Ask the Ref: What happens if my ball gets lost amongst leaves?

By Sheila Waltham

I play on a parkland course, which whilst very pretty, in the autumn trees deposit huge swathes of leaves across the golf course. Often there are areas where the leaves gather into large drifts and it isn’t always possible to find your ball, even though you know it is in there somewhere. Do you have any advice?

Leaves are a regular problem at this time of year. On courses which suffer from this problem, I am always surprised by those players who choose to play with yellow or orange balls which then camouflage themselves in the colourful piles of gold and yellow autumn leaves. It’s rather like playing in a scramble with someone who uses a green tee peg to mark their ball in the rough and then no one can find it!

Fallen leaves will likely appear in 3 ways:

Scattered around the course: these are loose impediments and may be removed from anywhere on or off the course as they are not deemed to be part of the challenge of the game of golf. If these are in the way of you making your stroke, you can remove them in any way (hand, foot, towel, club, getting help from others), provided you do not cause your ball to move (Rule 15.1). If you do cause your ball to move it is a one stroke penalty and the ball must be replaced, except on the putting green where there is no penalty for accidentally causing your ball to move.

Accumulations of leaves piled for removal: these are defined as ground under repair; an Abnormal Course Condition from which free relief is available (Rule 16.1). If you cannot find your ball, but know for certain that it is hiding in there somewhere, then you can still take free relief (Rule 16.1e) using the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge of the condition as the spot of the ball to determine your nearest point of complete relief.

Accumulations of leaves caused by the wind, but which have not been piled for removal. This is a frequent occurrence in parts of the course where wind swirls and often in bunkers. You know the leaves will be cleared at some point, but so far no one has piled them for later removal. Unless there is a Local Rule in place, the leaves remain classed as Loose Impediments, so you will need to find your ball.

There is no penalty if you accidentally cause your ball to move while trying to find or identify it (Rule 7.4). If you cause the ball to move you must replace it. What you cannot do, whilst your ball is dislodged, is remove any leaves that your ball was sitting on in its original position before you replace the ball (Rule 15.1a)

There is a Local Rule available to Committees acknowledging that “at certain times of the year, piles of loose impediments such as leaves, seeds or acorns may make it difficult for a player to find or play their ball. A Committee can choose to treat such piles of loose impediments in the general area or in a bunker as ground under repair from which free relief is allowed under Rule 16.1.” The holes where this Local Rule apply should be identified, it is not a blanket permission to use throughout the course.

Do I have any advice? Well, if you know the basic Rules of Golf, you should be able to help yourself and avoid unnecessary penalties. Good Luck.

About the author

Sheila Waltham has been a qualified rules official for over 15 years and joined the England Golf Tournament Panel of Referees in 2019. A keen golfer since 1995, Sheila’s interest in the Rules was born out of the realisation that a lot of the information she received as a novice golfer was incorrect. So, she took matters into her own hands!

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