MIND / RULES M
There Really Is a Leaf Rule You know your ball is in there somewhere – and you’ve got options By Drew Powell
E ACH WINTER, GOLFERS invoke the “leaf rule” to lobby for a free drop when they can’t find their ball under a pile of foliage. Some use it as a concession to appease a frustrated opponent. Others claim it as justification for avoiding their own lost-ball penalty, emphatically asserting the Rules of Golf supports it. Is it an official rule? Yes, in some instances. It takes some explaining. Irrespective of the official rules, the act of taking a free drop after losing a ball in a spot where it should be found seems logical. Why should you receive the same penalty as someone who just sliced one out-of-bounds? Unfortunately, in many cases the rules are not so lenient. Rule 18.2 states that “your ball is lost if not found in three minutes after you or your caddie begin to search for it.” When a ball is lost, you must take a stroke-and-distance penalty
(and a penalty stroke) and play from the spot of your previous shot. Proponents of the leaf rule, however, often cite Rule 16.1, which allows a player to take free relief from a ball not found when it is “known or virtually certain” it came to rest in or on an “abnormal course condition.” This is where things get a little grey. Leaves are considered an abnormal course condition only when they are intentionally piled for removal outside a penalty area. If that’s the case, and you either saw the ball enter the leaves or are virtually certain it did (maybe someone else saw it), then you are entitled to a free drop by finding the nearest point of complete relief and dropping within one club-length, no closer to the hole. A more common scenario is when leaves are scattered or pile up naturally. They are not considered an abnormal course condition. They are simply loose impediments, so you are not entitled to
free relief if you’re sure your ball is lost under them. Hope is not lost, though, as you may be entitled to free relief under Model Local Rule F-14, which a tournament committee or course staff implements. “Piles of loose impediments such as leaves, seeds or acorns might make it difficult for a player to find or play his or her ball,” the rule states. “A Committee can choose to treat such piles in the general area or in a bunker as ground under repair from which free relief is allowed under Rule 16.1.” Be sure to check with the course about this local rule before heading out. Are piles of leaves loose impediments or an abnormal course condition?
RUSSELL ILLIG
16 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
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