Moving of an "obstacle"

[Brad Dahle]

I looked at the rules and I am pretty sure of the ruling, but I could use confirmation. One of the courses we play at also has soccer games and recently football practices for a local school. At some point they set up temporary goals. For the last 3 weeks or so they have either been set up or been dismantled and the parts laying on the ground. One of our foursome's drive landed among the dismantled pieces. I thought they were about to move the metal pieces and I told them they could not. They thought that since it is temporary they could move it. I am thinking it is like park benches that, where we play, are always getting moved. Some times they are there and some times they are not. But reading the rules it does not sound like these goals, put together or not, fall under the "obstacles you can move" part of the rules.
Thanks

[Jeff Wiechowski]

I've always considered picnic tables as permament structures, even though they move around from day to day. They're usually in the same spot for an entire tourney(or league night) so you shouldn't move them to clear your lie/stance. Same goes for cars that get parked in areas that are not deemed OB.

My .02

[Gary Cyr]

I've always considered picnic tables as permament structures, even though they move around from day to day. They're usually in the same spot for an entire tourney(or league night) so you shouldn't move them to clear your lie/stance. Same goes for cars that get parked in areas that are not deemed OB.

My .02

Picnic tables can't be moved but 803.01 specifically mentions relief from cars.

Casual Obstacles to a Stance: A player may obtain relief only from the following obstacles that are on or behind the lie: casual water, loose leaves or debris, broken branches no longer connected to a tree, motor vehicles, harmful insects or animals, players' equipment, people, or any item or area specifically designated by the Director before the round. To obtain relief, the player must remove the obstacle if it is practical to do so. If it is impractical to move the obstacle, the player's lie may be relocated to the nearest lie which is no closer to the target, is on the line of play, and is not more than five meters from the original lie (unless greater casual relief is announced by the Director).

[Chuck Kennedy]

In the case of the metal pieces, they cannot be moved but you don't have to stand on say a goal post bar on the ground and can mark behind it using solid object relief. But any structures randomly above the ground can't be moved whether in front of or behind your lie unless the TD has given prior instructions that those structures qualify as casual objects. Ideally the league TD would simply have a course rule that players can get relief from these structures when there, presuming it's a regular occurrence.

[Brad Dahle]

Thanks Chuck this is pretty much what I figured. Relief in either instance but not allowed to be moved. Our local official agreed with me when this came up a couple of weeks ago, but he was not there this past Tuesday and the other doubles team, while they took my word for it, had their doubts.