Rules Of Golf: Unplayable Ball

When can you declare your ball unplayable and what can to do? Jeremy Ellwood explains your options

There may not be cacti where you play, but what are your options when your ball is unplayable
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We’ve all faced the odd unplayable ball or two on the course. But when can you declare it unplayable and what are your options? Jeremy Ellwood explains…

Sadly, we as golfers don’t always hit our balls where we’re intending them to go, and sometimes they end up in the strangest and most awkward of places. The Rule that every golfer needs to know perhaps more than any other is, therefore, what to do when it’s simply not possible to play your ball, or when any attempt to do so may be unwise and could potentially lead you into even greater trouble.

The Rule covering the various options available to you here is Rule 19 - Unplayable Ball – but it is important to stress that you may deem your ball unplayable at any place on the golf course, except in a penalty area. You are the sole judge as to whether your ball is unplayable, and you may even declare it so if it’s sitting in the middle of the fairway should you so wish for whatever reason! Your ball does not have to be physically unplayable for it to be deemed unplayable under the Rules.

If you deem your ball unplayable, you have three options, all under penalty of one stroke:

  1. play a ball from where you last played from; or
  2. drop a ball any distance behind the point where the ball lay keeping a straight line between the hole, the point where the ball lay and the spot on which the ball is dropped; or
  3. drop a ball within two club-lengths of the spot where the ball lay, but not nearer the hole.

One of your options is to drop your ball within two club-lengths of where it is lying

One of your options is to drop your ball within two club-lengths of where it is lying

Another option is to drop back on a continuation of the line from your ball to the flag

Another option is to drop back on a continuation of the line from your ball to the flag

However, it’s quite possible that not all of these options will realistically be available to you on every occasion because of where your ball is lying, and sometimes you may simply have no real choice but to go back to where you last played from, however unappetising that may seem!

Sometimes you may have no practical choice but to go back to where you last played from

Sometimes you may have no practical choice but to go back to where you last played from

One other thing to remember is that if the unplayable ball is in a bunker, you may proceed under clause a, b or c. However, if you elect to proceed under b or c, the ball must be dropped in the bunker. However, since the major Rules revisions in 2019, there is now a further option allowing you to drop back on line outside the bunker... but this will cost you an additional penalty stroke.

Golf Monthly works with The R&A to give the Rules of Golf excellent coverage in the magazine and online every month.

Jeremy Ellwood
Contributing Editor

Jeremy Ellwood has worked in the golf industry since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly. He is an expert on the Rules of Golf having qualified through an R&A course to become a golf referee. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses. He has now played 1,000 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries, from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts. He reached the 1,000 mark on his 60th birthday in October 2023 on Vale do Lobo's Ocean course. Put him on a links course anywhere and he will be blissfully content.

Jezz can be contacted via Twitter - @JezzEllwoodGolf


Jeremy is currently playing...

Driver: Ping G425 LST 10.5˚ (draw setting), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 55 S shaft

3 wood: Ping G425 Max 15˚ (set to flat +1), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 65 S shaft

Hybrid: Ping G425 17˚, Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 80 S shaft

Irons 3-PW: Ping i525, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 50˚ and 54˚, 12˚ bounce, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Putter: Ping Fetch 2021 model, 33in shaft (set flat 2)

Ball: Varies but mostly now TaylorMade Tour Response