Under Rule 16.3a<\/a>, free relief is only allowed when a players\u2019 ball is embedded in the general area and is in its own pitch mark.<\/p>\n If there is any doubt \u2013 if the pitch mark might be from another ball \u2013 a player is allowed to treat their ball as embedded \u201cif it is reasonable to conclude\u201d that the ball is in its own pitch-mark.<\/p>\n This frustrates players. The ball is plugged and on tour, where landing areas can be peppered with pitch-marks, it\u2019s not that unusual an occurrence.<\/p>\n Officials rule in real-time. But when the cameras enter, and super slow-motion replays can track every movement of the ball, decisions can turn out to be incorrect\u2013 even if the letter of the law was applied correctly.<\/p>\n It\u2019s this gap between rulings and what TV might subsequently show that this Local Rule is hoping to close.<\/p>\n What does the new Local Rule say about embedded balls?<\/p>\n It\u2019s only recommended for competitions with live television coverage \u2013 so that tells you very clearly who and what it\u2019s being aimed at \u2013 and where a ruling \u201cmade in real time may later be questioned based on when video evidence of that player\u2019s stroke is shown on the broadcast\u201d.<\/p>\n It states if a referee decides it is known or virtually certain that part of a player\u2019s ball is \u201cbelow the level of the ground in a pitch-mark in the general area that is cut to fairway height or less that has not been repaired in some way and was made as a result of any player\u2019s stroke\u201d, the player can take free relief.<\/p>\n There\u2019s quite a lot to break down there, but the key point is: it can be in a pitch-mark made by any player\u2019s stroke.<\/p>\n Once again: Referees no longer need to identify whose pitch-mark it is.<\/p>\n The full text of F-2.3 reads: \u201cIn addition to when relief is allowed under Rule 16.3a, if a referee determines that it is known or virtually certain that part of a player\u2019s ball is below the level of the ground in a pitch-mark in the general area that is cut to fairway height or less that has not been repaired in some way and was made as a result of any player\u2019s stroke, the player may take free relief using the procedures in Rule 16.3b.<\/p>\n \u201cA pitch-mark has been repaired in some way when it has been pressed down or undergone any form of repair by anyone whether deliberate or incidental, and regardless of the quality or completeness of the repair.<\/p>\n \u201cExamples of repaired in some way include when a pitch-mark has been pressed down with a club or foot, anyone has attempted to repair it with a tee or some other device, or when the pitch-mark is in an area over which a mower has passed or has been otherwise prepared by maintenance staff. A pitch-mark that has been repaired in some way can and will often result in a visible indentation from which there is no relief under this Local Rule.\u201d<\/p>\n Why has it been brought in?<\/p>\n Referees often don\u2019t have video evidence, and quick-fire replays to hand, when making decisions. They give their rulings based on the evidence they can gather at the time and sometimes it\u2019s difficult to come to a decision.<\/p>\n But TV cameras, and subsequently social media, can freeze-frame, slow-down, and magnify to the miniscule.<\/p>\n Television may later reveal new, or more, detail that wasn\u2019t available on the spot and this Local Rule, which will see this season on the PGA Tour and further afield, now gives officials some space.<\/p>\n Now have your say<\/p>\n What do you think of this new embedded ball Local Rule? Will it make it easier for tour players or will it help rules officials make decisions? Let us know by leaving a comment below, or get in touch on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Lowry didn\u2019t need cameras to know his ball was plugged. Standing in the 8th fairway at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-401977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"embedded](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/embeddedballrelief-1024x661.jpg\")
<\/p>\n