Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2009 - 16

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>> Rules Primer
Through the Green
What you need to know about
this often-misunderstood area
of the golf course.
By Joseph Oberle
Editor's Note: In this third installment in a series on the different parts
of the golf course, Minnesota Golfer examines the Definition called
Through the Green and explains several rules pertaining to it.
Y
ou may have heard a golf commentator utter
the phrase " through the green, " as in " Phil
Mickelson's approach shot has gone through
the green and over the back. " That use of " through the
green " is all fine and good (except, perhaps, for Phil), but
it's different from the term Through the Green as defined by
the Rules of Golf.
The Rules version of the term has been around for a long time.
According to the book The Rules of the Green: A History of the Rules
of Golf by Kenneth G. Chapman, " The rather quaint expression
through the green made its first appearance in the 1783 Aberdeen
Code and has somehow miraculously survived today in spite of
all the changes and playing conditions and terminology that have
taken place since then. "
So, what is Through the Green exactly? " The easiest way [to
define it] is to define what it is not, " says MGA tournament
director Doug Hoffmann.
In keeping with that philosophy, the official Definition goes
as follows: " 'Through the Green' is the whole area of the course
except: a. The teeing ground and putting green of the hole being
played; and b. All hazards on the course. " That means when you
are playing hole No. 1, Through the Green includes the teeing
areas and greens on Nos. 2 through 18. When you are playing
No. 2, Through the Green includes the teeing areas and greens
on No. 1 and Nos. 3 through 18, and so on.
The importance of Through the Green is this: depending on
where your ball is located, the Rules dictate different procedures
for relief, penalties and drops.
For instance, if you are in a bunker and have an unplayable
lie (Rule 28), two of three options require that your ball be
dropped in the bunker (the third option is stroke and distance,
whereby you retreat to re-hit). Likewise, should you wish to declare
your ball unplayable while on the putting green of the hole
you are playing, you would place the ball rather than drop it,
because your ball does not lie Through the Green.
14
MINNESOTAGOLFER Summer 2009
ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE DAMMER
One common mistake regarding Through the Green is when
a player takes a drop in the rough. If your ball lies in the rough
behind a sprinkler control box (Rule 24-2, Immovable Obstruction)
and your nearest point of relief, plus one club length (no
nearer the hole), is in the fairway, you can drop your ball in the
fairway with no penalty. Like the rough, the fairway is Through
the Green and both are treated as one.
" Through the Green does not differentiate fairway from
rough, " confirms the MGA's Hoffmann. " It doesn't take into
consideration how the ball is lying at the time, whether it be a
perfect lie or buried underneath a bush. "
Here's another example: Most golfers know that you can fix
a pitch mark that is in your line of putt on the green. However,
you can't fix a pitch mark on the fringe or in the fairway
(Rule 25-2, Embedded Ball), because both fringe and fairway
are Through the Green.
It is also important to know where your ball lies when it comes
near a hazard, since hazards are not Through the Green and are
treated differently. Sometimes it's a matter of the width of the
ball. " Occasionally a ball comes to rest touching two parts of
the golf course, " Hoffmann says. " A ball is deemed on the green
when any part of the ball touches the green. A ball is in a bunker
if any part of it is in a bunker. The same with a water hazard: if
a ball is resting against the stake used to define it, then the ball
is in the hazard. But for a ball to be out of bounds, it must be
completely out of bounds. Knowing where the ball is helps you
to proceed correctly under the rules. "
Having a plumb bob, chalk line and surveyor's transit might
help, as well.
www.mngolf.org
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Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2009

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