Rule 16.1
Immovable obstruction
Also searched as: cart path, path, sprinkler head, bench, building, shelter
An artificial object you cannot move with reasonable effort, such as a paved cart path, a sprinkler head or a shelter. If it interferes with your lie, stance or swing, you get free relief.
There is no relief if the stroke would be clearly unreasonable anyway, for example when the ball is stuck in a bush and only the path next to it ‘interferes’, or when the ball lies in a penalty area.
Boundary stakes and fences are not obstructions, nor are objects the Committee has declared integral to the course. You get no free relief from them. One exception is angled supports of a boundary fence: they are not boundary objects and are obstructions, unless the Committee decides otherwise.
Step by step
- 1Check the interference. Does the obstruction affect your lie, stance or swing? On the putting green your line of play counts too.
- 2Find the nearest point of complete relief. Where the obstruction no longer interferes, not nearer the hole.
- 3Drop. Within one club-length of that point, in the same area of the course.
In the video
