Forums

Re: St. Andy #17 Immovable Obstruction

• Iggy220 21 Posts

  Tue, Aug 26 2014 6:09 PM

  Playing with a buddy of mine, he bounced beyond the green onto the road/cart path, it said IMMOVABLE OBSTRUCTION - FREE DROP, but it took him back to where he hit from on the fairway and penalized him a stroke.  Please take a look at this as it's either out of bounds or he got screwed.

  Thank you

  Iggy

• alosso 21,070 Posts

  Tue, Aug 26 2014 9:15 PM

  Iggy220:

  Playing with a buddy of mine, he bounced beyond the green onto the road/cart path, it said IMMOVABLE OBSTRUCTION - FREE DROP, but it took him back to where he hit from on the fairway and penalized him a stroke.  Please take a look at this as it's either out of bounds or he got screwed.

  +1

  There's no provision in the rules (§ 24-2) to repeat the shot as a release from an immovable obstruction (IO). Any (if any) NPR = next point of release which is the only option should be closer.

  This is one of the few spots where the Rules of Golf are not observed in the game. It has been reported long time ago. I fear that, along with other mistakes like scorecard lengths and unfavourable or wrong drop spots etc., it may stay in the game forever. At least, everyone is affected in the same way => "fair play".

  Edit and BTW: Did you ever notice that the road crossing STA#18 is taken as an IO, too, with a release conforming to 24-2? This one is a glitch, too, because the local rules of STA do not contain this provision. Instead, it should be "played as it lies".

• spdemon 1,588 Posts

  Wed, Aug 27 2014 9:10 PM

  Iggy220:

  Playing with a buddy of mine, he bounced beyond the green onto the road/cart path, it said IMMOVABLE OBSTRUCTION - FREE DROP, but it took him back to where he hit from on the fairway and penalized him a stroke.  Please take a look at this as it's either out of bounds or he got screwed.

  Thank you

  Iggy

  Did he lose a ball had the same happen to me and hitting 3 off the tee but with a lost ball lmao 

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Thu, Aug 28 2014 12:51 AM

  On WGT we don't have relief from an unplayable lie, which I guess would be hard to do here because it is discretionary - any player can declare it at any time for whatever reason (with penalty).

  Another thing about the Road Hole is that, so far as I know, the road itself is not in play, and you cannot bounce the ball against the wall as you can in real life. As Angel Cabrero (I believe it was) banked the ball off the wall and bounced it back onto the green the last time the Open was held there. I wish that WGT would straighten out these issues concerning the Road Hole because they are essential features of this quirky and world-famous golf hole.

  I think there is a similar quirk at the far edge of the 9th green at Oakmont, where the ball is not out of bounds but is too close to the porch of the clubhouse to be playable and there seems to be no place to drop the ball that would not be either closer to the hole or on the green.