{"id":681087,"date":"2026-05-19T16:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681087\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:00:18","slug":"can-you-take-free-relief-from-a-man-made-object-in-the-rough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681087\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you take free relief from a man-made object in the rough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Rules of Golf\u00a0are tricky! Thankfully, we\u2019ve got the guru. Our\u00a0Rules Guy\u00a0knows the book front to back<\/a>. Got a question? He\u2019s got all the answers.<\/p>\n

My buddy pulled his approach shot pin-high but left of the elevated green. His ball was inside of the bordering cart path in the rough about 20 yards out. He has a clear stance, but his backswing to hit a clean pitch would hit a carved granite slab with the next hole\u2019s number and distance info. I was about to suggest he take relief from this man-made object interfering with his swing when he somehow played a great shot that ended up within inches. When I asked why he hadn\u2019t taken relief, he said it wasn\u2019t possible because that only applied coming up to the green, not once around it \u2014 something about \u201cthrough the green\u201d? Since it wasn\u2019t my ball and he pulled off the shot anyway, I didn\u2019t follow up \u2026 but this doesn\u2019t sound right to me. \u2014Tom Enderle, via email<\/p>\n

Without wanting to sound at all smug \u2014 heaven forbid! \u2014 we note that this revolves around a rather amusing misunderstanding of a pre-2019 Rules term. \u201cThrough the green\u201d is what today we call the \u201cgeneral area\u201d \u2026 and in fact had nothing to do with whether you had reached the green surrounding area or not. <\/p>\n

Your buddy was allowed to take free relief before 2019 and was still allowed to do so now with his ball laying in the general area (and not through the green). Please refer to Rule 16.1 for all the specifics.<\/p>\n

For more free-relief guidance from our guru, read on \u2026<\/p>\n


\n \"golf <\/a><\/p>\n

Rules Guy: Can you take free swing relief from a ball washer?<\/a><\/p>\n

By:<\/p>\n


\n Rules Guy <\/a><\/p>\n

A course I play planted several young trees recently but didn\u2019t stake around them. Can I move my ball so as not to potentially damage a tree if it\u2019s in my path to the hole? \u2014Peter Bemis, La Crosse, Wis.<\/p>\n

Model Local Rule E-10 treats young trees as no-play zones to protect them from damage, but it is the responsibility of the Committee to enact said rule and decide which trees are protected.<\/p>\n

If the Committee hasn\u2019t done so, nothing in the rules allows you to go rogue. That said, if you are unwilling to risk potential tree damage, you could always declare the ball unplayable and take penalty relief \u2014 and maybe win an award from the Sierra Club!<\/p>\n

Need a handicap?\u00a0Get started here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won\u2019t throw the book at you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Rules of Golf\u00a0are tricky! Thankfully, we\u2019ve got the guru. Our\u00a0Rules Guy\u00a0knows the book front to back. Got a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-681087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681087","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=681087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}