Any time you are dropping the ball, you are allowed to use the original ball or another ball if you would prefer to put a new ball into play. There are three key components to making sure your golf ball is dropped in the “right way” according to the Rules: 

• You must drop the ball. Only you may drop (except in partner forms of play when your partner may also drop your golf ball for you).
  

• Your golf ball must be dropped straight down from knee height without touching you or your equipment. In 2019, we moved from shoulder height to knee height dropping. Straight down means that you may not toss, roll or spin your golf ball, and your golf ball cannot touch you or your equipment before hitting the ground. Knee-height means the height of your knee when in a standing position. 

• Your golf ball must be dropped in the given relief area (or on the line if taking back-on-the-line relief). If you are dropping your golf ball, you are operating under a Rule that dictates a specific relief area of either one or two club-lengths (or line). Your golf ball must land in that relief area (or on that line). 

Completing the Dropping Procedure

Unlike the complex re-dropping Rules of the past, the Rules currently only require that your ball dropped in the right way comes to rest in the given relief area.

If your golf ball does not come to rest in the relief area, it must be dropped again.

If your golf ball dropped a second time also does not come to rest in the relief area (such as when your relief area is on a steep slope), then you must place a ball on the spot where your second drop first touched the ground.

This “counted drop” process only applies if you drop your golf ball in the right way. If you drop in the wrong way, there is no limit to how many times you may need to drop again until you get it right. 

At any point in this process, you can use the original ball or another ball. There is no requirement to use the original ball during this process. 

When Something Goes Wrong

Until you play a ball that was dropped in the wrong way, you can fix that mistake. But once you play a ball dropped in the wrong way, you will end up with a penalty.

If the ball dropped in the wrong way is played from within the correct relief area, you get one penalty stroke.

If the ball is played from outside the relief area, regardless of whether it was dropped in the right or wrong way, then you have played from a wrong place and get the general penalty (either loss of hole in match play or two strokes in stroke play).