Long Grass

[IRON MAIDEN]

I was playing a match on Saturday and the person I was playing against hit their ball into some thick grass.......

She wanted to call the ball "unplayable" but after some discussion between people of our foursome, we did not believe that it was ....since she had a full swing and could see the ball .....

Please advise correct rulling for future reference.

PS She eventually did hit it out

[little brit]

Ok for fun I will guess that you can declare a ball unplayable no matter where it is if you want.

Now we will wait for someone who really knows

[spackler]

Anywhere except a water hazard and it's up to the player to decide if it's unplayable. As an example, if instead of making that eagle on the 13th this weekend, Tiger had run his putt by the hole and 80y down the hill, he could have declared it unplayable and (taking the penalty stroke) replayed the stroke.

[Foddz]

Little Brit is correct, you may declare your ball 'unplayable' at any time your ball does not rest in a water hazard (see rule 28 for proper procedure)

[Coreythebody]

Hi there

Sorry to add to any confusion, this just caught me off gaurd...

if I understand correctly, lets say I am 10yds from the green, 15yds from the hole with a sandtrap between me and the hole...I take my 60 wedge out and skull it clear across the green and a good 30yds from the green on the other side...I can declare that new lie unplayable and take a one stroke penalty and re-hit the same ball from the original location?

[Kilroy]

Yes you can.

Lets say you have a 6" downhill put that misses and rolls off the front of the green and into a bunker. What are your chances of hitting it to 6" above the hole? Declare it unplayable, add one stroke penalty and try again.

[Coreythebody]

Thanks much for the incredibly fast reply!

I did not know about this ruling

[IRON MAIDEN]

Neither did I...........interesting for sure.

I'm going to have to get my book out and have it with me - as backup - for when I actually try to do this during a round sometime!!!

Thanks,

I M

[Kilroy]

Bottom line is that the player is the sole judge as to the ball's playability.

This is one rule that, although it may not be obvious, can actually be a stroke saver in a bad situation.

[IRON MAIDEN]

It will definitely be one to think about from now on - I'm thinking I should have used it yesterday a few times!!! haha

Thank you

I M

[Coreythebody]

As will I!

of course my situation described was completely hypothetical , but, again hypothetically, i would have saved at least one stroke on that hypothetical hole .

Again, thanks much for the help Dan

[LobWedge]

It will definitely be one to think about from now on - I'm thinking I should have used it yesterday a few times!!! haha

Thank you

I M

Further to what we talked about yesterday, check out the animation for "Unplayable Ball" (3rd from the bottom). This illustrates perfectly what I was describing to you.

http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/animations/index.html

[Indio]

It will definitely be one to think about from now on - I'm thinking I should have used it yesterday a few times!!! haha

Thank you

I M

Ya, maybe with a 2nd shot at it you would have actually hit me the time you took dead aim at poor ole Indio