alright so i was playing with some of my friends the past weekend and one of them hit a shot to the green on 13 where there's a road and white stakes right before the road and their ball hits the road bounces across onto a different hole. he wants to play it as it lies because he says it is in bounds on a different hole but my other friends and i agree that his ball is past the white stakes on the hole we were playing so its still ob. he took our words and replayed the shot with penalty but i was just curious if we made the right call

This happens a couple of times at our course (where 'the course' on the other side of the road is OB).

Decision 27/20 says the following.



Q. A public road defined as out of bounds divides a course. A ball crosses the road and comes to rest on the part of the course on the other side of the road. Is the ball out of bounds?

A. No. Since the ball lies on the course, it is in bounds unless a Local Rule provides otherwise. However, because it is unfair that a ball on the road is out of bounds and a ball beyond it is in bounds, it is suggested that the following Local Rule should be adopted:

"A ball which crosses a public road defined as out of bounds and comes to rest beyond that road is out of bounds, even though it may lie on another part of the course."

I think (but don't know for sure) that with the white stake markers the local rule is not required. But that might be wrong.

dave

You need to know what the local rule is. If there is no local rule, then the ball was in bounds. If there is a local rule to the effect of the one shown in Decision 27/20, then the ball is out of bounds.

It's happened to me. The ball crossed the road on a par three and stopped on the tee of the next hole. I hit back over the road onto the green. I posted the question here and got a similar response that if there's no local rule there should be.

In cases where you aren't sure of the rule, you can play two balls according to the two interpretations, then after the round ask the golf pro what the ruling should be and take that score.

cool thanks for the help guys, well he actually bounced over a 3 story apt and well its a whole lot easier to rehit from 80 yards than hit a 40 yard flop over a 3story apt so there really was no question as to whether he would re hit or not he was just like well hey my ball is inbounds y couldn't i play it if i chose to