{"id":782442,"date":"2026-07-06T10:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/782442\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:25:12","slug":"ball-resting-between-two-cuts-of-turf-do-i-get-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/782442\/","title":{"rendered":"Ball Resting Between Two Cuts Of Turf. Do I get Relief?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine the scenario \u2013 You\u2019ve hit a tee shot that is headed perilously close to a fairway bunker<\/a>. You watch on anxiously.<\/p>\n

It bounces a couple of times, does a \u201cwall of death\u201d move around the edge and spins out over the top \u2013 safely beyond the trap.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You\u2019re feeling your luck is clearly in as you walk down to play your second shot. The golfing gods are smiling on you.<\/p>\n

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But your good humour fades somewhat when you see the lie of your ball. The ball is not in the bunker; it\u2019s beyond it as you thought. But the area around the trap has been reasonably recently renovated, the surrounds of the bunker have been re-turfed.<\/p>\n

The weather over the last few weeks has been dry and the turf has struggled to bed in properly and knit together. Your ball has come to rest in a rather deep seem between two cuts of turf.<\/p>\n

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You look around desperately for signs of ground under repair<\/a> (GUR), but there are none. Surely though you automatically get relief for this scenario\u2026. Do you? What do the Rules<\/a> say?<\/p>\n

Not automatically. If the area has not been marked as ground under repair, there would be no relief under Rule 16.1 \u2013 Abnormal course conditions.<\/p>\n

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There are some situations on course that are deemed ground under repair, even if not marked by the committee \u2013 a hole made by committee or maintenance staff in setting up or maintaining the course (not aeration holes) for example. And grass cuttings or other material piled for later removal.<\/p>\n

Seams of cut turf are not included though.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t give up on relief just yet, there is a chance that the committee has a local rule in place. If the committee is using Model Local Rule<\/a> F-7, you would get free relief from a seam of cut turf.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

It says that if a player\u2019s ball lies in or touches a seam of cut turf or a seam interferes with the player\u2019s area of intended swing, they may take relief from the general area or the putting green as per Rules 16.1b or 16.1d.<\/p>\n

The local rule does not give relief if the seam of cut turf only interferes with your stance.<\/p>\n

If the local rule is in place, then you would be entitled to free relief \u2013 one club length from the nearest point<\/a> (reference point) where the seam no longer interferes with your lie or intended swing, no closer to the hole.<\/p>\n

If there is no local rule in place, there is no relief from a seam of cut turf and you must play the ball as it lies.<\/p>\n

Golf Rules Quiz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine the scenario \u2013 You\u2019ve hit a tee shot that is headed perilously close to a fairway bunker.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-782442","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\/782442","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=782442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}