What a PGA Championship! For those of you that didn't have the opportunity to watch Sunday afternoon's drama, I cry for you. Tee balls being sprayed all over creation, great recoveries, epic failures, and persistent greatness (Brooks Koepka, my hat's off to you!).
There wasn't much I saw about rules infractions or questionable strategy, but Gary McCord got something so completely wrong that I had to devote this blog to it.
I think it was Tiger Wood's tee shot on the 9th hole. He'd only hit one fairway on the front nine on Sunday, but his recoveries led to quite a few kick-in birdies. Wild times for the galleries, as Mr. Woods spent a lot of time getting up close and personal outside the ropes. So, Tiger's yanked one into the trees of the left side of #9 and hit ball ends up on the cart path. The blimp is showing the ball on the path, and it's closer to the fairway side of the cart path. McCord says something like ".... and he's going to have to drop on the other side of the cart path, even further away from the fairway!". Maybe he was being fed the wrong information or just misconstrued the optics - heck, I'm glad I don't have his job - under pressure to make TV golf interesting is a pretty tall ask.
Anyway, it's a common misunderstanding with points of relief from a cart path - that's why I included a nice little diagram on our laminated rules card that many of you are toting around in your bags. However, that's probably not near you right now, so consult the picture above.
A golfer has a ball on the cart path, so his nearest point of relief in on the side of the path closest to his ball. The golfer is thus entitled to full relief from the path (if he wishes - remember, you can always play off the path) including stance and swing relief. So, in the case above, the player has found where he can take a swing (using the club he intends to make his next shot with) and has found an area in which his stance is unaffected by the path, and has ensured that he's no closer to the hole than where his ball came to rest on the path. That spot (where the ball would be addressed by the club) then becomes the nearest point of relief. The player then would be entitled to up to a club length from that point in which he can drop his ball. He can drop anywhere in that area without penalty.
Tiger definitely used that rule to his advantage and somehow birdied #9 with a wild, hooky 9-iron. He knew the rule, Gary got it wrong, and I hope he didn't confuse more people in the process.
One other point regarding relief from cart paths. If you're taking relief from a cart path (or any other immovable obstruction for that matter), you must take FULL relief. In other words, you can't drop the ball just off the cart path so your stance is still on the path. Now, if your ball is hit and lies in the grass next to the path, you can elect to play the ball as it lies with your feet on the path if you wish, but you also have the option to take full relief from the path in that case and can drop the ball without penalty by finding the nearest point of relief where your stance is not affected by the cart path (same procedure as that spelled out when your ball ends up on the path).