During the second round of the 2013 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Tiger Woods found his golf ball embedded in a sandy area to the right of the fifth fairway. He was unsure of how to proceed according to the Rules, and summoned fellow competitor Martin Kaymer to help assess the situation. They both agreed that Tiger’s ball was embedded and that he was entitled to a free drop.
Were they correct?
Rule 25-2 of the Rules of Golf states that a player’s ball that is “embedded in its own pitch-mark in the ground in any closely mown area through the green may be lifted, cleaned and dropped, without penalty, as near as possible to the spot where it lay but not nearer the hole.” The term “Closely mown area” means part of the golf course that is mowed at fairway height or shorter. Additionally, the Local Rule in Appendix I was in effect for this championship. This Local Rule allows for a player to take relief from areas that are not closely mown (i.e. rough) that are “through the green.”
It’s looking promising for Tiger…
However, there are a couple of exceptions to the Local Rule in Appendix I;
1. A player may not take relief under this Local Rule if the ball is embedded in sand in an area that is not closely mown.
2. A player may not take relief under this Local Rule if interference by anything other than the condition covered by this Local Rule makes the stroke clearly impracticable.”
Unfortunately, even though Tiger’s golf ball was embedded in an area “through the green”, exception 1 does not allow for relief from sandy areas in this Local Rule, and for good reason. The intent of this Local Rule is to allow relief from over saturated areas due to an abundance of rain or overwatering. It is not intended to give relief to players that hit shots into areas that are meant to be penalizing (i.e. commonly called waste areas or waste bunkers). Tiger should have played the ball as it lies, or he could have declared his ball unplayable incurring a one-stroke penalty and choosing between the three relief options under Rule 28.
This situation cost Tiger a two-stroke penalty and he ultimately missed the cut by one stroke. He rebounded quite nicely with his recent four-stroke victory at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Too bad he didn’t have the embedded ball in this event–he still would have won by two!
