What do you do when it’s impossible to recreate your original lie?

The Rules of Golf Are Complicated! Thankfully, we have the teacher. our Rules Guy knows the book inside out. Have a question? He has all the answers.

In a recent tournament, my putt ended up splitting loose and touching the ball of one of my playing partners with my ball in front of him. Of course I had to mark my ball so he could play his approach shot – which I did, to the side of our balls. His subsequent blow made the original split much larger and deeper. We agreed that since it was not possible to recreate my original lie in the divot, I should put the ball next to it and play. The right call? – Edward Kelly, Jr., via email

Although it doesn’t affect our answer, Rules Guy assumes you played first rather than jumping or rolling against your playing partner’s ball… but we digress.

So did you make the right call? Maybe.

First, recreating the lie would actually have been wrong; you only do this when your ball is in the sand and the lie changes. Under Rule 14.2d and Clarification 14.2d(2)/1 (which is a very similar scenario), the correct procedure is to place the ball on the nearest similar lie to the original within a club-length, no closer to the hole and still in the general area. Although that lie may have been worse after hitting your partner, it’s quite possible that the new breakup may have been more similar. Or maybe there was a similar split within a long club that you could have placed.

Needless to say, it’s usually not the pretty lie on the freeway that’s the “closest like”, but it’s not impossible. No more impossible than sticking balls in a compartment…

For more lie-based instruction from our teacher, read on…

We have the most unfair bunker in the world in front of our 17th green. It’s seven feet deep, but that’s the easy part. Shaped like a funnel, there is only 0.001 inch of sand sitting at the base. When I find myself in this abyss, can I pick up the ball as unplayable, sand the base from the walls, and then drop the ball for play, a lesser penalty? Thanks for listening. – Bill Herrick, East Moriches, NY

The Rules Guy always tries to be a sympathetic ear, and we were with you for a moment there – when you wanted to treat the ball as unplayable and get penalty relief. This is kosher.

But just like the sand in your atrocious bunker – “world’s most unfair” is probably stretching things a bit – your claim eroded as you thought to put the sand where you plan to hit the ball, which, improving your relief area, is open.

You simply have to drop the ball under one of the four options in rule 19.3, three of which (stroke and distance, back to the line inside the bunker, lateral relief inside the bunker) cost one penalty stroke and the other (back to the relief line outside the bunker) costs two penalty strokes.

Other options: Try a sand wedge with less bounce or find a new course at home.

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Have a question about the Rules? Ask Guy Rules! Send your questions, confusion and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise you won’t throw the book at you.