In order to take relief from an abnormal course condition, you must have interference. This means that your ball touches or is on the condition or your stance or swing are physically interfered with by the condition.

On the putting green only, you have interference if a condition intervenes on your line of play. Mental distraction or line of play interference when you are not on the putting green are both situations that do not qualify as interference to get free relief.

There are some situations when you are not allowed to take free relief even if you have interference:

• If your ball lies in a penalty area, you do not get free relief even if the condition itself is outside the penalty area.
• If something other than the condition makes playing the ball clearly unreasonable, then you don’t get to take advantage of the incidental interference, such as when your ball is clearly not playable due to being nestled in tree roots, but if you set up to the ball your stance would be on a cart path.
• Or, if you only have interference because you’ve taken a clearly unreasonable stance, swing or direction of play or chosen a club that clearly does not apply (such as taking a driver from thick rough), then you are not allowed free relief.