2019 Rules Discussions •
The other thing is the actual measurement from the RP. It's my understanding you can not measure relief club lengths through the ground so if a RP were say half way down the wall you would have to measure up the wall first and then over the edge with the remaining distance on the club length......is that how you would do it?Thom wrote: ↑3:22 PM - TodaySo while the Tiger case was straightforward, trickier situations will arise if there is no general area within 1CL of the reference point (RP) but that RP itself appears to be very close to the bunker. Then the call on the RP is much more critical - is there is a small sliver of relief area available or not? If yes, then the player is entitled to take a drop on that ground even if there is no chance of the dropped ball remaining inside the relief area. Then we have the drop, drop, place and keep placing in the general area not nearer the hole until the ball will come to rest. I'm thinking that is potentially a more challenging situation for the referee.dormie1360 wrote: ↑7:44 PM - 1 day agoI for one got stuck on this until I realized the reference point does not have to be in the general area, only some part of the relief area does.Thom wrote: ↑10:34 AM - 1 day agoThat ruling looked fine to me and was delivered very efficiently by the referee so well done to that ref. Any ball that is NOT in sand and is embedded in the general area gets relief if there is ground in the general area not nearer the hole and less than one club-length from the reference point. My impression is many folk get tied up worrying about the status of the reference point but that is irrelevant if ground in the required part of the general area is available. In the Tiger case, the referee quickly affirmed that condition held.
The other thing that helped me is when determining the reference pont' "behind the ball" is found by looking down at the ball from directly above. What you see directly behind the ball will be the reference point. Depending on how deep the ball is embedded into the wall, and the slope of the face, will determine where the reference point is. This spot could be very close to the ball, halfway down the slope or for a perfectly vertical wall, on the floor of the bunker.
This was posted by the USGA on FB in response to Kjell's inquiry.
"Behind means what it sounds like...if the point is "behind" the ball it isn't directly "under" it, so where's the back edge of the ball and what's the point that is underneath that. We don't change our directional because the ball is embedded in a vertical face, forward and behind are still forward and behind."
BTW the referee giving Tiger the ruling was Ben Schade from the USGA. He does a lot of rules education for them.
statistics: Posted by dormie1360 — 3:43 PM - Today