Free Relief

[mdl]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

I was thinking the same thing, yeah. @mdl, you probably don't stand as far away from the ball as you think. And remember, it's relief for the stance with the club you're likely to play from that lie. You don't get to use a driver to measure relief if you're not gonna hit driver (from the rough beside a cart path).

Fair enough.  My point was just that I'm always surprised when trying to find my NPR how close I can be to the right side of the path and still have NPR be left side.  I just did the math, and assuming a flat lie and an 8 iron (mine are +1.5"), the distance at address along the ground from the points directly below the two ends of the shaft, plus the length of my size 13 shoes is 2 feet 8 inches. Figure another another 2" to the sweet spot and another 2" so my heels aren't impinged by the path, and you get 3 feet.  Say a cart path is 6 feet wide, then I need to be > 75% of the way to the right of the cart path for the NPR to be right.  If the cart path is skinny, you can be even closer to the right edge percentage wise and still have NPR on the left.

So maybe I overstated by saying you needed to be way close to the right edge.  I guess I've been near that 75% line before, or taken relief off of skinny cart paths, and felt surprised at how close I looked to the right edge while still having NPR be on the left side.

[ColinL]

1 hour ago, klineka said:

Ok I think I got it now. Is this correct?:

1. Using the club/stance you would normally use absent of the cart path, you find your nearest point of complete relief. 
2. Once NPR is found, you can then use driver for your one club length, then drop.
3. After you have dropped, you are free to use whatever club you wish.

That's correct - exactly what  I said in Post #12.   To avoid confusion through the words used,  you do not measure the NPR, you determine where it is or as  you rightly put it, you find it.   The distance between where your ball lies and the NPR is the length of a piece of string: it depends entirely on the circumstances.  It might be just a few inches away from a sprinkler head;  it might be a matter of yards if your ball is on a road or in a large area of GUR.  It is only when you have established where the NPR is that you might measure the club length from it in order to be sure to drop your ball in the right area.   These two Decisions are helpful

http://www.usga.org/rules/rules-and-decisions.html#!decision-24,d24-2b-1

http://www.usga.org/rules/rules-and-decisions.html#!decision-24,d24-2b-4

Edited September 14, 2018 by ColinL

[ColinL]

2 hours ago, klineka said:

Those two statements contradict each other, and based on my understanding of this rule, the second statement is incorrect almost all the time, since its unreasonable that you would have planned on hitting driver had there been no cart path, but then after your drop you would play with a wedge. 

The two statements did not contradict each other and I hope the post above  and klineka's post explain that.  

The second statement is correct.   Decision 24-2b/4 explains that after taking relief  you are completely free to play your shot with any club.  It does not have to be the one used to determine the Nearest Point of Relief.  Nor for that matter does it have to be the one used to measure the one club length from the NPR

 

Edited September 14, 2018 by ColinL

[Martyn W]

The 2019 definition is 'Nearest point of complete relief'   Much better!