Another OB question

[dgdave]

If there is an OB fence and the disc is leaning against the fence on the OB side is it in or out? I know the rule used to be, if any part of the disc is touching the OB line, its in. My dad said it got changed to if any part of the disc is OB its ob. The entire disc must be in to be in.

Whatcha think?

[RustyP]

"A disc shall be considered out-of-bounds only when it comes to rest and it is clearly and
completely surrounded by the out-of-bounds area. A disc thrown in water shall be deemed to be at rest once it is floating or is moving only by the action of the water or the wind on the water. See section 803.03 F. The out-of-bounds line itself is considered out-of --bounds."

I guess it really depends on where the actual OB line is in relation to the fence. We have a fence on our couse that plays OB, but there's a section that's bent outward...so your disc can technically be on the OB side of the chain-link panel, but still be on the In-Bounds side of the fence posts.

Personally, if I were in that situation and there wasn't an OB line stringed or painted to confirm, I would say OB.

[tim]

I agree with Rusty on citing the rule -- any part of the disc is in bounds and you are okay. However, the question then becomes WHAT PART of the fence is the line.

In reality, every OB line is of zero width. Even when a line is painted, the line itself is either in bounds or out-of-bounds. So with the fence -- is the true line the inside barrier of the fence or the outside barrier of the fence? Is it the posts in the ground that define the shape of the line or is it the connecting pieces?

All of those questions about the fence itself are specific to the course, so I can't answer for you. However, my suspicion is that the disc in question that is leaning against the outside of the fence is OB -- at least, I'm guessing that is the way the course designer intended for that lie to be interpreted.

[dgdave]

That's what I figured. Thanks!

[Bugbee]

When we paint lines at our tournaments we play the line itself as OB.

[Fritz]

When we paint lines at our tournaments we play the line itself as OB.

Which is the correct way now under the new rules. It used to be if you were touching the line you were in bounds.

[Chuck Kennedy]

The future rulebook will likely be dealing with non-vertical surfaces like this in the OB section. For the time being, even though there's a rule of verticality with regard to the OB line being where the fence is on or closest to the ground, the current interpretation (which can be argued) is that a disc on the OB side of an OB fence is OB regardless if it's leaning on the fence that's leaning over inbounds area.