dropping the ball and placing it

[Teedub7]

i was playing in a tournament, and i had landed on the cart path, on one side was this extremely steep hill, and on the other side there was trees that were staked. so i took my one club length no closer to the hole and dropped it on the hill, it rolled across the cart path to the staked tree. i repeated this three times and then i went to place the ball and the same thing kept happening over and over. i'm not sure of this rule, and the rules commitee was no where to be found, so one of the kids said to keep placing it. so the same result kept happening over and over. finally, i placed it and i hit the cart path a little harder, and for some reason, there was a tree on the left that wasnt staked. now this goes against closer to the hole, but when i went to pick it up cause i was in violation of a rule, but the two guys from the other high school in my group said i would have to take an additional one stroke penalty for picking up the ball. i played it from the trees and ended up making a 7 on a par 4. i lost a scorecard playoff for 5th place in the tournament, and i was really pissed cause i knew this wasnt how the drop/place should have happened. what was the actual rule that pertains to this?

[RemyM]

Read rule 20.
http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/pdf/2008ROG.pdf

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Read rule 20.

Yeah, 20-3d seems to cover it; if the ball rolls away from where you placed it and closer to the hole, it must be re-placed without penalty. If the ball comes to rest legally after you placed it, but then moves, then you have to play it as it lies.

-Andrew