What do the rules say about balls planted after a tee shot?
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As I hit the ball, I drove it completely under the ground, eight inches forward. I said the ball was pocketed, which entitled it to relief. My opponent said it was unplayable and required a one-stroke penalty. Guy Rules says… —Aaron Lowe, via email
…consider a controller with a larger attic.
Rule 16.3a(2) states that a ball driven straight into the ground without rising into the air is not embedded and therefore no relief from the embedded ball is allowed.
That said, if your ball remains in the teeing area – assuming you have teed more than eight inches behind the markers, so your ball is in the ground still behind the markers – you can pick up the ball and re-set it anywhere inside the teeing area without penalty, hitting 2, in accordance with Rule 6.2b.
For more tips from our guru, read on…
Rules Guy: Can you take relief from a potted ball from the shore of an unmarked lake?
Rules, man
In front of our 17th green we have the most unfair bunker in the world. It’s seven feet deep, but that’s the easy part. It is shaped like a funnel and has only 0.001 inch of sand at the base. When I find myself in this abyss, can I pick up the ball as unplayable, scrape the sand from the walls to the base, and then throw the ball into play, forfeiting one penalty stroke? Thank you for listening. — Bill Herrick, East Moriches, New York
The rules guy always tries to be a listening ear, and we were with you for a while – when you wanted to treat the ball as unplayable and take penalty relief. It’s kosher.
But like the sand in your cruel bunker – “the most unfair in the world” is certainly stretching the situation a bit – your request was eroded as you considered raking the sand where you planned to drop the ball, which by improving the relief area is prohibited.
You must simply drop the ball under one of the four options described in Rule 19.3, three of which (strike and distance, return to the line in the bunker, side relief in the bunker) cost one penalty stroke, and the other (back to the line of relief outside bunker) two penalty strokes.
Other options: try a sand wedge with less bounce or find a new golf course.
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