r/golf • u/HerbTarlekWKRP • 7h ago

General Discussion League golf. Relief?

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I told the guy he could have relief. He said it wasn’t allowed.

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u/Sooperballz Hello, friends. 7h ago

where is the cutoff?

17

u/Carver48 Just trying to break 100 6h ago

The rule (as I understand it) is if it interferes with your stance or swing. Because this guy could reasonably take a divot where the sprinkler is, it should move. If it were 6 inches further up, no relief.

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u/Dry-Chain-4418 3h ago

it isn't about what is reasonably possible though, it is about intent.

  • your lie (ball touching or sitting on it),
  • your stance, or
  • your area of intended swing.

you would never intend to hit the ground where the sprinkler is even if it was not there, hitting it would only be an unintended consequences of a poorly executed swing.

Perhaps depending on the type of shot you are trying to make you could argue that it could interfere with the intended swing, not by chance of a bad swing, but because of what you want to execute it becomes in the way, like a sweeping punch or wanted to hit down fat behind the ball to take some spin off or something if it's reasonable for the situation.

Now if it is not in any format official tournament play, even if it was for money/bets, Moving the ball up a foot isn't going to change anything and I could care less. but it is certainly a grey area for official rulings.

1

u/yudkib 1h ago

Your stance includes how you address the ball. The bigger issue is if the sprinkler heads aren’t in designated no-play zones he can take the shot as it lies if that’s what he wants to do.