How many penalty strokes for a water hazard

Each month, we plan to highlight a specific Rule or Rules situation that is relevant to college golfers or one that is often misunderstood. We will highlight what the Rule says and how it is applied to the situation at hand. This month, Jamie takes a deeper look at the rules for water hazards. Video Example Link. Hitting a ball into a water hazard is one of the most common Rules scenarios that golfers encounter during a round.

And while most golfers know the basics of their relief options, there is a little more to it than many realize. So let's run through a brief refresher course on water hazards. Generally lateral red water hazards are situated on either the left or right side of a hole and regular yellow water hazards are situated so that the player has to play directly over them. When you find yourself in a water hazard, its color is the first thing you need to take note of as it will dictate what relief options are available to you.

Let's start with regular water hazards, which are always marked yellow. You start to wonder what those colors mean and how they could affect your plays. In this article, we are going to give light to what those stake and line colors you see around golf courses and what it would cost you should you end up crossing them while playing.

The common colors of stakes and lines you would notice are the whites, yellows and reds. It is worth noting that a golf course could also use other markers as out-of-bounds indicators such as a fence. When you go out-of-bounds, the stroke-and-distance penalty applies which means you get a one-stroke penalty and play the ball again from the previous spot.

And because the nature of complying to this penalty takes time, hitting a provisional ball instead is a good alternative. More on this can be found in Rule You get a one-stroke penalty for landing your golf ball onto a water hazard.

Your ball is considered in the water hazard when it touches the yellow markers or lies within the hazard. It is also worth noting that there are two options a golfer can choose from for dealing with a one-stroke penalty due to water hazard.

The first option is to play the ball from its previous spot. And the other option is to take a drop — that is dropping the ball at any point behind the hazard marker that was violated. More on water hazard rules in Rule It is worth noting that a single body of water hazard could have its side marked differently depending on whether its parts run adjacent or across the line of play.

That is to say a water hazard could have a yellow stake or line from one side and a red stake or line from the other side depending on its position and coverage on a golf course. You would then be entitled to option three c of the Water Hazard Rule. You could drop a ball no nearer the hole and within two club-lengths of the point where the ball last crossed the margin of the lateral water hazard or b no nearer the hole and within two clubs of a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard that is equidistant from the hole from the spot where the ball last crossed the margin of the lateral water hazard under penalty of one stroke.

Remember, use the index or the table of contents to find the correct Rule that applies to the situation and follow the Rules of Golf to help yourself to enjoy the game of golf. Office: Fax: