Hi Linda,
The following situation:
Ball is lying on a cart path on the left hand side. The rule
states that you may take free relief at the nearest point of relief.
Nearest point of relief is on the left hand side of the path. This happens to
be a fairly steep hill. Player drops his ball twice and then places his ball.
He then takes his stance and finds that his right leg is on the cart path. His
opponent tells him that he should penalize himself with two shots. Could you please
clarify?
Lou from Spain
Dear Lou,
When a player takes relief from an immovable obstruction, he
must take complete relief. If his
stance is still on the cart path after the drop, re-drop, and subsequent
placement (I assume the ball rolled more than two club-lengths when he dropped
it on the steep hill), he has not taken complete relief. The player is not
penalized unless he plays the ball with his stance still on the path. He must
re-drop, since the ball is in a position where he still has interference from
the condition from which he was taking relief [Rule 20-2c (v)].
Linda
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