Golf — Rules 9 and 14
The moment the ball comes to rest changes the Rule.
A dropped ball can bounce off a shoe, roll outside the relief area, stop against a club, settle and then move in the wind, or cross into another course area. The correct outcome depends on whether the dropping procedure was still continuing or the ball had already come to rest and entered play.
Quick ruling: under the R&A and USGA 2023 Rules of Golf, a correctly dropped ball must come to rest inside its relief area. Once it has done so, relief is complete. Any later movement is decided under Rule 9 by identifying the cause—not by automatically dropping again.
Decision path
Build a timeline around first rest
- Confirm that the player dropped in the right way under Rule 14.3b.
- Record any contact before the ball first touched the ground.
- Follow every bounce and deflection until the ball first comes to rest.
- Check whether that resting spot lies inside the required relief area.
- If the ball moves later, identify natural forces, player action, opponent action, or outside influence under Rule 9.
- Apply replacement, play-as-it-lies, or another drop only after identifying that cause.
Correct release
Before ground contact, avoid body and equipment
Rule 14.3b requires the player to release the ball straight down from knee height without throwing, spinning, or rolling it. Before touching the ground, it must not touch the player's body or equipment.
If the ball is dropped in a wrong way, the player must drop again correctly. A wrong-way drop does not count as one of the two proper drops that can eventually require placement.
After ground contact
An accidental bounce off a person is not a penalty
If a ball dropped in the right way hits the ground and then accidentally touches a person, equipment, or another outside influence before coming to rest, Rule 14.3c imposes no penalty.
The final resting place controls the next step. If it is inside the relief area, relief is complete. If it is outside, the player follows the second-drop or placement procedure.
Relief area
Bad lie inside is still a completed drop
A correctly dropped ball that comes to rest in tall grass, a bush, a footprint, or another poor lie inside the relief area is in play. The quality of the lie does not create another drop.
Official Clarification 14.3c/1 confirms that the relief area includes grass, bushes, and other growing things within it. The player needs a different Rule to move that ball again.
Outside the area
Drop twice, then place if necessary
When a ball dropped correctly comes to rest outside the relief area, Rule 14.3c requires a second correct drop. If the second ball also finishes outside, the player places a ball on the spot where the second drop first touched the ground.
If the placed ball will not stay there after two attempts, the player places it on the nearest spot where it will remain at rest, subject to Rule 14.2e's course-area and not-nearer-the-hole limits.
Stopped against a foot
Rest can occur against the player or equipment
A correctly dropped ball can accidentally stop against a player's foot, club, or equipment and still complete relief if that spot is inside the relief area. There is no penalty merely because the object stopped it after ground contact.
If moving the foot or equipment then causes the ball to move, Official Clarification 14.3c(1)/1 requires replacement under Rule 9.4 but removes the penalty because the movement resulted from reasonable action in taking relief.
Natural forces
Same area or another area changes the result
Once a dropped ball has come to rest in the relief area, natural forces normally move it under Rule 9.3: there is no penalty and the player plays from the new spot.
The 2023 Rules added an exception. If natural forces move a ball that was put into play by dropping, placing, or replacing and it comes to rest in another area of the course or out of bounds, the ball must be replaced on the spot from which it moved.
Same-area example
A windblown ball may stay live at its new spot
A ball dropped in the general area comes to rest correctly, then wind rolls it several metres to another part of the general area without going out of bounds. Rule 9.3's exception does not apply merely because it left the relief area after coming to rest.
There is no penalty and the ball is normally played from the new spot. The relief-area test finished when the ball first came to rest.
Another-area example
Crossing into a bunker requires replacement
A ball properly dropped in the general area comes to rest, then wind moves it into a bunker. Because it crossed from the general area into another defined area of the course, Rule 9.3 Exception 2 requires replacement on the original resting spot.
The same replacement rule applies if natural forces move it out of bounds. The spot is estimated if not known exactly.
Outside influence
Movement after rest is normally replaced
If another player, spectator, animal, or other outside influence moves the dropped ball after it has come to rest, Rule 9.6 normally requires the ball to be replaced on its original spot without penalty to the player.
This is not another relief drop. Replacement restores the ball to the position from which the outside influence moved it.
Deliberate stopping
Interference before rest resets the drop
Rule 14.3d covers a dropped ball deliberately deflected or stopped before it comes to rest. The player must drop again, and that deliberately stopped ball does not count as one of the two drops before placement.
A player who deliberately deflects or stops it normally receives the general penalty. A narrow exception applies when there was no reasonable chance that the ball would finish inside the relief area.
Common mix-ups
Do not restart Rule 14 after every movement
- Still rolling: Rule 14 procedure has not finished.
- Rested inside, then wind moved it within the same area: normally play the new spot under Rule 9.
- Rested inside, then wind moved it into another course area: replace under Rule 9.3 Exception 2.
- Rested against a foot, then moved when the foot was removed: replace without penalty under the clarification.
Official references
Source material