Here in Colorado, it’s not uncommon to have a day of heavy snow followed by some great golf weather. Just because the snow is still hanging around on the golf course, doesn’t mean you should cancel your tee time if it’s decent enough weather to go out and play. Although the fairways may be clear, there’s still potential that your ball could end up in a patch of snow that’s still thawing out in the shade. This brings us to a potential Rules of Golf scenario when you need to play a ball from a pile of snow.
This situation really highlights the importance of knowing your definitions. Any Rules of Golf situation needs to first be whittled down to what objects or conditions you are dealing with. As confusing as any situation may seem, if you can identify what you are dealing with in regards to the definition, you will be easily able to identify and assess the situation. In this example, we need to establish what snow is considered to be, per the definitions. In this case, snow can be two things according to the definitions. As a matter of fact, the clarification as to what snow is defined as can be found in two separate instances. To find both of these labels, you’ll have to dig inside the definition of “casual water” as well as “loose impediment”. Within each of those definitions, snow is defined as, “Snow and natural ice, other than frost, are either casual water or loose impediments, at the option of the player.”
Now we know what snow or ice can be, according to the definitions. Since it can function as two separate conditions, it gives you multiple options when choosing to take relief. Before I get too far, I’m not saying that you must take relief. You may always choose to play the ball as it lies from the snow. But, according to the Rules of Golf, you don’t have to if you’d rather not.
In this situation, we are assuming that the ball lies through the green when taking relief. You can treat the snow as casual water and take relief as prescribed by Rule 25, or you can treat the snow as a loose impediment and simply move as much snow as you like, as long as this action does not cause the ball to move in the process. To take relief from the snow would be to simply find your nearest point of relief that is not in a hazard or on the putting green, and from this point, drop the ball within one club-length and not nearer the hole.
So even if Colorado gets snow this weekend, you’ll be ready to play through the weather even if it hasn’t quite melted away.
