mgranato
New
This happened to me several weeks ago in our state am qualifier. The hole was a shortish par 4 with a 20 yard wide hazard (creek) running across the hole 80 yards short of the green. The proper shot is to lay well back of the hazard because the fairway shelves off and slopes down to the creek. I chose, however, to get it down as close as possible to this little flat spot just in front of the bridge crossing the hazard. Not the highest percentage play, but I figured I needed a couple birdies on the last 4 holes. Not burdened by smarts, I rolled the dice to get an 80 yard second over a 160 yard second. The ball took off exactly where I had planned, but when I got down there to see where it finished I found it on the timber framed bridge spanning the hazard. Now for the ruling…
The ball came to rest in the void between two of the floor timbers about a 1/3 of the way onto the bridge. The rules guy was up by the green, so I was able to wave him down for some help. I asked to mark the ball so when my playing partners carted across the bridge it wouldn’t roll off into the creed, he agreed that was a good idea. He then said I could take relief, but said I wouldn’t like the spot I had to drop. It was a pie shape sliver (literally the size of a piece of pie) between the cart path and the painted hazard line. The ground the ball would actually land on was landscape rock (if I could actually drop it that precisely). If the ball miraculously came to rest in that sliver of ground, I would be standing a couple feet inside the hazard and have the cart path in the way. He said relief from the path would still have me playing (standing) from inside the hazard and trying to drop onto the landscape rock. I disagreed “enthusiastically” with his decision and asked that he get on the phone and get a second opinion because the decision would probably decide if I qualified or not (of course that’s disregarding the previous 14 mediocre to poor holes I had just played
).
What do you think the ruling should be?
The ball came to rest in the void between two of the floor timbers about a 1/3 of the way onto the bridge. The rules guy was up by the green, so I was able to wave him down for some help. I asked to mark the ball so when my playing partners carted across the bridge it wouldn’t roll off into the creed, he agreed that was a good idea. He then said I could take relief, but said I wouldn’t like the spot I had to drop. It was a pie shape sliver (literally the size of a piece of pie) between the cart path and the painted hazard line. The ground the ball would actually land on was landscape rock (if I could actually drop it that precisely). If the ball miraculously came to rest in that sliver of ground, I would be standing a couple feet inside the hazard and have the cart path in the way. He said relief from the path would still have me playing (standing) from inside the hazard and trying to drop onto the landscape rock. I disagreed “enthusiastically” with his decision and asked that he get on the phone and get a second opinion because the decision would probably decide if I qualified or not (of course that’s disregarding the previous 14 mediocre to poor holes I had just played
).What do you think the ruling should be?
