Rule 16.1 is the good news rule. Four conditions on a golf course are considered abnormal — not part of the challenge — and if one of them interferes with your ball, your stance or your swing, you get to move for free.
Animal holes — and the mounds and runways that go with them.
Ground under repair — marked GUR, or anything the committee has defined as such.
Immovable obstructions — cart paths, sprinkler heads, drain covers, benches, buildings, staked young trees.
Temporary water — standing water on the course that is not in a penalty area, visible before or after you take your stance.
What counts as interference
You get relief if any of these is true:
- Your ball touches, or is in or on, the condition
- The condition physically interferes with your lie
- The condition physically interferes with your stance
- The condition physically interferes with your area of intended swing
What is not interference: the thing being in your line of play. A sprinkler head six feet in front of your ball on the line to the flag is not interference and does not get you a drop. (The green is the one exception, and there are Local Rules some courses adopt for sprinklers near greens — check the card.)
Also not interference: a condition that only bothers you because you have chosen an unreasonable shot. You cannot aim sideways at a tree to manufacture a stance on the cart path.
Nearest point of complete relief
This is the whole ballgame, and the phrase is doing four separate jobs. Take it word by word.
Nearest
Nearest to where the ball lies. Not nicest. Not flattest. Not the side you would prefer. If the nearest point puts you behind a tree, that is your point.
Point
A single, specific spot — not an area. You should be able to mark it with a tee.
Complete
The condition must no longer interfere with the ball, your stance or your swing. Half off the cart path with a foot still on it is not complete relief.
Relief
Not nearer the hole than where the ball lies.
Once you have that point, drop within one club-length of it, in the general area, not nearer the hole.
Both sides of the cart path
The classic. Ball is on the path; the left side is short grass, the right side is a hillside of rubbish. Golfers drop on the short grass because obviously. But the rule says nearest, and if the rubbish side is even six inches nearer, the rubbish side is where you go.
Work it out honestly. Stand on each side, find the point on each, and measure. Sometimes it genuinely is the good side and you have earned it. Sometimes it is not, and you take your medicine or you play the ball off the path.
Which is always allowed, by the way. Relief is optional. If the lie on the path is clean and your alternative is a hillside, hit it off the path — just take an old club to it.
Bunkers and greens are different
In a bunker, the free relief must be taken inside the bunker — nearest point of complete relief in the sand, one club-length, no nearer the hole. If there is no such point (the whole bunker is underwater), or you just do not want it, you may take relief outside the bunker for one penalty stroke, going back on the line from the hole through where the ball lies, as far back as you like.
On the putting green, you do not drop — you place the ball at the nearest point of complete relief, which may be on the green or in the general area. And on the green only, interference includes the condition being on your line of play.
Where you get nothing
No free relief from abnormal course conditions inside a penalty area. None. Casual water sitting in a red-staked ditch is just part of the deal.
And note the distinction that trips people: an immovable obstruction gets you a drop. A movable obstruction — a rake, a bottle, a bunker rake, someone's headcover — is not a relief situation at all. You just move it. If the ball moves as a result, replace it, no penalty.
The short version
Rule 16.1 at a glance
- Covers
- Animal holes, ground under repair, immovable obstructions, temporary water
- Interference
- Ball, lie, stance or swing — not line of play (except on the green)
- General area
- One club-length from the nearest point of complete relief, no nearer the hole
- Bunker
- Inside the bunker for free, or outside for one penalty stroke back on the line
- Green
- Place at the nearest point of complete relief
- Penalty area
- No free relief at all
- Movable obstructions
- Just move them — no drop needed
- Optional
- Always. You can play it where it lies.
Written against the 2023 edition of the Rules of Golf, which remains the edition in force. The R&A has said the next full edition arrives 1 January 2028. Local Rules at your course can change any of this — the card and the notice board win.