You hit a drive from the 18th tee. Oh, no! You pulled it left. Your ball is soaring above the trees, going way up on the hill. Maybe it will bounce down into the fairway. You wait expectantly. Nothing happens, You note which tree the ball went over, get a line on where you think the ball landed, then you drive down to the fairway, climb up the hill and search.
The good news is that you find your ball. The bad new is that it’s nestled down into some moss. But your fellow competitor says, “Don’t worry. That ball is embedded. You get a free drop.”
What would you do?
You drop your ball as near as possible to where it lies but not nearer the hole and hope it will bounce away from the moss.
You know that Beech Mountain has a local rule that provides relief for an embedded ball through the green (not just in a closely mown area like the fairway). But embedded in moss? You don’t think so. You play the ball as it lies.
B is correct.
Look at
Rule 25-2. Embedded Ball
A ball 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.
A ball 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.
Our local rule extends the area from ‘closely mown area’ to ‘through the green’. This includes the ruff. But the local rule was never intended to provide relief for a ball embedded in moss or in anything else.
REMEMBER: To get relief for an embedded ball, that ball must be embedded in the ground.
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