Unplayable ball relief is the player’s decision.

The jointly issued Rules of Golf control this page

This page applies the R&A and USGA Rules of Golf, effective 1 January 2023, including the official digital Clarifications and the Additional Clarifications of the 2023 Rules of Golf updated 1 July 2026. Rule 19 is the same baseline for match play and stroke play, although their general penalty differs.

A Committee's valid Local Rules and Terms of the Competition have the same status as the Rules for that round. No optional Model Local Rule is assumed here; the July 2026 Model Local Rule M-4 is identified separately below because it matters only when adopted for eligible players using wheeled mobility devices.

Choose relief in the right order

1. Confirm that the ball is on the course and is not in a penalty area.
2. Check whether another Rule offers free relief, such as relief from an abnormal course condition or a dangerous animal condition.
3. For back-on-the-line or lateral relief, find and identify the original ball and establish its spot.
4. Check whether the ball is in a bunker, because that restricts two of the normal options.
5. Compare stroke and distance, back on the line, and lateral relief before lifting or substituting a ball.
6. Add the correct penalty, use the reference point and relief area required by the chosen option, and complete the Rule 14 procedure.

The player decides; the lie does not have to pass a test

Rule 19.1 gives the decision to the player. A referee, opponent, marker, or fellow-competitor does not have to agree that the shot is impossible. The player may take unplayable-ball relief because a ball is under a bush, beside a tree root, against a bunker face, or simply in a position the player does not wish to attempt.

Calling the ball unplayable does not create free relief. It is a choice to use a defined penalty-relief procedure. The player may still play the ball as it lies when that is permitted, or use another Rule if its conditions are met.

First decide whether Rule 19 is the right route

Rule 19 is unavailable when the ball lies in a penalty area. The player may play it as it lies when permitted or use the options under Rule 17. The colour of the penalty area and the point where the ball last crossed its edge can change those options.

A ball out of bounds is no longer on the course, so it cannot be treated as unplayable. A ball lost outside a penalty area is governed by Rule 18. The standard result is stroke and distance. A Committee may adopt Model Local Rule E-5 as a two-penalty-stroke alternative for a lost ball or ball out of bounds, but E-5 expressly cannot be used for an unplayable ball.

There is also a more favourable rule when a ball in play lies in the teeing area for the hole being played after a stroke or after taking relief. Rule 6.2b(6) lets the player lift or move it without penalty and play that ball or another ball from anywhere in that teeing area. Other teeing locations on the course are part of the general area and do not get that treatment.

Two options require the original ball’s known spot

The player may take stroke-and-distance relief even when the original ball has not been found and identified. That option uses the place of the previous stroke, so the ball’s current spot is not needed.

Back-on-the-line and lateral relief are different: both depend on the spot of the original ball. The player must find and identify that ball within the three-minute search time before using either option. Seeing a ball lodged in a tree is not enough unless it can be identified as the player’s ball. If the original ball cannot be found and identified, return under stroke and distance rather than estimating where it might be.

Stroke and distance returns to the previous stroke

For one penalty stroke, Rule 19.2a allows the player to play the original ball or another ball from where the previous stroke was made. Only the location of the most recent stroke is available; the player cannot choose the location of an earlier shot.

Rule 14.6 supplies the exact procedure. If the previous stroke was from the teeing area, a ball may be played from anywhere inside that teeing area and may be teed. If it was from the putting green, a ball is placed on the previous spot. From the general area, a bunker, or a penalty area, a ball is dropped in the required one-club-length relief area based on the previous spot.

This option can move the player nearer the hole when the difficult ball has bounced or rolled behind the location of the previous stroke. The ordinary “not nearer the hole” limit does not cancel stroke-and-distance relief.

Back-on-the-line relief has no distance limit

For one penalty stroke, Rule 19.2b allows the player to drop the original ball or another ball behind the original ball’s spot, keeping that spot between the hole and the point where the ball is dropped. The player may go as far back on that line as the course allows.

Under the 2023 procedure, the ball is dropped on the line. The point where it first touches the ground creates a relief area one club-length in any direction. The ball must finish no nearer the hole than the original ball’s spot and in the same area of the course that it first touched when dropped.

Back on the line does not mean walking straight away from the bush or choosing a convenient angle. The line is fixed by the hole and the original ball’s spot.

Lateral relief uses a two-club-length area

For one penalty stroke, Rule 19.2c allows the player to drop the original ball or another ball within two club-lengths of the original ball’s spot, no nearer the hole. If the ball is above the ground, such as in a tree, the reference point is the point directly below it on the ground.

The relief area may extend into more than one area of the course. However, the ball must come to rest in the same area of the course that it first touched when dropped within the relief area. A ball dropped first onto the general area cannot roll into a nearby bunker or putting green and remain correctly in play under that drop.

Two club-lengths measures the available relief area; it does not promise a clear swing, a good line, or escape from the obstruction that made the original lie unattractive.

A Rule 19 drop can create a new mandatory-relief problem

Clarification 19.2/2 confirms that an unplayable-ball relief area may extend into any area of the course. A player can therefore drop directly into a bunker or penalty area, onto a putting green, or even into a no play zone or onto a wrong green, provided the chosen Rule 19 relief area and same-area finishing requirement are satisfied.

The new location then controls. A ball on a wrong green or in a no play zone requires the further relief prescribed by the Rules. If a Rule 19 drop puts the ball into a penalty area without the ball crossing its edge, there is no last-crossing reference point for back-on-the-line or lateral penalty-area relief. If the player will not play it as it lies, the available escape is another one-stroke penalty under stroke and distance.

Rule 14 controls how relief is completed

A club-length is measured with the longest club in the player’s bag for the round other than a putter. Under Rule 14.3, the player must drop the ball straight down from knee height without throwing, spinning, rolling, or otherwise trying to influence where it will finish.

For lateral relief, the ball is dropped in the relief area. For back-on-the-line relief, it is dropped on the required line and the first ground-contact point creates the relief area. The ball must come to rest inside the resulting relief area. If a correct drop finishes outside, it is dropped a second time; if that correct second drop also finishes outside, the placement procedure in Rule 14.3c applies.

Two one-stroke options must stay in the bunker

When the original ball is in a bunker, Rule 19.3a retains the three normal one-stroke choices but changes where relief may finish. Stroke and distance returns to the place of the previous stroke, wherever that was. Back-on-the-line and lateral relief must be dropped in and come to rest in the same bunker.

Stroke and distance therefore gets the player out of the bunker only when the previous stroke was made from outside it. If the previous stroke was also from that bunker, the Rule 14.6 stroke-and-distance procedure remains in the bunker.

The extra exit option costs two strokes in total

Rule 19.3b adds a fourth option for a ball in a bunker: the player may take back-on-the-line relief outside the bunker for a total of two penalty strokes. The hole, original ball’s spot, and drop point must remain on the required line, and the normal back-on-the-line dropping and relief-area limits apply.

This is not two strokes plus the ordinary one-stroke unplayable penalty; the stated total is two. It is also not lateral relief outside the bunker. A player who wants to leave sideways must instead consider stroke and distance or use one-stroke lateral relief that remains in the bunker.

Relief does not guarantee a playable next lie

A correctly dropped ball can finish back in a difficult lie, including its original location when that location lies inside the relief area. Once it comes to rest in the relief area, the procedure is complete and the player must accept that result.

The player may then play the ball as it lies or take unplayable-ball relief again if Rule 19 remains available. Each new use carries another penalty. Clarifications 19.2/1 and 19.2/3 add an important detail: until the player makes a stroke at a dropped ball, the stroke-and-distance reference point remains where the last stroke was actually made. Merely dropping does not create a new stroke-and-distance point.

A nearby cart path does not always produce free relief

Before accepting a Rule 19 penalty, check whether the ball has qualifying interference from ground under repair, temporary water, an animal hole, an immovable obstruction, a dangerous animal condition, or another condition covered by Rule 16. Free relief is not available merely because a bush, tree, root, or steep slope makes the stroke difficult.

Rule 16.1a(3) also denies abnormal-course-condition relief when playing the ball as it lies is clearly unreasonable because of something from which free relief is not allowed, or when interference exists only because the player chooses a clearly unreasonable club, stance, swing, or direction. For example, a cart path touching the player's intended stance does not rescue a ball buried so deeply in a bush that the intended stroke is clearly unreasonable regardless of the path.

For a ball in a bunker with genuine abnormal-course-condition interference, Rule 16.1c normally gives free relief within the bunker and a separate one-penalty-stroke back-on-the-line option outside it. That is a different procedure and penalty from Rule 19.3b's two-stroke unplayable-ball exit.

Official Clarification 19.2/4 covers a player who lifts a ball intending to take unplayable relief and then discovers that it was in ground under repair or another abnormal course condition. The player may still use the available Rule 16 free relief if a ball has not yet been put in play under Rule 19.

Officials check the facts and procedure, not the player’s appetite for the shot

A referee or Committee may determine whether the ball was found and identified, where it lay, which area of the course contained it, where the previous stroke was made, and whether the drop and final resting place satisfied the chosen option. The decision to use Rule 19 remains the player’s.

A player who notices a dropping, substitution, or placement error before making a stroke can normally correct it under Rule 14.5. If the player makes a stroke from a wrong place, the general penalty applies: loss of hole in match play or two penalty strokes in stroke play, with the Rule 19 relief penalty still counted where applicable. A serious breach in stroke play must be corrected in time under Rule 14.7b or the player is disqualified.

Dropping in a wrong way is not always the same as playing from a wrong place. Under Rule 14.3b(4), playing a wrongly dropped ball from inside the required relief area normally adds one penalty stroke; playing it from outside the relief area brings the general penalty. A drop almost one club-length to the side of a required back-on-the-line line is from a wrong place even if the ball later rolls onto the line.

Apply the location before choosing the option

• Ball under a bush in the general area: under R&A/USGA 2023 Rule 19.2, the player may play it, return under stroke and distance, go back on the line through the ball’s spot, or use two-club-length lateral relief. Each Rule 19 option costs one stroke.
• Ball visible but not identifiable in a tree: under the 2023 Rules and Clarification 19.2/5, the player cannot use the tree location for back-on-the-line or lateral relief. If the ball is not found and identified within three minutes, stroke and distance is the available route.
• Dropped ball is still under the bush: under Clarifications 19.2/1 and 19.2/3, the player may add another penalty stroke and take relief again. If no stroke was made after the first drop, stroke and distance still returns to the place of the stroke made before the first unplayable-ball decision.
• Ball against a steep bunker face: under Rule 19.3, one-stroke back-on-the-line or lateral relief must stay in that bunker. Back-on-the-line relief outside the bunker costs two strokes in total.
• Ball among rocks inside a red penalty area: under Rule 19.1, Rule 19 does not apply even if a stroke looks impossible. The player uses Rule 17 or plays the ball as it lies when permitted.

Six shortcuts that lead to the wrong ruling

• “Someone must agree it is unplayable”: only the player makes that decision.
• “Unplayable means a free drop”: Rule 19 relief normally adds one penalty stroke.
• “I can use two club-lengths from where I think it is”: the original ball must be found and identified for lateral relief.
• “Back on the line means any line away from trouble”: the hole and original ball’s spot define the line.
• “Every bunker option keeps me in the sand”: stroke and distance can return outside, and Rule 19.3b offers the separate two-stroke back-on-the-line option outside.
• “Once I drop, the Rules owe me a clear shot”: a valid drop can leave another unplayable lie.

Wheeled mobility devices can change relief

When Rule 25 applies to a player who uses a wheeled mobility device, Rule 25.4m expands lateral unplayable-ball relief from two club-lengths to four. Rule 25.4n reduces the penalty for the extra back-on-the-line option outside a bunker from two strokes to one.

Those Rule 25 modifications apply through the player's eligibility, not through an optional Local Rule. Separately, the R&A/USGA revision of Model Local Rule M-4 effective 1 July 2026 lets a Committee provide limited free relief when a bunker or its wall, lip, or immediately surrounding slope makes the player's intended stance with a wheeled mobility device impossible or unreasonably difficult. M-4 applies only if the Committee has adopted it, and it denies relief for a clearly unreasonable lie, direction, club, or swing.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf effective January 2023, Rule 19: Unplayable Ball
• R&A/USGA — Clarifications to Rule 19, including 19.2/1–19.2/5
• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf effective January 2023, Rules 14.3, 14.5, 14.6 and 14.7
• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf effective January 2023, Rules 16.1a and 16.1c
• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf effective January 2023, Rules 25.4m and 25.4n
• R&A/USGA — Committee Procedures, Model Local Rules E-5 and M-4
• R&A/USGA — Additional Clarifications of the 2023 Rules of Golf, updated 1 July 2026, Rule 14 and Model Local Rule M-4

Checked against the jointly governed 2023 Rules of Golf and official digital Clarifications current through 1 July 2026. The Committee's Local Rules, course markings and Terms of the Competition may supplement this baseline; this page does not assume an optional Local Rule has been adopted.