Grass Clippings

[Shankster]

I’m lazy, so I hope one of you know.

Today, on the last hole my ball was sitting on a pile of grass clippings.  I took relief as if it was ground under repair.  Was I right to do so?  If not, why in the heck not.  That  is like hitting off of a pile of saw dust.

[Siamese Moose]

It might qualify as "material piled for removal".

[DaveP043]

7 hours ago, Shankster said:

I’m lazy, so I hope one of you know.

Today, on the last hole my ball was sitting on a pile of grass clippings.  I took relief as if it was ground under repair.  Was I right to do so?  If not, why in the heck not.  That  is like hitting off of a pile of saw dust.

 

2 hours ago, Siamese Moose said:

It might qualify as "material piled for removal".

that's the question, was it just dumped there, or was it going to be removed?  In my experience, grass clippings are usually just left where they're dumped, so no relief, it's not GUR.

[Shankopotomous]

In the world of no tournament officials to make a ruling and being impossible to read the mind of one of the ground crew.... 

I am assuming these are clippings from a greens or fringe mower that were collected in the attached bin.

If they took the collection bin from the mower and flipped it over and created a mini pyramid of clippings in one spot i would call that abnormal and give you relief. 

If they took the collection bin and flung its contents spreading the clippings mostly evenly across the rough or a bare area or under the nearby trees then no relief.

[DaveP043]

24 minutes ago, Shankopotomous said:

In the world of no tournament officials to make a ruling and being impossible to read the mind of one of the ground crew.... 

I am assuming these are clippings from a greens or fringe mower that were collected in the attached bin.

If they took the collection bin from the mower and flipped it over and created a mini pyramid of clippings in one spot i would call that abnormal and give you relief. 

If they took the collection bin and flung its contents spreading the clippings mostly evenly across the rough or a bare area or under the nearby trees then no relief.

I'm sure that maintenance procedures vary from place to place.  Personally, I can't say I ever remember seeing a pile of mower clippings actually removed once they've been dumped.  I HAVE sometimes seen then spread out over an area away from the normal areas of play, but I've also seen multiple piles of clippings left to rot right next to each other just into higher rough.  Just for reference, here's the relevant part of the Definition of GUR

Quote

Ground under repair also includes the following things, even if the Committee does not define them as such:

Grass cuttings, leaves and any other material piled for later removal. But:

       Any natural materials that are piled for removal are also loose impediments, and

        Any materials left on the course that are not intended to be removed are not ground under repair unless the Committee has defined them as such.

 

[Shankster]

It was a bare area under trees, however, it looks like their normal spot to dump the clippings.  Definitely from a greens mower, but it was probably 1-2” deep, it would have been like hitting off powdered sugar.

[JMooreTX]

14 hours ago, Shankster said:

I’m lazy, so I hope one of you know.

Today, on the last hole my ball was sitting on a pile of grass clippings.  I took relief as if it was ground under repair.  Was I right to do so?  If not, why in the heck not.  That  is like hitting off of a pile of saw dust.

Yes you were right to move it.  No one in my group, or anyone I've ever played with for that matter, would give it a second thought. They'd prob tell you to move it if you didn't!  Granted we aren't playing tournaments so YMMV.  

[DaveP043]

22 hours ago, Shankster said:

It was a bare area under trees, however, it looks like their normal spot to dump the clippings.

I work as a volunteer Referee for a events run by both my state (Virginia) golf association and for the local PGA section.  I've spoken with the staff who do the course marking, and they very rarely will mark areas as GUR if they're well off the intended playing lines.  So this pile of stuff in the woods would only be considered as GUR the staff really did intend to remove it later.  

20 hours ago, JMooreTX said:

Yes you were right to move it.  No one in my group, or anyone I've ever played with for that matter, would give it a second thought. They'd prob tell you to move it if you didn't!  Granted we aren't playing tournaments so YMMV.  

My group of friends might do the same in casual play, although maybe not, we try to follow the rules as much as possible.  But I think @Shankster wanted to understand what the Rules say about this, as compared to what any of us would do.