rulespin
Paul Kruger is a PGA professional at The
Landings Club in Savannah, Georgia.
by Paul Kruger
DJ – so what had happened was ...
TIO to the rescue
8
Nerves of steel and
stellar play by Dustin
Johnson during the final
round of the 2016 U.S.
Open
Championship
resulted in Dustin winning
his first major. Helping
him along the way was a
very fortuitous and helpful
ruling on the 10th hole.
Dustin hooked his drive
and his ball disappeared
into very heavy rough
between the 10th and 11th
fairways.
After finding his ball,
Dustin summoned over
a Rules Official because
there just happened to be
a television tower on his
line of play to the hole.
A television tower, by
Local Rule, is a temporary
immovable obstruction from
which a player may obtain
relief if it intervenes on his
line of play to the hole.
In conjunction with Rule
33-8 [Local Rules], Item
4.b [Temporary Immovable
Obstructions] of Part A
of Appendix 1 describes
a temporary immovable
obstruction (TIO) as a
non-permanent
artificial
object that is often erected
in conjunction with a
competition and is fixed
or not readily movable.
Examples of TIOs include,
but are not limited to, tents,
scoreboards, grandstands,
television
towers
and
lavatories.
Here is how this particular
Local Rule defines allowable
interference by a TIO in
Dustin’s situation:
“Interference by a TIO
occurs when … the ball
lies … behind the TIO so
that any part of the TIO
intervenes directly between
the player’s ball and the hole
and is on his line of play;
interference also exists if
the ball lies within one clublength of a spot equidistant
from the hole where such
intervention would exist.”
(Emphasis added)
Television viewers saw
a Rules Official assisting
Dustin with his measuring
two club-lengths before
dropping his ball. The casual
viewer watching the event
and not paying attention
to the commentary might
have mistakenly concluded
that Dustin had deemed
his ball unplayable and had
dropped within two clublengths of the spot where
his ball lay in the rough.
In reality, what actually
happened was that the Rules
Official initially assisted with
determining the line where
the left edge of the television
tower lined up with the
flagstick. Then, a point on
that line was identified that
was equidistant from where
DJ’s ball came to rest in
the rough. From that point,
Dustin needed to measure
one club-length to the left
to eliminate the interference
as defined by the phrase,
“interference also exists if
the ball lies within one clublength of a spot equidistant
from the hole where such
intervention would exist.”
The second club-length
measurement by Dustin was
to measure the allowable
one club-length area within
which he would drop his ball.
That second club-length
extended into the first cut of
rough on the 11th fairway
and enabled Dustin to play
a relatively stress-free stroke
to the green and save par
on the hole. See adjacent
photograph courtesy of Fox
Sports.
The trajectory of his
ball actually went over the
television tower! Once a
player has properly taken
relief from a condition, the
player is free to play the next
stroke in any reasonable
direction.
Also note that, in
properly taking relief from
this TIO, Dustin was not
required to drop his ball in
the rough even though his
drive came to rest in the
rough. Decision 24-2b/8
[Dropping from Rough to
Fairway in Obtaining Relief
from Obstruction] points
out that the Rules make no
distinction between fairway
and rough, i.e., both are
“through the green.”