I'll try and keep this short and hopefully the answer is fairly easy and someone can help me out.

I'm on the 17th hole of my round and at that point, I am even par for the round, and looking to shoot par or lower for the first time ever. I hit my tee shot into the fairway, and have a short 8iron in. I hit the shot, the ball goes up and is cutting right into the green, it doesn't cut quite enough, but only lands a yard or two to the left of the green. On landing, the ball skyrockets up, over the green, over the cart path in the back, and into the woods about 25 yards behind the green. I pull up to the green, and there is a drain with a nice big dent in it from my ball.

So my question is, since my ball went out of bounds, what is the correct play? I mean, not that it matters, but if the balls lands on grass, it probably kicks onto the green.

The guy I was playing with just told me to take a free drop next to the drain, and play from there. With that free drop, I got up and down for par.

However, I don't think that is the correct ruling. Could anybody tell me what exactly I should have done? Thank you!

-Matt

I'm not a rules expert- but I think this is just a case of bad luck- and the golf gods telling you that you're first round of par or better is not to be yours quite yet.

It's a terrible case of bad luck- but I'm pretty sure your ball is OB- so back to your spot in the fairway- with a stroke penalty and hit again. So 2 into the green and OB, 3 penalty, and 4 from the fairway. If you sick that shot with your 8 iron you still have par. Otherwise probably looking at 1 or 2 over par.

Sorry chief. I hope someone corrects me- but I'm fairly certain that is the "correct play."
_________________
Kickntrue-
Duffing since 1993

I believe you should have taken the OB penalty. If your ball had landed and stuck next to the drain, you could have taken relief, but since it bounced of the drain, it is just like hitting a rock/hard ground/etc. It's part of the course.

I'm sure someone else can chime in with the exact rule from the USGA Rule book, but I'm not that smart

Yup. Similar thing happened to Corey Pavin, who was neck & neck with Fred Couples at this year's Cap Cana Champions tournament. Corey's approach shot hit a sprinkler head and bounded over 60' past the green. He wasn't able to take a free drop. Instead Corey played it where it lay (fortunately not OB) and made a bogey.

That pretty much sealed his chance of catching Couples who closed out his third straight tournament in a row.

We've all had balls go bounding down the cart path, resulting in a 400 yard drive. We don't complain about that. Mine actually found the green, but I three putted. Another bounce story, Yesterday in our weekly dogfight my partner hit a high nine iron over a pond, to a par 3, and it was coming down 4 feet from making the far side of the pond. There was a big splash, then we see his ball shoot straight up and onto the green. The only thing we could figure was that it hit a turtle.

Kickntrue wrote:

I'm not a rules expert- but I think this is just a case of bad luck- and the golf gods telling you that you're first round of par or better is not to be yours quite yet. It's a terrible case of bad luck- but I'm pretty sure your ball is OB- so back to your spot in the fairway- with a stroke penalty and hit again. So 2 into the green and OB, 3 penalty, and 4 from the fairway. If you sick that shot with your 8 iron you still have par. Otherwise probably looking at 1 or 2 over par. Sorry chief. I hope someone corrects me- but I'm fairly certain that is the "correct play."

Absolutely right. It's considered a "rub of the green" or tough luck. I had this exact thing happen to me at #16 at broad run during a tournament this year. I was in contention for the win and needed a good finish to get my first win on the GCAT. I was just off the fairway on the left hand side and hit an 8 iron from 165. I had a slight breeze from the right and i was trying to hit to the right of the green with a little draw (pin back left). To the left was a big hill and trouble. I ended up pulling the shot just a little and it ended (or would have ) just off the left fringe where it hit the edge of a sprinkler and shot directly left into the woods. I Played a provisional (and hit it like i wanted to) to 12 feet right of the hole and ended up having to hole out with that ball for a double bogey 6. I lost by two strokes.

The only time you drop from a sprinkler is to get relief if it interferes with your stance or swing.