8. Your tee shot on a par-3 just carries a yellow penalty area and comes to rest in a greenside bunker. You treat the ball as unplayable and take back-on-the-line relief outside the bunker in a narrow strip of land between the bunker and the penalty area. Your chosen reference point on the line behind the bunker is a few inches in front of the penalty area. You drop a ball that lands on the yellow line and it rolls less than one club-length from the reference point, coming to rest inside the penalty area. You lift that ball to drop it again and this time it lands in the general area, rolls less than one club-length and comes to rest in the penalty area. You then lift the ball and place it on the spot in the general area where the ball landed on the second drop and play onto the putting green. At that point, another player questions your procedure and you consult a referee. What is the correct ruling?
Oh WOW! I hear you exclaim! Why? Ok, let me try to run you through this one and explain!
The player dropped the ball in the Penalty Area (we know that because the Definition of Penalty Area tells us the line is in the Penalty Area), and the ball came to rest within 1 club-length of the spot it first touched in the penalty area.
As the player was dropping under Rule 19.3b, which borrows the relief procedure from Rule 19.2b, we also know that they dropped the ball in accordance with the rules, as they permit the player to drop in "any area of the course".
Therefore, the relief procedure was complete, per Rule 14.3c and the ball was in play. But now the player, for some unknown reason, decides to pick the ball up and drop again, and again, the ball comes to rest inside the Penalty Area so the player places it where it struck the ground on the 2nd drop.
Oh my, what a pickle! How do treat this action?
As the player was not intending to execute relief under Rule 17.1d for a ball in the Penalty Area when they lifted and moved it, the rules treat this action as a breach of Rule 9.4, which required the player to replace the ball under penalty of 1 stroke, but they didn't, and subsequently they re-dropped, then placed the ball and ended up playing from the wrong place, which comes at a cost of 2 penalty strokes, but with a discount under Rule 1.3c(4) on top of the 2 penalty strokes applicable to taking unplayable ball relief under Rule 19.3b. In total they are penalised 4 strokes.
View R&A Rule: 19.3b
View R&A Rule: 19.2b
View R&A Rule: 14.7a
View R&A Rule: 9.4b
View R&A Rule: 1.3c(4) in Range: 1.3c(1) - (4)
View USGA: Rule 19.3b
View USGA: Rule 19.2b
View USGA: Rule 14.7a
View USGA: Rule 9.4b
View USGA: Rule 1.3c(4) in Range: 1.3c(1) - (4)
