Know the Rules: Water Hazards (Red Stakes)

There are two kinds of water hazards. Last week we talked about the ones marked by yellow stakes. Those are water hazards you have to hit over. This week we'll talk about water hazards marked by red stakes. These are called lateral water hazards. They are defined by water that generally runs alongside the direction of play.

Imagine there is a small stream running alongside the fairway from tee to green, about ten feet wide, and you hit your ball into the hazard containing the stream. You may play the ball as it lies with no penalty. You may not ground the sole of your club or remove loose impediments.

You may also, while taking a one-stroke penalty,
a. Play another ball from where you hit the one that went in the hazard,
b. Go back as far as you want to on a line connecting the spot where the ball entered the hazard and the hole (this could be on the other side of the hazard),
c. drop a ball outside the water hazard within two club-lengths of and not nearer the hole than (i) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or (ii) a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole.

Why would you want to drop on the opposite side of the lateral water hazard? One reason would be that you might end up closer to the hole than if you exercised option b. Another reason could be that there might be no place where you could exercise option c(i). Imagine a green complex that looks like the one below.

The pond on the right side of the green is marked with red stakes. It is possible that you could hit the ball into the water and have no place on the near side of the hazard to drop the ball that is not closer to the hole than the hazard (c(i)). If this were a stream, you could exercise option c(ii). This, however, is a large pond. The other side is over 80 yards away. You probably wouldn't use option b, or option c(ii), since they would both leave you with a long shot over the pond. Your best choice would be to go back to the tee and play from there (option a).



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