How To Take An Unplayable Drop - 6 Golf Rules You NEED TO KNOW

So you've hit your ball into a spot of bother and you're not able to make an attempt at hitting the shot. How do you proceed? You know you want to take relief, but what are the options available to you and how many shots is it going to cost you? That's what we're going to uncover in this video here at Travel Potembre. I'm joined by our rules expert, Fergus Blissett. We're going to run through everything you need to know about taking a drop for an unplayable ball and also highlight some of the common mistakes that golfers make to ensure that you don't make those mistakes as well. Right, Fergus, I've semi-topped my dry. We're going in this direction and it's absolutely driven itself down into this really thick rough. It's not embedded, but it's very deep down in that grass. I genuinely think if I had a go at hitting it, I would just be hitting it further into the grass. I don't think I can get it out of this sort of troublesome area. I know I don't want to play it, so what are my options in this situation? Well, I think we're on rule 19, unplayable ball. 19.1, you can declare an unplayable ball anywhere on the golf course other than in the penalty area. That's quite important, actually. If you're in a penalty area, rule 17 applies and that deals with penalty areas. In this instance, you're not in a penalty area. You're going to have three options from here. The first option is that you could go back to the tee and play three off the tee. That's not the worst of options here. Option two would be that you would take back on the line, relief. Now, the hole's over there. You take a line between this ball and the hole and go straight back as far as you want. Now, you may find that over the top of this rise, there might be a clear patch. It doesn't look too clever in this direction at the moment. It probably looks worse that way. Probably looks worse that way. But, of course, the line extends from the ball, so there could be an area back on a line that looks a little bit more promising. Third option would be a lateral drop of two club lengths from the spot of the original ball, no closer to the hole. And if you can find an area within two club lengths that you think I could proceed the ball effectively from there, you could do that. So, yeah. Okay, so it's a semi-circle sort of area, no nearer the hole. So, it's sort of forming around this way. Exactly, two club lengths, no nearer the hole. So, the choice is yours, really. I mean, almost certainly here, back on the line or two club lengths is going to produce a tough lie, but perhaps with a drop, you're going to be in a better position than when you've buried in there. So, let's assume I'm going to take the two club length option. So, let's just go through the process to make sure the viewers know exactly what they need to do. First is first. Yes. Must always mark the position of the ball. Mark the position of the ball. Okay, there we go. Good stuff. That's marked. And then, two club lengths. So, I'll go. You're going in that direction, that's absolutely fine. You're going backwards. One, two. Now, mark the ball, the end of the club, no further than the end of the club, at the end, not beyond the end. That's fine. You've marked the relief area. You can now pick up the ball. If I can find it. If you can find it. Oh, there it is, yeah. That is well and truly buried. Here we go. That's definitely mine. Make sure it's yours. Quite right. You've identified that it is yours, so that's fine. Okay, so. And a knee-high drop. Yes, that's very important. Somewhere within this relief area. See, I'm quite lucky here. The grass is all grown with us, so. You might get. I think if I can drop it here, knee-high. Knee-high, yeah. There you go. That's actually quite a nice result. That's sitting out quite nicely. You're in play there, and I think you can get it down the fairway a little way from there. I agree. I think it's important to know the three different options you have available to you, because certainly in my experience playing golf, I'm pretty sure I've used all three at some point. Yeah. It depends on the situation, so make sure you pick the right one to give you the best advantage, but obviously, worth pointing out, that's a penalty shot, right? So I'm now playing three. It is. All those options are under penalty of one shot. There we go. So if you're looking to take an unplayable, those are the options available to you, and that's how you execute it in this particular situation. Right, Fergus, I've hit another shocking tee shot. I've snap hooked it on the amazing 10th hole here at Trump Turnberry, and my ball is buried in this thick lie in the rough again. I don't think I can play it. Don't think I can get it out of this really heavy grass. I want to take an unplayable drop, because two club blinks within that sort of range, I've got some lovely sort of flattened down grass here. I'm pretty confident I'll get a very nice lie here for my third shot. Please tell me that's perfectly fine within the rules of golf, please. I'm afraid I can't tell you that, and the reason for that is this red stake. Right. You're in a penalty area here. I am. And rule 19.1 says that you can declare an unplayable ball anywhere on the golf course except in a penalty area. Right. Now, in a penalty area, you have to go by rule 17 rather than rule 19. You cannot take a two club length drop in the penalty area for an unplayable ball. Your options are back to the tee. Stroke and distance relief. These are all under penalty of a shot. Three off the tee. Back in a line from where it crossed the penalty area, keeping the hole at the point where it crossed. That might be an option for you. Could be, yeah. Or you can take a two club length drop from the point it crossed the penalty area, a lateral drop there, which is down in some fairly difficult looking terrain. I'm afraid you're not going to be able to drop it here, though. That is a shame. But I think in this particular situation, I would probably go back on a line from where I entered, obviously, which would be around about here. Yeah, yeah. And go back that way. So that's interesting. That's what you've got to do. Yeah, interesting distinction there. If you are looking to get relief from a bad lie in a penalty area, the unplayable rules do not apply. Can't help but notice you're struggling a bit, Fergus. Have you thought about subscribing to the Golf Monthly YouTube channel? Why would I do that? Oh, it's great. Not only have they got equipment reviews, rules videos, but they've also got some really good tips videos, which clearly you need to watch. Think I better get on it. Good man. Have you? Right, Fergus, I've got a bit of a case of the lefts, as you probably tell. Off the tee, and now with my approach shot, I've found myself into this horrific lie. And we have a look at the line of the red stakes on this penalty area, and I'm technically actually not in the penalty area. Not in it, no. I know I want to take a drop. I can't really play this. I believe you're about to tell me there's sort of an interesting option that's available to me when you want to take an unplayable lie close to a penalty area. What is that, please? Well, although you can't take an unplayable ball situation in a penalty area, there's nothing to stop you taking a drop into a penalty area if you're unplayable on any other part of the course. Now here, I think your best option is going to be to take back on the line relief. The pin is over there, the ball is here. You can get it back onto that nice bit of sand on the beach here. There's nothing to stop you taking a drop there. Okay. And I think that would be your best option in this situation. I tend to agree. It's a nice flat lie. I'm a pretty competent sand player at the bunkers. If you don't sit at the top. You know, the flat lie on the beach there is going to be way better than trying to hack it out of this stuff. So, that's an interesting option to have at your disposal. Let's go and give it a go. Give it a go. Mark the ball. Yeah, it is yours. There's mine. Okay, so back on a line. Yeah. Sort of here. Just about here. Yeah. Knee-high drop. Oh, it didn't plug. That ball's in play. In play. Yeah. Okay, let's give it a go. Oh, nipped it nicely. I'm pretty happy with that. There you go. You can take a drop in a penalty area if you want to. It might just give you a better lie than you had before. Fergus, my golf ball has plugged in the sand within possibly one of the deepest pot bunkers I've ever seen. Yeah. By the 10th green at the Elsa course at Trump Turnberry. And I'm almost certain I'm not going to get it out from this position. Also, even if I have a swipe at it, yeah, the ball runs down into the sand. Even then, I'm not even sure I can get it out of this bunker. Okay. I think there's a lot of golfers out there who really struggle with this shot in terms of getting out and could rack up a seriously big number. Yep. Can the rules of golf come to my aid in this particular situation? They might just be able to. Now, rule 19.3, which deals with an unplayable ball in a bunker, gives you one extra option compared to an unplayable ball in another part of the golf course. And that extra option is that you can, under penalty of two shots, drop it back on a line with a flag outside of the bunker. Yeah. Now, that's important. It is two shots that you're going to be adding to your score, but you might decide that that is a more sensible option than spending quite a long time backing it around in this bunker. I think that's definitely preferable because, obviously, if you take an unplayable line for the one-shot penalty and dropping it in the bunker, the chances are it's going to semi-plug in the sand. That could happen. Which would then make it even less likely that you're going to get the ball out of this particularly deep bunker. So, I'm going to do exactly what you said. Take a two-shot penalty option, mark the person in the ball. That is definitely my ball. And I'm going to go back on the line from the flag to where that tee is. So, it's around about here. Obviously, with this particular shot, I can get a pretty clean lie here. That's okay. Happy with that? That's gone within my club, mate. So, I've got a two-shot penalty, but I've got, hopefully, a relatively easy chip shot. The last thing I want to do, though, is duff it back into this bunker and have it all over again. But let's see. It is beautifully done. Now, that might just be the most sensible option there. There you go. So, be pragmatic about the situation. Stop, take a moment, consider the options available to you, and don't forget about the extra option in a bunker, because it could really save you racking up a big number on your scorecard. Fergus, you may have just witnessed the worst drive I've ever hit. I've toe-shanked it off this tee. It's hit that water fountain there, flown over our heads, gone quite a long way back, straight into a gorse brush over there. Not a very good result. I know it's my ball over there. I want to take an unplayable. And I also know, under the rules of the unplayable rule, I'm allowed to take stroke and distance from where I last played my shot, which is clearly here. But this position is obviously a lot nearer the hole than where my ball currently rests. Presumably, in this case, that's not allowed. It is allowed. You're in luck, kind of. We've been over and identified your ball over there, so we know it's yours, so you can declare an unplayable ball. Yeah, your options would have been, you could have taken a two club length lateral drop from there, or back in the line relief, but neither of those are very appealing at all. So stroke and distance, even though you are closer to the hole than where your ball originally ended up, you can play it from here, and to top it off, you can tee it up again. That's pretty, I mean, that is a bit of a result, isn't it? Because it's on the teeing area. It's considerably noticeably closer than where I was before. So let's see if I can make a better fist of it this time around. Hopefully you're safe there, we'll see. Ooh, look at that. Well, you've ripped that one. Straight down the middle. You did that the first time. I hope that was a good question. Good second serve. I'll see, so there you go. So if you're in an unfortunate situation of ricocheting a ball back behind you, you can take stroke and distance, and you'll be even further up the hole than your ball currently was. Right, so I guess things are going from bad to worse for me today. I've pulled my tee shot on this hole, and as we can see, my ball has lodged itself miraculously up in this tree here. Obviously, I could potentially get the driver out and try and dink it off and get it off there, but there's a chance I could miss the ball completely, the ball could not come out. I think the safer option that I want to take here is to take an unplayable. How does that work in a situation like this? First things first is that you have to be able to identify your ball. If you can't identify it, then it would be a lost ball, and you'd have to go back and play again under penalty of stroke and distance, but in this instance, the ball is close enough that we can definitely say it's your ball. So we just proceed under rule 19, the unplayable ball rule, in which you have three options. I think the best option for you here will be the two club length lateral drop under penalty of a stroke. Now, obviously, you're not going to measure it from the ball because it's up the tree, so you're going to measure two club lengths from a spot on the ground directly below where the ball is, and you're going to measure two club lengths no nearer the hole. Once I know that it's my ball, am I allowed to shake the tree to try and get it down? Yeah. How does that work? Well, even if you didn't know it was your, if you wanted to try and identify your ball, you could climb the tree and have a look to see if it was your ball, or yeah, you can shake the tree, and if it comes down and it's your ball, then you can then proceed under the unplayable ball rule. But you have to be certain it's your ball? You have to be certain, yeah. So, I mean, people might use a range finder. If they're not going to get it down, you don't have to get your ball down. You can substitute a ball, but you have to know that the ball that's in the tree is your ball. Oh, okay, so I don't have to use that one to take my lateral drop? You don't have to, no. That's handy. I don't have another ball on this time. I'm just going to knock this one down. Yeah, go for it. There we go. Got it out. So we know that it's here. Yeah, that's where it was. So you need to mark a spot where the original ball was on the ground. I would say that was around about here. Is that fair? Yeah, that looks right, and you've got two club lengths no nearer the hole from there. One, two, I've got a nice flat lie here, which is nice. Yeah. Definitely the best option. So I can drop within this two club lengths, and see how we get on. Yeah, you're still in there. Just no nearer the hole. You're going to need a wedge. I am. This is quite a tricky shot, but I'll give it my best. Definitely better from being up in that tree. Let's give it a go. Oh, I thought the bank. Well, very nearly. I tried to kill it into the bank. Very nearly. Not my best shot. So there you go. If your ball does get stuck in a tree, those are the options available to you. So there you have it. I hope you found that useful and highlighting some of the unusual situations that your golf ball can find itself in. Now you know, if you're in that situation yourself, how to proceed and take a correct unplayable drop under the rules of golf to make sure you don't rack up any big scores with some penalty shots. But that's all from us here at Trump Turnberry. We'll see you next time.