Aspen said:
Boundary fence doesn’t matter for relief. So most likely he would have to drop directly against the fence.
Of course it does. The dropped ball has to stay in the general area, and you need to relieve yourself fully from the gutter. No matter how close to the fence you go, you’d still be obstructed by the gutter.
Whether it makes sense to drop this ball or not depends on how the closest point of relief looks like. If it’s a bush, then it would make sense to play it as it lies.
@Misha
If your swing is obstructed by a boundary fence, you do not get relief. In this situation, there is no space to drop between OB line and the path, irregardless of the physical fence, so the correct drop is the nearest point of full relief, no closer to the hole. That would be on the other side of the path a bit further back. Altruistic suit is correct.
@Wilder
Altruistic suit isn’t really correct by saying the ‘boundary fence doesn’t matter for relief.’ You don’t get relief from a boundary fence. But it matters for relief here because where you’d have to drop isn’t in the picture, due to the boundary fence being in a place that doesn’t allow for full relief to be taken.
@Misha
There seems to be plenty of room to get his left foot clear of the drain while still keeping the ball on the course.
Jace said:
@Misha
There seems to be plenty of room to get his left foot clear of the drain while still keeping the ball on the course.
But then he’d have to hit the ball in parallel to the fence and stand on the gutter again.
@Misha
That would be a completely new and separate situation. He might have no shot at all after taking relief from this situation.
@Misha
Even if you had to drop near the fence, you could say that the only way to hit the shot is left-handed, which means you are standing on the cart path and get relief.
Shannon said:
@Misha
Even if you had to drop near the fence, you could say that the only way to hit the shot is left-handed, which means you are standing on the cart path and get relief.
You’d be standing in the exact same spot right-handed…plus you can only claim relief if your swing/stance/club selection is reasonable.
Unless this is a competitive round, this falls under ‘I don’t get paid enough to damage a club and/or injure myself, so I’m taking free relief.’ If it is a competitive round, I defer to the rules experts.
@Marlow
Person asks a genuine rules question. Answering with ‘who cares’ is entirely unhelpful.
Vance said:
@Marlow
Person asks a genuine rules question. Answering with ‘who cares’ is entirely unhelpful.
Welcome to golf, where any rules questions get answered by ‘herp derp, you’re not on tour, mate, just kick it out.’