Thank you,
Lulu from South Carolina
Dear Lulu,
If your ball has not passed beyond the stakes, the ball is
in the hazard. Under penalty of one stroke, you may return to where you hit
your previous shot and play another ball (this is known as “stroke and
distance”), or you may drop a ball on the tee side of the hazard on the
line-of-sight to the hole [Rule 26-1]. Either way, you will have to cross the
hazard with your next shot. Of course, if your ball is playable in the hazard,
you may avoid the one-stroke penalty and hit it as it lies
I answered a related question in June of 2008. A reader
wanted to know what to do if his ball crossed the hazard, landed beyond the
yellow stakes, and rolled back into the hazard. Here is what I wrote:
“If you hit a ball over a water hazard that is marked
entirely with yellow stakes and the ball lands past the hazard boundary on the
other side and then rolls back into the hazard, you must drop that ball BEHIND
the hazard. Perhaps the best way to remember this is to ask yourself: Where is
the ball? In this case, it is in the water hazard. The relief options for a
ball in a water hazard require that you hit the ball across the hazard. The
only difference when your ball crosses a water hazard and rolls back in is that
your point of reference for taking relief is where the ball LAST crossed the margin
of the hazard. Note where your ball rolled back into the hazard; draw an
imaginary line from the hole, through that point, across the hazard and back as
far as you wish; drop anywhere on that line.” You may also play the ball under
stroke and distance, or play it as it lies in the hazard.
Linda
Copyright © 2015 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
