Every month former MGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions Gene Westmoreland will answer one question posed by the readers of the MGA e-Revision Newsletter (click here to sign up). Gene recently received the following Rules question from a reader:

Q: My ball comes to rest on a cart path, close to the right edge of the path. If I take my drop to the right of the path, a hanging tree will cause me to alter my next shot. If I take a drop one club length to the left of the path, I have a clear shot to the green. Under the Rules, am I free to take my drop either side of the cart path? And is the ruling any different if my ball is not on the cart path but in a place where my stance is altered by the cart path?

Gene responds:

Whenever you have interference with an immovable obstruction, like a cart path (either interference with the lie of the ball like your first example or interference with your stance as in your second example), you obtain relief by first finding your nearest point of relief, then dropping a ball within a club length of that point. The nearest point of relief has nothing to do with the nearest side of the cart path—it is the nearest point on the course at which interference ceases to exist. You do not have a choice as to which side of the path you prefer to drop. If the nearest point of relief leaves you behind a tree or in deep rough, that is simply a tough break. Keep in mind that in virtually every case you are not required to take relief, and you might actually be better off playing from the cart path than dropping behind a tree.

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