Rules Guy: If your ball finds a drain, can you take relief on the fairway above it?

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A creek runs along the left side of a hole at my course, enters a culvert that runs underneath the fairway and then exits on the right side. Red stakes mark both sides of the creek, but the stakes terminate at the entrance to the culvert where the creek goes underground. My friend claims that if a ball enters the culvert and comes to rest underneath the fairway, the player is entitled to free relief vertically — i.e., directly above the ball onto the fairway. His reasoning is that because the red stakes terminate at the entrance to the culvert, the portion of the creek inside the culvert is no longer part of the marked penalty area. I called BS on this. Isn’t the ball still considered in the penalty area while it is inside the culvert? Regardless, is there any rule that would allow a player to take free relief directly above the ball onto the fairway? —W. Scott Clark, via email

F. Scott — sorry, W. Scott (Rules Guy must have Fitzgerald on his mind) — there are some nuances here that potentially complicate matters, which we will pointedly ignore, so fusspots please spare us your letters….

A penalty area’s edges do extend vertically upward and downward. If the Committee has marked the culvert edges as penalty areas, but clearly not the rest of the culvert since they wouldn’t want the middle of the fairway to be penalty area, then a ball in that culvert underground is actually in an abnormal course condition and free relief is allowed.

In this case, where relief is depends on where the ball is found — the nearest point of relief might be directly above it, or it may be near the entrance of the culvert. See Clarification 16.1/5 if you want to go further down that culvert, er, rabbit hole.

For more relief-related guidance from our guru, read on …

We have had numerous discussions at my course on the proper way drop off from a cart path, especially on a dogleg right, with a cart path left of the fairway. A large oak is just off the path, on the right side. At a recent tournament, our opponent wanted to drop on the left side of path to have an opening to green. I informed him that he had to drop on the closest complete relief — and that was on right side, which put the shot in direct threat of the oak. He wasn’t happy…but wasn’t I correct? – Scott Hall, via email

Weren’t you just, though! The nearest point of complete relief is indeed…wait for it…the nearest point of complete relief—in this instance, from said path, regardless of whether that results in a difficult shot afterward.

Per the Definition of Nearest Point of Complete Relief, the Rules give relief from the path, not from everything in the way. Your opponent should stop, drop and give you 20 pushups on the cart path as a mea culpa…or just learn the Rules as well as you know them.

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