Settle the debate

Settle the debate

May 28, 2026


Playing partner and I are in a debate. This is not perfectly to scale. Help clarify.

White-ob. Fenced
Blue – water. (Red staked and painted to the path)
Yellow- path
Pink – gur. Again marked to path.

Land my tee shot just left of the path on a 1 foot wide portion of grass. Where the baby blue mark is. Impossible as a righty to to play as a fence is there. Utilize 16.1a(3)/1 as my feet are in the path when taking a left handed stance. due to the gur the relief gets a little complex. I believe my nearest point is to come out to the end of the path spur and drop there. 2 yards farther from the hole by laser

Playing partner argues. I don’t get relief from a boundary fence (which I never referenced in how I came to my conclusion.) And that I would have to go back behind the water as by gps mI was closer to the “hole” (centre of the green) anywhere in front of it.

by PickNational9102

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View Comments (26)

  8. Depends!

    Does the course consider the fence a man made thing, or integral to the course. I have seen different courses rule it differently for the same type of obstruction. You need to know how the course defines it.

    My club pro refers this specific question to the superintendent.

  9. You really fucked up drawing a penis on accident, now no one is gonna answer you lol

  10. Shouldn’t have a red spot there. Definitely should seek medical attention. I would be angry too but I think the accepted spelling is “grrrrr.”

  12. Nearest relief point from the cart path would be the GUR. Then you would take relief from the GUR separately.

  14. well, a few things.

    Firstly, is it reasonable to use an opposite-handed stance? Probably yes, as you might legitimately use a left handed shot, in this scenario. In other scenarios, say a sprinkler head in the fairway, it would not be.

    So then, the nearest point of full relief. Is there not enough space between the path, and the fence to find the nearest point of relief (that’s not OB)?

    In that scenario, the closest is likely on the OB side of the path, so unless the OB is within say 2 feet of the path, chances are there is a point of relief, and you have to drop one club length from there, and you may just have to hit a left handed shot (or make it work righty, or take an unplayable).

    Now, lets assume there is no legitimate point of relief, on the OB side of the path, then you find your nearest point of relief (no closer to the hole), which is likely in the GUR – so you drop there.

    Then you have to repeat the whole process again from GUR, which is where things get hard to define, as you the path isn’t relevant at that point, and the nearest point of relief could be on it.

    If the drop is behind, then the path might come into play again, and then you would get a third relief from that.

    You can’t jump multiple steps in the same relief, you have to take it in stages.

  16. Glad to see I’m not the only one that stopped on this post because I saw a big dick drawing

  21. I agree that you get nearest point of relief without penalty. You can’t MOVE the fence to make your swing, but given your proximity to the fence by the path, if you can’t get a full right handed expected swing and your only choice is to swing lefty, then your feet on the cart path grants you relief.

  22. 200 Golf IQ move right there. 100% right. Literally just watched a USGA insta post about this recently

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