Why Free Drop?
A few years ago while sitting in my golf cart watching the slow players walk by, I came up with the following lyrics sung to the tune of Monty Python’s song “I’m a Lumberjack”
I’m a Rules Guy and I’m ok
I sleep all night and I work all day
I time slow folks
I give two strokes
I go to the Port-A-Pottie
On Mondays I go golfing
And all my drops are free
Since you get what you pay for and you ain’t paying nothin for this, these postings are really “free drops”.
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John
I understand that at the Masters Harrington mistakenly marked his opponents ball on the putting green. He believed it to be his ball and quickly corrected the error.
No rules infraction by touching an opponents ball?
Keep up the great site!!
John, The masters in Stroke Play, therefore the other person was his fellow competitor, not his opponent. There is no penalty for touching a fellow competitors ball (Rule 18-4). If it was match play, it would have been a penalty (Rule 18-3).
On a par 3, my ball came to rest in soil about 10 yards from the green in what would eventually be a flower bed. Although plants were in the soil, there weren’t any flowers yet. My friend told me I was entitled to a free drop because it was a flower bed. I didn’t take it and I couldn’t find anything in the rules about flower beds. I have seen local rules stating that the player gets a free drop out of a flower bed, but I didn’t think it was universal.
Steve,
Flower beds are not ground under repair (GUR) unless the committee in charge of a competition or the course declares them as such. Also, sometimes they are declared as GUR and sometimes as GUR from which relief is mandatory. If it is required that you take relief and you don’t, you would be penalized 2 strokes in stroke play or lose the hole in match play
Hi,
My ball became imbedded through the green, after I drove it over water on a par 3 past the far red hazard line but landed before the “closely mown” apron/fringe in longer grass or rough around the fringe?
Thanks,
Kathy
Kathy,
Rule 25-2, the Embedded Ball rule only provides relief from closely mown areas so you are not entitled to relief, unless the tournament or the club has put the local rule found in Appendix I into effect. That rule allows relief from through the green except for areas of sand not in closely mown areas. Most people in the U.S. assume this is the rule, but some clubs don’t specify it, probably because they don’t know they need to do so.
I play with the same three guys every week. It’s getting out of hand. Not only are they shaving their scores, but they are making up rules. Today a ball went behind a tree and he picked it up and said it was a free drop because it was snuggled up next to rocks that were in a decoration ring around the tree. They will hit their drives out of bounds and then just go up and drop where it went out instead of teeing another one up. Also if the ball is 3 sometimes 5 feet from the hole, they pick it up like it was a gimme. I would just like to know exactly what situations call for a free drop and when is the ball close enough to call it a gimme? They act like they are going by “rules”, however I’m not sure who’s rules. I keep shot by shot score of everyone and at the end of the round, their scores and my scores are at least 6-10 shots off. I guess I gotta find a new group.
Greg,
Rules 24 (Obstructions) and 25 (Abnormal Ground Conditions) are the rules which involve free relief. If the “decoration ring” was a man-made object and it interfered with the player’s swing or stance, it would be an obstruction from which he would be entitled to relief. As for the ball out of bounds, obviously they should go back to where they last played from, but if it is a casual game and there are groups behind you, that is not always practical.
There is no such thing as a gimme in golf. If you are playing match play, your opponent can concede your next putt, but a player can’t just give himself putts under the rules of golf. Again, in casual games, it is done all the time.
Your comment about who’s rules they are playing by is very apt. That is why we have rules so that we can all play the same game. The interesting thing is that if they are posting their scores for their handicap, they will end up with a much lower handicap than they should have and it will cost them in the end.