How about French Drains?

Here's a nifty little bugger on one of our local courses. I know what these things look like because I've seen them installed on the University of California campus. My father installed one in our backyard when I was little. I had one installed in my own backyard.

The area behind the pink line was marked ground under repair for an entire year. Now its fairway. The pink line is a covered French drain. The grass has yet to cover this line completely. The yellow line is an exposed French drain - it is exposed stones. I would imagine that if you duff your tee shot into the stones you're entitled to relief no nearer the hole. It is a safety hazard in addition to the fact you'll damage the hell out of your club.

The area enclosed in black is the drain field. It is not marked as ground under repair, but you can see the drain pipes sticking out of it. It is a low point on the course, and is where water collects and drains into the nearby river. It is soggy most of the year except for a couple of weeks at the end of August. They never mow this because the mowers would get stuck in it. Periodically one will duff a tee shot into this mess. Or a hapless beginner without the hitting power will hit a tee shot here, short of the fairway beyond. Good luck finding your ball. Better luck getting out of it.

I usually will bang my tee shot under one of the trees on the left or slice it off around the big cedar tree on the right ending up in tree hell, and in both cases I have a knock down shot onto the fairway as my only recourse - I do try to advance it, however. I learned the hard way - I wish I could carry a chainsaw as a 14th club - I'd give up my fairway wood for one round.

So what is the rule on these beasts? Ground under repair? Or "we're sorry the course forgot to mark this."

Reprinted from here :

Posted 06 July 2011 - 09:31 AM

I agree with you that a simple depression is not something from which you get free relief.  I don't know the true definition of a French Drain, but if it has a surface upon which gravel has been placed, then that gravel would be an immovable obstruction with free relief, a parallel for which can be found here:

24/9  Artificially-Surfaced Road or Path

Q. An artificially-surfaced road or path is an obstruction. What constitutes artificial surfacing?

A. A road or path to which any foreign material, e.g., concrete, tar, gravel, wood chips, etc., has been applied is artificially-surfaced and thus an obstruction.

ROGOLF posted this :

Here is what it says on the 2010 PGA Tour standard local Rules card:

Abnormal Ground Conditions - Rule 25.

b.  French drains filled with stones.

It does not say whether or not the stones in the French drains need to be exposed, and relief is permitted from the area if the stones can be felt by probing with a tee or a knife.

In one PGA Tour event, a player took relief from a depression in a fairway which was a drain line, but was not a French drain. The green superintendent was consulted, drawings of the construction reviewed, and it was concluded it was not a French drain.  The player was penalized two strokes for his actions (fortunately the issue was identified prior to him signing his score card and leaving the scoring area).

Why would there be an "Exposed" french drain..? French drains are meant to be buried, and lay on a gravel bed.

Because they didn't hire your company to install it. ;-) Next time, they'll know better.

Haha...my company has been out of biz for 4 yrs...I would consider consulting though...

They never covered the stones.

The area fills with water in the winter and is pretty much all casual water through May, and spotty through June. So you're dropping a new ball next to it, because it's not marked as a water hazard and at times is too deep to retrieve your ball. It just stays muddy. Solution is not to duff the shot.

Although the USGA often refer to French Drains as GUR, both the ruling bodies agree that a French Drain (which has exposed stones or is identifiable as such) is an Immovable Obstruction by definition. It does not need to be marked.

However, they recommend that where the stones have been overgrown but may cause interference, they should be marked and deemed GUR. The USGA suggested to me that they should always be deemed GUR by local rule because 'players understand the relief procedure better' ??????

The area in black should not be GUR but it is arguable that it should be defined as a WH.

I would suggest not, as it not really a 'water course'. It would also have the disadvantage that, during the dry season, a player would not be permitted to ground his club or move loose impediments.

When it is wet, casual water would afford relief.

I agree, a WH would be way too punitive a way of classifying this mess.

The club also needs to update its scorecard to reflect some changes in local rules the committee adopted last year. One of them due to a little controversy I stirred up. I'll put that in the "Where to drop?" thread.

I'm with Iacas.  I think casual water but no other relief is appropriate to the drain field.