An embedded ball normally gets a free drop—but only when every test is met.

The worldwide Rules baseline, not one tour's policy

This page applies the R&A and USGA Rules of Golf, effective 1 January 2023, including the Official Clarifications and Additional Clarifications updated 1 July 2026. The USGA administers the Rules in the United States, its territories and Mexico; The R&A administers them elsewhere through its affiliated bodies. They issue one Rules code.

The 2023 edition remains the current edition in August 2026; The R&A says the next edition is due on 1 January 2028. A Committee may nevertheless adopt a permitted Local Rule for a course or competition, so the scorecard, notice to players and competition regulations remain part of the ruling.

Apply the tests in this order

1. Locate the ball. Decide which defined area of the course contains it.
2. Prove the mark. Under the standard Rule, it must be the ball's own pitch-mark from the previous stroke.
3. Compare levels. Some part of the ball must be below the level of the ground.
4. Apply both exceptions. Check uncut sand and whether another non-relief condition makes the stroke clearly unreasonable.
5. Read the Local Rules. Model Local Rule F-2 can narrow relief or, in a tightly controlled televised event, extend it.
6. Build the relief area. Establish the Rule 16.3b reference point, then drop under Rule 14.3.

“Sitting down” is not the same as embedded

Rule 16.3a(2) and the Definition of embedded require two facts: the ball is in its own pitch-mark made as a result of the player's previous stroke, and part of the ball is below ground level. Grass or loose impediments may lie between the ball and the soil; the ball need not touch soil. But a ball merely nestled low in long grass is not embedded if no part is below ground level.

The Rule lists three non-qualifying causes: someone stepped on and pushed the ball down; the stroke drove it straight into the ground without it becoming airborne; or the ball embedded after being dropped while taking relief. A footprint, rut or old depression is not converted into the ball's own pitch-mark just because the ball is below the surrounding surface.

Uncertainty is resolved from the available facts

If the player cannot tell for certain whose pitch-mark it is, Rule 16.3a(2) allows embedded status only when it is reasonable to conclude from the available information that the ball is in its own mark. This is not a general “benefit of the doubt.”

Official Clarification 16.3a(2)/1 contrasts two cases. An approach lands on soft ground, visibly bounces forward, spins back and is found in the only pitch-mark: treating it as its own mark is reasonable. A tee shot disappears over a hill and is later found in a pitch-mark, with no evidence of how it arrived there: the fact that it is in a mark is not enough.

The standard Rule includes rough, not only fairway

The general area is the whole course except the current hole's teeing area, every penalty area, every bunker and the current hole's putting green. Under unmodified Rule 16.3, a qualifying ball can therefore receive relief in fairway or rough.

“Through the green” and a fairway-only “plugged ball rule” describe older practice, not the current default. Since 2019 the baseline has covered the general area, subject to the Rule's exceptions and any adopted Model Local Rule F-2.

Sand is not one universal no-relief category

Rule 16.3a(1) denies this relief when the ball is embedded in sand in a part of the general area that is not cut to fairway height or less. A waste area may be part of the general area, yet an embedded ball in its uncut sand receives no Rule 16.3 drop.

The exception is deliberately narrower than “any sand.” Sand in a part of the general area cut to fairway height or less does not trigger this exception, although the own-pitch-mark, below-ground and other tests still must be met.

Embedding cannot be used to escape a separate problem

There is no Rule 16.3 relief when playing the ball as it lies is clearly unreasonable because of something from which free relief is not allowed. Rule 16.3a gives the example of a ball that cannot be struck because of where it lies in a bush.

The question is whether removing only the embedding would leave a reasonable stroke. A merely awkward stance or a bad result after dropping does not trigger the exception. If the separate problem makes the stroke clearly unreasonable, the player may play as it lies or, when permitted, use Rule 19 unplayable-ball relief for one penalty stroke.

Other course areas use different procedures

Rule 16.3 does not apply outside the general area. On the putting green, Rule 13.1b and 13.1c(2) instead allow the player to mark, lift and clean the ball, repair the impact damage and replace the ball on its original spot. There is no one-club-length drop.

In a bunker, the player may play as it lies or consider Rule 19 unplayable-ball options, whose bunker restrictions apply. In a penalty area, Rule 17.3 bars embedded-ball and unplayable-ball relief; the player must play the ball as it lies or take the applicable Rule 17 penalty relief.

Reasonable belief permits a check—not a free inspection

Under Rule 16.4, a player who reasonably believes free relief may be available but cannot decide without lifting may mark the spot and lift the ball. The ball must not be cleaned except on the putting green. If there was no reasonable belief before lifting, the player gets one penalty stroke.

If relief is not allowed, or the player decides not to take available relief, the original ball must be replaced. The player gets one penalty stroke for failing to mark or cleaning when not allowed. But if relief is allowed and the player actually takes it, Rule 16.4 imposes no penalty for having failed to mark or for cleaning the lifted ball. That exception does not excuse lifting without reasonable belief.

Build the Rule 16.3b relief area correctly

1. Use the spot in the general area immediately behind where the ball was embedded as the reference point.
2. Measure one club-length from that point. Under the Definition, this normally means the longest club carried for the round other than a putter.
3. Keep the entire usable relief area in the general area and no nearer the hole than the reference point.
4. The player drops the original ball or another ball straight down from knee height. It must first strike the ground in, and then come to rest in, the relief area under Rule 14.3.

This is not a nearest-point-of-complete-relief procedure. Do not repair the pitch-mark before the next stroke if that would improve the lie, stance, swing area or line of play for that stroke; Rule 8.1 can penalise that improvement.

“Immediately behind” may be outside the general area

Official Clarification 16.3b/1 covers a ball embedded in the general area beside a penalty-area edge, out-of-bounds edge, or bunker face when the point immediately behind it is not in the general area. Use the nearest spot in the general area that is not nearer the hole to that immediately-behind point as the reference point.

That adjusted point is normally close, but the shape of a penalty area can make it some distance to the side. The clarification supersedes the tempting but incorrect shortcut of measuring from the ball itself.

Two valid drops outside lead to placement

If a correctly dropped ball comes to rest outside the relief area, drop a ball correctly a second time. If that second ball also finishes outside, place a ball on the spot where the second drop first touched the ground, following Rule 14.2e if it will not stay there. A drop made in the wrong way does not count as one of those two drops.

A poor lie inside the relief area is still a completed drop. Official Clarification 14.3c/1 confirms that tall grass and bushes within the relief area are part of it; dislike of the resulting lie is not a reason to drop again.

F-2 can narrow relief—or narrowly extend it on television

• F-2.1: the Committee may restrict free relief to a ball embedded in a part of the general area cut to fairway height or less.
• F-2.2: the Committee may deny free relief in specified stacked-turf or soil faces above bunkers.
• F-2.3, added January 2026: only for a competition with live television coverage, the Committee may allow a referee to grant relief when it is known or virtually certain that the ball is below ground level in an unrepaired pitch-mark made by any player's stroke, but only in the general area cut to fairway height or less.

F-2.3 is not a new universal entitlement and the player cannot self-apply its referee finding. A pressed-down mark, attempted repair, mower passage or other maintenance counts as repaired even if an indentation remains. The R&A/USGA July 2026 Additional Clarifications retain this wording and prohibit extending it beyond fairway-height-or-less areas.

Ground under repair creates a choice, not a combined drop

If the ball is both embedded and in ground under repair in the general area, the Official Clarifications allow the player to choose Rule 16.3 embedded-ball relief or Rule 16.1 abnormal-course-condition relief. The reference point and relief area may differ.

The player cannot invent one combined relief area to escape both conditions at once. Take relief under one Rule; if the ball then has interference from the other condition, apply that other Rule in a separate procedure.

A shot spins back into the only pitch-mark

Situation: the player sees an approach land in soft rough, bounce forward and spin back. The ball is below ground level in the only pitch-mark nearby.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: free relief is available under Rule 16.3, assuming neither exception nor a Local Rule removes it. Clarification 16.3a(2)/1 says those observed facts reasonably establish that it is the ball's own pitch-mark even though it bounced before returning.

A hidden tee shot is found in an old-looking mark

Situation: a tee shot disappears over a hill. The player finds it below ground level in a mark but nobody saw it land and the surrounding evidence does not connect the stroke to that mark.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: no Rule 16.3 relief. Under Clarification 16.3a(2)/1, discovery in a pitch-mark alone is not enough to make it reasonable to conclude that the ball created the mark.

A televised event uses F-2.3

Situation: the competition notice expressly adopts Model Local Rule F-2.3. In a part of the general area cut to fairway height or less, a referee determines it is known or virtually certain that the player's ball is below ground level in another player's unrepaired pitch-mark.

R&A/USGA F-2.3, January 2026 wording: the referee may grant free relief using Rule 16.3b. The decisive facts are the adopted Local Rule, live-television competition scope, referee determination, fairway-height-or-less location and unrepaired mark. Without F-2.3, another player's mark fails the standard own-pitch-mark test.

The drop stays in thick rough

Situation: relief is validly taken from an embedded ball in the rough. The ball is dropped correctly and stays in long grass inside the Rule 16.3b relief area.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: relief is complete and the ball must be played as it lies unless another Rule applies. Rule 14.3 and Clarification 14.3c/1 do not promise a good lie or complete relief from long grass.

Wrong relief normally means playing from a wrong place

Taking Rule 16.3 relief when it is not allowed, or playing a dropped ball from outside the required relief area, brings the general penalty under Rule 14.7a: loss of hole in match play or two penalty strokes in stroke play. A serious wrong-place breach in stroke play must also be corrected before the Rule 14.7b deadline or the player is disqualified.

If the only error is that the ball was dropped in the wrong way but it was then played from inside the correct relief area, Rule 14.3b(4) instead applies one penalty stroke. Before making a stroke, most dropping mistakes can be corrected without penalty under Rule 14.5.

Five claims that lead to the wrong ruling

• “Relief is fairway only.” The standard Rule includes rough; F-2.1 can create the fairway-height restriction.
• “Mud on the ball proves it embedded.” Mud does not prove whose pitch-mark it is or that part of the ball is below ground level.
• “The whole ball must be buried.” Any part below ground level is enough if every other test is met.
• “Any old pitch-mark works in 2026.” Only adopted F-2.3 can extend relief, and only within its narrow televised-event conditions.
• “The drop guarantees a clean lie.” A ball at rest in the relief area is in play even if the lie is poor.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• The R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf, effective January 2023
• The R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rules 16.3 and 16.4
• The R&A/USGA — Official Clarifications 16.3a(2)/1 and 16.3b/1
• The R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rules 14.3, 14.5 and 14.7
• The R&A/USGA — Committee Procedures, Section 8, Model Local Rules F-2.1–F-2.3
• The R&A/USGA — Additional Clarifications of the 2023 Rules of Golf, updated 1 July 2026
• The R&A — New and Updated Model Local Rules for 2026, effective 1 January 2026

Checked against the jointly governed 2023 Rules of Golf and official material current through the 1 July 2026 Additional Clarifications. Rule 16.3 is the worldwide baseline; a course or competition may supplement it only through its published Local Rules, including an adopted form of F-2.