Dear Golf Nut, while playing in a friendly 4 ball yesterday, an opponent hit his drive on the 13th hole out of bounds, the ball went over the out of bounds stakes, over a road and finished in the rough of the adjacent 18th hole. My opponents both said because the golf ball lay on the course it was possible to play the ball from where it lay under no penalty. I disputed this believing that rule was the player must drop the ball as near as possible to the spot from which it was first played under penalty of one stroke - i.e; in this case return to the tee and drop there. Who is right please and what rule number must i show my friends if I am right to prove the point?

Very interesting question. I had to research this one in the Rules of Golf. You are not going to like the answer on this one but the ball is playable with no penalty unless a local rule states otherwise. Now I would probably have agreed with you if I had been playing that day (for sure if I was on your team). But the decision that addressed this question actually described almost that exact situation.

It sounds a little unfair, but that is how the golf ruling stated that it is handled. The Rules of Golf also state since this is unfair, it is suggested that a local rule be adopted that it is out of bounds. You may want to double check with the club pro just in case. But this seems reasonable to me. If the golf ball had stopped in the road, it would have been out of bounds. But since it continued on, it is now playable.

This appears to be one of those times that powers that be won’t contradict common sense, but suggest that we do. And by the way, you can find this in the Rules of Golf under Rule 27-1, decision 27/20.