Do I Have To Take A Drop From A Cart Path?

Jezz Ellwood playing a ball from a cart path — Are you allowed to do this?

(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

Having slightly drawn/pull-hooked a drive, you’re fearing the worst as you make your way down to where your ball was last seen.

It was travelling, at pace, towards trouble on the left side of the cart path running down the edge of the hole. You’re all too aware that beyond that cart path lies lies a few yards of impenetrable scrub and then out of bounds.

The answer is, yes you can play it. You can choose to play a ball as it lies on any part of the golf course as long as the ball does not sit within an area marked as a “no play zone” by the committee.

If the ball is sitting cleanly on the path and you feel you can make a decent swipe at it, there’s nothing to prevent you from choosing to play it as it lies.

What happens though if the ball is not in a position where you feel you can play it? Perhaps the ball is right up against the kerb of the path and there’s no way to get a club to it.

You can go back and play again from where the original shot was struck – stroke and distance relief. You can take back on the line relief – keeping the point of the ball in a line with the hole and the spot you are looking to drop, or you can take a lateral, two club length drop from the original spot of the ball, (no closer to the hole).

It’s likely that after moving two club lengths laterally, the nearest point of complete relief would now be on the course side of the path and you could proceed that way.

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Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He has also worked with Golf Monthly to produce a podcast series. Called 18 Majors: The Golf History Show it offers new and in-depth perspectives on some of the most important moments in golf's long history. You can find all the details about it here.

He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly.

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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