Ask Linda #12 - relief from water hazards

Dear Linda,
Could you explain rules governing how to take relief for a ball lost in a water hazard or a lateral water hazard?
Lulu

Dear Lulu,

First I must tell you that the wording is changed in the rule book this year (2008). For you to claim that your ball is lost in a water hazard, that fact must be “known or virtually certain.” Otherwise, you will have to consider it a lost ball (Rule 27-1 will explain lost ball procedures.)

1. If your ball is lost in a water hazard (yellow stakes) you must assess yourself one penalty stroke, and then (your choice):
a. Play a ball at the spot from which the original ball was last played (your best guess as to the exact spot); or
b. Drop a ball behind the water hazard anywhere on the line-of-sight to the hole. Remember, “line-of-sight” means you locate (again, your best guess) where your ball crossed the margin of the hazard, stand behind this point, look directly at the pin, imagine a straight line from you to the pin, and drop your ball anywhere on an extension of this line, going as far back as you wish. Stare straight at the pin and walk backwards. Got it?

2. If your ball is lost in a lateral water hazard (red stakes), you must assess yourself one penalty stroke, and then (your choice):
a. same as above; or
b. same as above; or
c. Drop a ball outside the lateral hazard within two club-lengths and not nearer the hole than (i) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the hazard or (ii) a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole. Note: When you are taking your two club-length relief, you measure from the margin of the hazard. If the margin is defined by a line on the ground, that’s where you start measuring. If the margin is defined by stakes only, visualize a line connecting the stakes and measure from that imaginary line.

Linda

Copyright © 2008 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.