2005 #11 Embedded Ball or Ground Under Rep

The Scene:
You hit a drive on hole #6. It soars high into the air then veers left. It’s heading for the water. You yell for it to stop. Then you jump in your cart and drive up to your ball. The ball is not in the hazard, thank goodness. But it is badly plugged. It’s in that mushy area that we all hate. Unfortunately there is no casual water visible. But there are some tire tracks. In fact your ball is lying right between two tire tracks.

What would you do?
A. Take relief from ground under repair to get away from the tire tracks?
B. Take relief for an embedded ball?

B is correct. Your ball is not in the tire tracks so you don’t get relief there. But your ball is embedded. Look at a list of our Local Rules. The last one says, “Embedded Ball Rule – in effect through the green. See Appendix I.”

Open your Rules of Golf book to Appendix I Part B, Speciman Local Rules. Relief for embedded ball. You will see the following:

Relief for Embedded Ball; Cleaning Ball
Rule 25-2 provides relief without penalty for a ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in any closely mown area through the green

That is what is normally provided. Relief in any closely mown area. But if you have a local rule that gives you relief through the green, read on. It says:

Through the green, a ball that is embedded in its own pitch-mark in the ground may be lifted without penalty, cleaned and dropped as near as possible to where it lay but not nearer the hole. The ball when dropped must first strike a part of the course through the green

If the term ‘through the green’ confuses you, look in Definitions near the front of your book and you will see that

Through the green is the whole area of the course EXCEPT the teeing ground and putting green of the hole being played and all hazards on the course.

REMEMBER: If you are playing a course that does not have this local rule you get free relief for an embedded ball only in a closely mown area - like the fairway. But if you are playing a course that does have this local rule (like Bay Hill) you get relief in the ruff, too.

2004 #8 Is your ball embedded? in the Ground?

THE SCENE:
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.

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.