I am entitled to free relief, but can I just play it?
We all get into situations in which we are entitled to free relief from something. Generally, these situations are collectively called abnormal course conditions, as they are not normal and not considered part of the challenge of playing the golf course.
Abnormal course conditions are broken into four areas: animal holes, ground under repair, immovable obstructions and temporary water.
Common situations include areas that have been marked by the committee as ground under repair, when your ball is at rest on a concrete path, and your ball is at rest next to an irrigation control box that you will hit with your club if you were to make a stroke at the ball.
Free relief is generally allowed when you have interference from an abnormal course condition, except when your ball lies in a penalty area.
Interference exists from an abnormal course condition when your ball touches or is in or on an abnormal course condition, an abnormal course condition physically interferes with your area of intended stance or area of intended swing, or only when the ball is on the putting green, an abnormal course condition on or off the putting green intervenes on your intended line of play.
If the abnormal course condition is close enough to distract you, but does not physically interfere with you, then there is no interference and you’re not permitted to take free relief. Also, the condition has to be on the course, so if you’re playing your ball close to a boundary and something off the course is interfering with you, you’re not entitled to free relief.
Normally, you take relief from the condition by dropping a ball in a relief area based on the nearest point of complete relief.
Importantly, while you’re entitled to free relief, you don’t have to take it. You’re generally entitled to play your ball as it lies. In fact, there are only two situations in which you’re not permitted to play your ball as it lies.
First, if you have interference by a wrong green, which is any putting green on the course that is not for the hole you’re playing (including any practice putting greens), you must take free relief. Interference includes your stance for a ball that is on the wrong green.
Second, if the committee has declared an area as a no-play zone, then you’re prohibited from playing your ball as it lies and you must take relief (free or penalty relief depending on how the committee has defined it).
Apart from these two situations, you’re always permitted to play your ball as it lies. In some situations, it is worth determining where your nearest point of complete relief is and therefore your relief area, before you lift your ball. Your relief area may be in a worse spot than where your ball currently lies, for example, in a thick bush.
For example, your ball lies on an artificially surfaced path and you lift your ball with the intention to take free relief, but then decide not to proceed under that rule despite relief being available. If you lift your ball intending to take free relief from an abnormal course condition only to discover that your relief area is worse, you can change your mind and replace your ball, however you will incur one penalty stroke for lifting your ball in play.
Unless you have interference by a wrong green or your ball lies in a no-play zone, you can always play your ball as it lies.
Stuart McPhee is a referee for the PGA Tour of Australasia and co-host of the No.1 podcast in the world dedicated solely to discussing the Rules of Golf: The Golf Rules Questions Podcast.
Image by: kevin c. cox/getty images
