Free Relief for Embedded Ball Worth $1.74 Million on PGA Tour

The Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour playoffs that wrapped up last week, is a money bonanza. The total purse is $40 million (about 55 billion won), and the winner's share is $10 million (about 13.7 billion won). A single shot can swing the payout dramatically.

Ryan Gerard of the United States, who won his first PGA Tour title at last year's Barracuda Championship, has no victory this year but earned three runner-up finishes, putting him among the final 30 and sending him to the Tour Championship for the first time in his career.

Gerard sat alone in second place, one stroke back, after the third round, keeping a Tour Championship title within reach. He also caught a break during that round — at the 431-yard, par-4 17th hole.

Gerard pushed his tee shot into the rough. His second shot came up short as well, finding deep rough on the slope of the bunker in front of the green. The slope was close to vertical, and a normal swing looked impossible.

But Gerard used the rules to escape the trouble. The rule he invoked was Rule 16.3, covering an embedded ball. His ball was plugged in the rough on the bunker slope.

When a ball is embedded in the general area — which includes the rough as well as the fairway — relief is available without penalty. A ball is embedded when part of it sits below the surface of the ground in its own pitch-mark. Even if the ball is not touching the soil directly, with grass or something similar between the ball and the soil, it still counts as embedded as long as part of it rests in its own pitch-mark. Relief for an embedded ball is not available in penalty areas or bunkers, however.

The reference point for embedded ball relief is the spot in the general area immediately behind where the ball is embedded. The relief area extends one club-length from the reference point and must be no nearer the hole than that point.

When Gerard pulled out his driver to measure one club-length, the butt of the grip reached the flat ground above the bunker. That allowed him to drop his ball on the level surface above the bunker. The CBS analyst on the broadcast said the new lie was enormously easier than the original one. Gerard chipped to within two meters of the hole and saved par.

Gerard missed out on the win on the final day but finished alone in third and collected $3.705 million. What if he had dropped just one more stroke at the 17th hole the previous day? He would have tied for third with seven other players, and his payout would have fallen to $1.966 million. Knowing the rules earned Gerard at least $1.74 million (about 2.4 billion won) more.

Embedded ball relief applies only when the ball comes to rest in a pitch-mark made by its own previous stroke. But where Model Local Rule F-2.3 is in force, free relief is also available when a ball comes to rest in another player's unrepaired pitch-mark. In that case, however, it applies only in parts of the general area cut to fairway height or shorter — the fringe, for example. In other words, it does not apply in the rough.

When a ball is embedded in the side wall or lip of a bunker built up with turf or soil, a local rule (F-2) may deny free relief.

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