Know the Rules: Dropping the Ball

There are times when you can drop the ball to get relief from an obstruction, or when putting a ball in play after a penalty has been incurred. We'll talk about those situations later, but today I want to go over the procedures surrounding dropped balls. They're not simple. Actually, just dropping the ball is simple. You hold the ball out at shoulder height and arm's length, open your fingers, and let it go. Enjoy the ride down, because all the fun starts when the ball hits the ground.

Once the ball is dropped and comes to rest*, it is in play unless it: (this is straight from the rule book)

(i) rolls into and comes to rest in a hazard;
(ii) rolls out of and comes to rest outside a hazard;
(iii) rolls onto and comes to rest on a putting green;
(iv) rolls and comes to rest out of bounds;
(v) rolls to and comes to rest in a position where there is interference by the condition from which relief was taken under Rule 24-2b (immovable obstruction), Rule 25-1 (abnormal ground conditions), Rule 25-3 (wrong putting green) or a Local Rule (Rule 33-8a), or rolls back into the pitch-mark from which it was lifted under Rule 25-2 (embedded ball);
(vi) rolls and comes to rest more than two club-lengths from where it first struck a part of the course; or
(vii) rolls and comes to rest nearer the hole than:
  (a) its original position or estimated position (see Rule 20-2b) unless otherwise permitted by the Rules; or
  (b) the nearest point of relief or maximum available relief (Rule 24-2, 25-1 or 25-3); or
  (c) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or lateral water hazard (Rule 26-1).

In any of these cases, you must re-drop the ball, without penalty. If the re-dropped ball does one of these things again, you must place the ball as near as possible to the spot where it hit the ground on the second drop. Fortunately, most of these cases are rare. The ones that occur most often are (v) and (vii).

Deep Rules: If the dropped ball comes to rest but then moves again, it is played as it lies without penalty. If the dropped ball is not recoverable, such as it rolls into a pond, another ball may be substituted.

All of this is found in Rule 20-2.

The penalty for an illegal drop is one stroke, but if the mistake is corrected before the ball is played, there is no penalty (Rule 20-6).

*More Deep Rules: "Comes to rest" is the operative phrase. The ball does not have to hit the ground. It only has to strike part of the course. If it comes to rest in a bush without hitting the ground, it is play. If it strikes a branch on the way down, it has struck a part of the course and in play where it comes to rest, except for (i) through (vii) above.

Practical advice:
Many times you will be dropping the ball onto less-than-ideal ground. Since the ball is held an arm's length away from you, it's hard to tell exactly where the ball will hit the ground and end up. You want to be left with the best lie possible within the limits the rules allow. You should therefore practice dropping the ball, so you can predict just where the ball will land. When it comes time to drop the ball on the course, you'll know how to drop it on the best spot of ground, again, within limits, to increase your chances of getting a good lie after the drop. And no tricks. It's a gravity-fed drop only.

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