reference point and as long as it stays within a one club length radius circle, and stays in the same area of the course, you’ve got a good drop.
16.1d Relief for Ball on Putting Green.
Now, if your ball is on the green, you also get relief for your Line-of-Play in addition to the lie, stance and swing from the temporary water. Same rules apply here: nearest spot of complete relief no closer to the hole but that spot can be on the green OR the general area. AND you get to place the ball, not drop it. And you still have the option of using the point of maximum available relief too.
16.1e Relief for Ball Not Found but in or on Abnormal Course Condition.
Okay, you’re a purest, and you only play white balls that are the same color as the snow on a hole with a snow bank running down the fairway for 150 yards. You hit the ball and you think you might be in the snow but you can’t find it. IF it is “known or virtually certain” that the ball came to rest in the snow, then you’re allowed to take the free relief options as outlined above using the estimated point where the ball crossed the edge into the snow for the purpose of finding the nearest point of complete relief. You don’t have to take the stroke and distance penalty for a lost ball.
This is the price we pay when playing springtime golf in Colorado. Click on the link below for a short demonstration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFKVq4HmMjY
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Rules Refresher Quiz #6
Q6. Which is correct regarding a player who decides to take unplayable ball relief? (Ref# 215)
a. The player may drop back-on-the-line outside the penalty area for two strokes if their ball is in a penalty area.
b. The player may drop a ball in a penalty area, if the original ball lies in the general area.
c. The player may decide to take unplayable ball relief when their ball lies anywhere on the course.
Prize: Let’s Par-Tee
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Rules Refresher Quiz #5.
Q5. A player’s ball lies off but near the putting green; the player is allowed relief from temporary water that exists on the putting green if it is on their line of play.
Answer: FALSE Ball has to be on the green to get relief in this scenario.
And the winner of Q5 is….Rick Horn!
Prize: He Shoots, He Scores
Unfortunately, no one solved the Bonus problem in the second link.
No one observed that our training aid, Paige, teed up outside the tee markers.
Hit’em straight and not too often,
Tom McKernan
Rules and Handicaps
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