RULES

Immovable obstructions

During their Saturday Ryder Cup foursomes at Whistling Straits, Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger encountered a Rules situation on the 15th after Berger’s drive ended up in thick rough behind a bunker, as Chris Wallace, Rules manager at The R&A, explains.

After assessing their lie, Koepka requested a ruling from the walking referee regarding possible free relief from what he believed was an artificial drainage channel. Many of the bunkers at Whistling Straits have man-made ‘cut-out’ areas to funnel water into the course’s drainage system and, because these channels are artificially made, they had been deemed immovable obstructions.

Rule 16 covers free relief from interference by animal holes, ground under repair, immovable obstructions or temporary water as these are all considered conditions that are not part of the intended challenge of playing the course. The