Dear Linda:
Today we were a group of four: Leroy, Larry, Llewellyn and
Lou (myself).
The left edge of the fairway on par 3 hole #13 is punctuated
by a significant pond favoured by mallards and demarcated by yellow stakes.
Llewellyn’s turn at the tee was marred by a pulled shot that
crossed the pond and landed in deep grass on the bank beyond, still inside
the yellow stakes.
Llewellyn, thinking he might be able to locate his ball and
have a shot, pondered hitting a provisional but was reminded by Leroy and Larry
that if he were to do so, the provisional ball would become the ball in play
and the ball in the hazard would be considered abandoned, so that after hitting
the provisional, Llewellyn would be lying three.
Armed with this information, Llewellyn walked around the
pond, located his ball, and swung at it, effecting approximately one yard’s
progress of the ball within the hazard. A subsequent swing yielded a similar
disappointing result, so that he was now lying three and pondering the wisdom
of his decision to attempt to play the ball out of the hazard.
The question for you is this. What were Llewellyn’s options
after completing two unsuccessful swings within the hazard?
Presumably he could have declared his ball unplayable and
dropped it within two club-lengths within the hazard, thus presenting himself
(and his fellow competitors) with the possibility of repeated unsuccessful
swings at his ball until terminated by dusk or, in a few decades, decease of
the player. Did any of his options include dropping and playing his ball
outside the hazard? If not, what escape do the rules afford?
And would it have made any difference if the hazard had been
marked by red stakes, rather than yellow stakes?
And if he had hit his ball from the bank (inside the yellow
stakes) into the pond in the bowels of the hazard, what would his options be
then?
Yours curiously,
Lou from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Dear Lou,
This is an excellent question, Lou, with an answer that will
be less complicated than you might think. Tuck this answer away in a safe
corner of your brain – it will save you strokes in the future.
All of the following relief options include a one-stroke
penalty, and all of them will get the player out of the hazard (see
illustration and explanation at the bottom):
1. When a player chooses to play his ball that lies in a
water hazard, and his stroke (or strokes) fails to get the ball out of the
hazard, he may play a ball from the spot where he made his last stroke outside
the hazard [Rule 26-2 (i)].
2. Alternately, he may take relief under Rule 26-1b,
dropping out of the hazard on the line-of-sight to the hole, using as his
reference point the spot where his original ball last crossed the margin of the
hazard [Rule 26-2 (ii)].
3. If the hazard is a lateral water hazard (marked with red
stakes), he may take relief under Rule 26-1c (the two-club-length option on
either side of the hazard – please read the Rule for specifics). As in #2
above, his reference point will be the spot where his original ball last
crossed the margin of the lateral water hazard [Rule 26-2 (ii)].
Count the tee shot into the hazard, all subsequent shots
inside the hazard, and the penalty stroke that allows the player to take relief
outside the hazard.
The player may not
deem his ball unplayable when it lies in a water hazard [Rule 28]. The only
relief options for a ball in a water hazard are those listed in Rule 26-1.
Linda
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