THE RULES EVERY GOLFER SHOULD KNOW

What to do if you find yourself close to a boundary wall

f your ball ends up close to a boundary wall or fence, it can leave you with a tricky decision to make. Elsewhere on the golf course, permanent structures such as toilet buildings, shelters or halfway huts are deemed immovable obstructions from which you can obtain free relief if your ball is lying in or on them, or they interfere with your stance or area of intended swing. But this is not the case when it comes to any walls that define the boundary of the course.

When walls, or indeed fences or railings, form the boundary of the course, they are deemed to be fixed, and no relief is available should your ball be lying so close to them as to make your next shot very difficult.

You can always attempt to play the ball in some way, whether via a shortened stroke, playing in the wrong direction or attempting a ricochet off the wall, but if you do you must be careful to make a proper stroke at the ball. Rule 14-1 dictates that the ball “must be fairly struck at”, and anything constituting a pushing, scraping or spooning movement will cost you two strokes in stroke play, or loss of hole in match play.

And remember, if you do go for the ricochet, à la Miguel Angel Jimenez on the Road Hole at St Andrews in 2010, things don’t always pan out quite as well as they did for him that day. If the ball rebounds and strikes either you or your club, it will cost you a penalty stroke under Rule 19-2, so you will need to factor that risk in before deciding to go for it.

If you decide not to play your ball, you may proceed under Rule 28 (ball unplayable), in which, theoretically at Miguel Angel Jimenez on the Road Hole at the 2010 Open Championship least, you have three options, all under penalty of one stroke. You can go back to where you last played from, go back as far as you like on a line, keeping where your ball lies between you and the flag, or drop within two club-lengths not nearer the hole.

If the boundary wall runs parallel to the hole, as most will, it is unlikely that the second option outlined above will ever be available, as you can’t drop your ball out of bounds! And if the boundary wall is close to the green, it’s quite possible that the third option may not be available either, as it might be impossible to drop within two club-lengths not nearer the hole.

So the harsh reality is that sometimes the only realistic option when your ball is right next to a boundary wall will be the unfortunate long walk back to where you played your last shot from.