# The Right Way To Assess Golf Penalties



## victorct (May 11, 2011)

Golf being the ultimate game of honor, where a player is expected to levy penalties against himself as necessary, it’s important to know exactly when and how to assess such punishment.

Sadly, most golfers are woefully (or perhaps blissfully) uneducated on the rules – especially those pertaining to water hazards, out-of-bounds areas and unplayable lies. Follow any foursome of weekend warriors and you’ll witness blatant disregard for proper procedure.

For example, let’s say Sal smacks his tee shot over a boundary fence on the fifth hole. Rather than add a stroke and replay the shot – now his third — from the tee, Sal drops a new ball by the fence and whacks away, declaring this his third shot.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Let’s explain what Sal should’ve done, as well as the correct way to handle water hazards and unplayables, by the book. (That is, the USGA Rules of Golf.)

*Water hazard – regular*

Water hazards can take many forms, from a trickling creek (think Rae’s at Augusta National) to the roaring Pacific Ocean (a la Pebble Beach). Heck, some water hazards, like dried-up ponds, don’t even hold water.

The defining quality of a water hazard is actually the colored stakes and/or lines on its border. For a regular water hazard, the markings are yellow. (There are also lateral hazards, which we’ll get to next.)

According to Rule 26 in the USGA manual, the golfer has a few options when her ball crosses into a regular water hazard.

First of all, she may actually play the shot from inside the hazard, provided she doesn’t “ground” the club (touch it to the surface of the hazard) prior to hitting her shot. There’s no penalty for playing the ball as it lies in the hazard.

Otherwise, incurring a one-stroke penalty, the golfer may:

Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played, or
Drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the water hazard the ball may be dropped.

*Lateral water hazard*

Yes, there are two different types of water hazard. Leave it to golf to over-complicate things.

A lateral hazard, which typically runs alongside the fairway or green (hence the term), is marked by red stakes and/or lines. If your ball finds one of these, you have the same options as with a regular water hazard, or you may drop within two club-lengths of:

The point where the ball crossed the margin of the hazard, or
A point on the opposite side of the hazard equidistant from the hole.
And don’t forget to add the one-stroke penalty.

*Ball lost or out of bounds*

Golf’s most ignored (or abused) rule is almost certainly the stroke-and-distance penalty imposed when a ball is lost – say in the trees or rough — or hit out of bounds, marked by white stakes. Here’s how it’s supposed to work:

You must play another ball from the spot where the last shot was played under penalty of one stroke, i.e. stroke and distance.
FYI — You have 5 minutes to search for a ball before declaring it lost.

*Unplayable ball*

If your ball comes to rest in a spot you consider unplayable – between rocks, for instance, or in a thicket of bushes – take a one-shot penalty and:

Drop within two club-lengths of where the ball lies, not nearer the hole;
Drop any distance behind the point where the ball lay, keeping a straight line between the hole, the point where the ball lay and the spot on which the ball is dropped, or
replay the shot.

Source: The right way to assess golf penalties


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