Ah, the good old British weather. You never know these days if it’s going to be baking hot or torrential downpours.
The unpredictability certainly doesn’t help our courses and when it suddenly gets searing hot you can see the effects pretty quickly.
While some of us – well, me really – love a course that turns brown as fast, firm, and bouncy means long hitting for everyone, it can also bring out some conditions that leave us praying for help from the rules.
When a course gets particularly hot and dry, fairways and green surrounds can suffer because of cracks in the ground. They can open up like fissures in the heat and if your ball comes to rest in such a crack, it’s going to be a tough time getting it out.
Even though you’d think these are the absolute epitome of an abnormal course condition, are they ground under repair?
Should your committee get to work, what do they need to do, and are there any limitations on the relief that could be provided? Stand by, as I reveal all…
Relief from cracks in ground
Ground under repair can be any part of the course the committee defines as such, whether by “marking it or otherwise”.
But if you’re badgering your hard-working club volunteers to do something about these mini San Andreas faults popping up around the course in the scorching weather, you could point them in the direction of Model Local Rule F-8, which deals with ‘Relief from Cracks in Ground’ directly.
That’s because while your ball might have come a cropper and be seriously affected, a “player’s stance may not be hindered by the condition”.
This Local Rule only gives relief for the lie of the ball, and the area of intended swing. It also has a restriction to cracks in the ground in “parts of the general area cut to fairway height or less”.
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It says they are ground under repair and allows you to take free relief as you normally would under Rule 16.1b.
Got a question for our expert?
Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
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