Rule 16.3 Free Drop Saves Ryan Gerard's Tour Championship Bid

Ryan Gerard picked up a free drop on the 17th hole at East Lake Golf Club on Saturday that turned a buried lie into one CBS analyst Dottie Pepper called "exponentially easier," keeping his Tour Championship hopes alive heading into the final round.

What happened on the 17th hole?

Gerard and Hovland arrived at the par-4 17th tied at 13 under. Gerard's drive found the right rough, leaving a 133-yard approach into a green guarded by a bunker with steep, rough-covered banks. His wedge shot came up short and struck the bunker face, where television cameras located the ball buried in thick rough just above the sand.

Addressing the ball from that lie would have been difficult, and a swing at it carried real risk of the ball going nowhere or worse. A rules official was called in before Gerard took any action.

Why did Gerard get a free drop?

Rule 16.3 of the Rules of Golf allows free relief for a ball embedded in its own pitch-mark anywhere in the general area of the course. The only exceptions are a penalty area or a bunker itself. Because Gerard's ball was embedded in the rough on the bunker's face rather than in the sand, it counted as the general area, entitling him to a drop within one club-length of the spot, no closer to the hole.

Gerard used his driver, the longest club in his bag, to measure the relief area. The end of the grip came to rest on flat ground just clear of the bunker, giving him a clean lie in the rough instead of the awkward, sloped one his approach had found.

What happened after the drop?

Gerard chipped on from his new lie and saved par, staying at 13 under. Hovland birdied the same hole to move to 14 under. Both players then birdied the 18th, sending Hovland into Sunday's final round with a one-shot lead over Gerard.

A ball buried in a bunker face isn't automatically a bunker shot, and the difference decided how Gerard played the biggest hole of his week.

It is Gerard's first appearance in the Tour Championship, secured by finishing 17th in the season-long FedEx Cup standings. His lone PGA Tour title came at last year's Barracuda Championship, an opposite-field event held opposite a major and without the tour's top players. A win Sunday at East Lake would be his first against a full-strength field.