What Is a Legal Drop in Golf? Explained Simply
Knee height, the relief area, and what to do when the ball rolls out - the drop procedure explained step by step.
A drop is the procedure golf uses to put a ball back into play after certain situations - an unplayable lie, a ball in a penalty area, or free relief from something like a path or a sprinkler head. It sounds technical, but the modern procedure is straightforward once a junior has done it a few times.
It is also worth learning properly, because a drop done wrong can turn a routine one-stroke situation into a bigger problem in a competition.
The three steps
- Find the reference point - what you are measuring from depends on which relief you are taking
- Measure the relief area - one or two club-lengths from that point, never nearer the hole
- Drop from knee height, and make sure the ball comes to rest inside the relief area
How to physically drop the ball
Hold the ball at knee height - the height of your knee when standing upright - and let it drop straight down. No throwing, no spinning, no rolling it out of your hand, and no placing. It has to fall freely, and it must not touch you or your equipment before it hits the ground.
Knee height replaced the older shoulder-height drop in 2019, precisely to reduce how far the ball bounces and rolls from where relief was intended. If a junior has learned the shoulder-height version from an older relative, this is the correction to make.
Measuring the relief area
A club-length means the length of the longest club in your bag other than the putter - for most juniors, their driver. Use that same club for the measurement every time and the relief area is consistent.
| Situation | Reference point | Size | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immovable obstruction (path, sprinkler) | Nearest point of complete relief | One club-length | None |
| Ground under repair | Nearest point of complete relief | One club-length | None |
| Temporary water | Nearest point of complete relief | One club-length | None |
| Embedded ball in the general area | Spot right behind where it was embedded | One club-length | None |
| Red penalty area, lateral relief | Where the ball last crossed the edge | Two club-lengths | One stroke |
| Unplayable, lateral option | Where the ball lies | Two club-lengths | One stroke |
The relief area is never nearer the hole than the reference point in any of these cases. Back-on-the-line options exist for penalty areas and unplayable lies too, and work slightly differently - the ball is dropped on a line and the relief area is measured from where it lands.
Finding the nearest point of complete relief
This is the part juniors most often get wrong, because it is not the most convenient point - it is the nearest one. Take the club you would have used, and find the closest spot to the ball, no nearer the hole, where the interference is completely gone: your stance clear of the path, your swing clear of the sprinkler, all of it.
It can easily end up somewhere you would rather not play from, which is the point. Free relief is relief from the obstruction, not an upgrade of the lie.
What if the ball rolls out?
If a dropped ball rolls outside the relief area, or rolls back into the original problem, pick it up and drop it again. If the same thing happens on the second drop, place the ball by hand on the spot where it hit the ground on that second drop.
If it will not stay there either, place it at the nearest spot where it will rest, no nearer the hole. This built-in sequence means there is rarely any real doubt about what to do next.
The mistakes juniors make
- Dropping from shoulder height, usually copied from an adult who has not read the 2019 changes
- Measuring with a wedge because it is in their hand - it must be the longest club other than the putter
- Dropping in the most convenient spot instead of the nearest point of relief
- Letting the ball touch a leg or a shoe on the way down, which requires a re-drop
- Forgetting that the ball must come to rest in the area, not merely land in it
- Taking relief from a penalty area from where the ball ended up, rather than from where it last crossed the edge
When you place instead of drop
Not every relief procedure is a drop. On the putting green a ball is always placed, not dropped. A ball that has to be replaced after being moved is placed. And under preferred lies, where a club has adopted that local rule, the ball is lifted, cleaned and placed within the distance the club specifies.
Preferred lies come up constantly on Australian courses after rain - see preferred lies and winter rules explained.
The situations a junior meets most
In practice, most junior drops fall into four categories: relief from a cart path, relief from casual water after rain, a ball in a red penalty area, and an unplayable lie in trouble. Each has a slightly different reference point, but the physical procedure - knee height, in the area, comes to rest inside it - never changes.
Penalty area relief options, red and yellow, are set out in penalty areas and out of bounds explained.
And for the wider set of rules a junior should carry into a first competition, see golf rules every junior golfer should know.
Back-on-the-line relief, explained plainly
The option juniors find hardest to picture is the back-on-the-line one, available for penalty areas and unplayable lies. The idea is simpler than the wording: imagine a straight line running from the hole, through the point where your ball crossed the penalty area edge (or where it lies, for an unplayable), and continuing backwards as far as you like.
- Pick any point on that line, as far back as you want
- Drop the ball on that line, from knee height
- The relief area is one club-length in any direction from where the ball hit the ground, no nearer the hole
Going further back is free, which is what makes this option useful: a junior can walk back until they have a comfortable full shot rather than dropping into more trouble.
Who may drop, and when relief becomes final
The player, or their caddie, drops the ball - not a parent, and not a playing partner. Once a ball has been dropped in the right way in the right place and is in play, the player cannot change their mind and choose a different relief option.
Before that point they can. A junior who starts measuring for lateral relief and then realises going back on the line is better is free to switch, right up until the ball is dropped.
A quick word on lifting the ball
Most relief procedures allow the ball to be cleaned once lifted. The exception worth knowing is that when you lift a ball to see whether it is cut or is yours, or under some other specific rules, cleaning may not be allowed - and you must mark the spot first. The safe habit for a junior is simple: mark before lifting, every time.
Practise it once, off the course
Practise it once, off the course
Ten minutes in a park is enough. Drop a ball beside a bag as though it were a path, have the child find the nearest point of complete relief, measure a club-length, and drop from knee height. Doing it once with no pressure means the first time it matters in a competition, they already know the moves.