(rules primer ) Make Your Own Luck A little Rules knowledge can go a long way with immovable obstructions. By Joseph Oberle K nowing the Rules of Golf can be a benefi t-and sometimes it can even make an unlucky shot better. Such was the case in the foursome of MGA member John Cook from Wildfl ower Golf Course. He wanted a ruling on Player A's ball, which came to rest on a sprinkler head in the rough (a mulched area), very close to the fairway and directly behind a small shrub. As the sprinkler is an immovable obstruction (Rule 24/2 Immovable Obstruction), Player A is granted a free drop within one club length of and no nearer the hole than the nearest point of relief from the obstruction. Here, the rub of the green for Player A is like rubbing a magic lamp, as the drop moved the player's ball out of the rough, onto the fairway and away from the line of the shrub. It is a fortuitous drop, and a legal one according to Decisions on the Rules of Golf. 24-2b/8 Dropping from Rough to Fairway in Obtaining Relief from Obstruction There is no distinction in the Rules between fairway and rough: both are covered by the term " through the green. " The opposition to this drop in Cook's question centered around Player A using the Rules to gain an unfair advantage, but the advantage gained was completely fair. As both the rough and fairway are seen as the same in the eyes of the Rules, there is no distinction and no illegal advantage gained if the fairway is the nearest point of relief. www.mngolf.org Fall 2015 MINNESOTAGOLFER 9http://www.mngolf.org