Please explain Tiger's unplayable on 5 today

[md1m]

Tiger was in the bushes on 5. Looks like he was less than a club length in. He took an unplayable and dropped farther in, although he was able to take a full swing. Couldn't he have taken two clubs, gotten outside the bushes, and taken a drop? If two clubs toward the fairway didn't give him a swing that would answer my question, but sure looked like he wasn't that far from the edges of the bush. I guess the two club lengths would also have to not move him any closer to the hole. Couldn't tell all the angles from what I was seeing.

 

Am I missing anything?

[Sean2]

As I understand it he would have been closer to the hole had he dropped outside the bushes.

[Sawgrass]

Note that you may drop within two club lengths, no closer, from the position the ball is in -- not two club lengths from the outside edge of the bush. (I'm not sure if that is relevant, though I'm sure it's right!)

[mneumann]

Just looking at it I assumed he was far enough in that any angle he took that took him out 2 clubs instead of further in would've been closer to the hole.

 

I was curious why he didn't go back 100 yards on line and try to hit a wedge, but I don't know the course well enough to know what was behind him, it looked like there may have been a fence.

 

Unfortunate that it happened right before the coverage came on. The sports center guys on ESPN were not well equipped to commentate it, and then when the broadcast came on they kind of skipped through the whole process.

[ArtMBgolf]

They didn't show Tiger's original lie very well, if at all. He must have had no swing.

 

He went nearly straight over the green. Any drop outside of the woods would have been closer to the hole.

[deadsolid...shank]

Just looking the course on google, if I have the correct hole figured out, would it have been possible for him to go backwards? It looks like the 11th tee was back behind the trees he was in.

 

That's if I figured out the correct hole to look at.

[Tate]

Depending on his angle he could have gone back to 16 tee which is 125 yards away or 14 tee which is 200 yards.

[deadsolid...shank]

Yep, I had the wrong green when I was looking.

[md1m]

The bushes are not a hazard, so he can't go back. His only options are to go back to previous spot and take stroke and distance or to take up to two clubs no closer to the hole. I was watching it on the masters website and they must have covered it better because they showed a close up of his ball, and it looked like it was lying very close to edges of the bush. I still think he could have gone two clubs, been outside the bush, and not been closer to the hole, but maybe not. And then there'd be everyone over analyzing it and saying he was one inch closer so maybe he decided to drop farther back in the bush to avoid all of that.

[rogolf]

The bushes are not a hazard, so he can't go back. His only options are to go back to previous spot and take stroke and distance or to take up to two clubs no closer to the hole. I was watching it on the masters website and they must have covered it better because they showed a close up of his ball, and it looked like it was lying very close to edges of the bush. I still think he could have gone two clubs, been outside the bush, and not been closer to the hole, but maybe not. And then there'd be everyone over analyzing it and saying he was one inch closer so maybe he decided to drop farther back in the bush to avoid all of that.

 

You've missed one of the options of the unplayable ball Rule - you can go back on a straight line that keeps the spot where the ball originally lay in line with the flagstick; you can go back as far as you want as long as you stay on the course.

I'm sure that Tiger was trying to make the lowest score he could on the hole and wasn't at all concerned about anything else.

[Roadking2003]

Depending on his angle he could have gone back to 16 tee which is 125 yards away or 14 tee which is 200 yards.

 

16 tee would be illegal. 14 tee would put him behind a huge forest of trees and maybe 50 feet below the green. It would be a 200 yard totally blind shot. And that assumes the line from the pin through his ball would actually put him on 14 tee. That in itself would be very difficult to determine.

[Aaronwilson_95]

He also could have replayed from his last position

[deadsolid...shank]

One of those line has to be wrong. There can only be one line going back that keeps both the ball and flagstick on it.

[HatsForBats]

You've missed one of the options of the unplayable ball Rule - you can go back on a straight line that keeps the spot where the ball originally lay in line with the flagstick; you can go back as far as you want as long as you stay on the course.

 

Where in the rules does it stipulate that you must stay on the course or did you mean must drop on the course? Ie. if on the line as far back as the player wants to go there is road in the middle with OB on each side of the road the player can cross the road (going off course) and drop on the other side but in bounds, correct?

[Newby]

correct