Loch Ness Monsters, Obiwans, and Great Lies

By Mike Szoka, PGA

The most frequently violated rules that I see are when golfers take relief for situations encountered under Rules 26, 27, and 28 (water hazards, out of bounds, lost ball, provisional ball, and unplayable lie). These are also the most frequently encountered situations in your normal round of golf. Since most of us don’t like to pull out the rule book every time we knock one in the water, I’ll simplify it for you and hopefully make it easy to remember. I’ll start with the easiest to remember and save the mental gymnastics and trigonometry for the end.

If you hit a ball out of bounds or lose your ball somewhere on the course (but not in a water hazard), there is only one option. You must hit again from the previous spot! But what if you are not sure if you hit your ball out of bounds or aren’t sure you can find it in those thorn bushes you hit into. Instead of making you walk to your ball, look around, and then walk back to the previous spot, the rules have an option for you to hit a provisional ball if you think your ball may have gone out of bounds or may be lost outside of a water hazard. These are the only two situations in which a provisional ball may be played!  This is a common misconception. If your original ball is playable, pick up your provisional and play the original with no penalty. If you play your provisional ball you take a stroke and distance penalty. For example, if you hit your tee shot OB, it’s one out, two back, your provisional is lying three.

What if you hit your ball into those thorn bushes and you find it but can’t play it? Now you have three options. You can go back to the previous spot and hit again with a stroke and distance penalty (just like OB or lost). You can drop a ball as far behind the unplayable point as you like, keeping the unplayable point between you and the hole with a one stroke penalty (one in, two out, hitting three). Or you can drop a ball within two club lengths of the unplayable point, not nearer the hole with a one stroke penalty.

Now suppose you missed the thorn bush with your tee shot and your ball landed in the pond behind it. The first thing you have to determine is whether the water hazard is marked with yellow or red. Let’s assume it’s marked with yellow stakes. Once again you have three options. Maybe the ball isn’t totally under water so you can play it as it lies. You can go back to the previous spot and hit again with a stroke and distance penalty (one in, two out, hitting three). Or you can drop a ball as far behind the point where the ball last crossed the margin (or edge) of the hazard as you like, keeping that point between you and the hole, with a one stroke penalty. Sound familiar to unplayable lie? A common mistake is that golfers take their drop along the line of flight on which the ball entered the hazard. This is never an option.

What if the superintendent were nice to us and marked the hazard with red stakes? You have the same three options as if it were marked with yellow stakes plus two more. Now you can drop a ball within two club lengths, not nearer the hole, of the point where your ball last crossed the margin of the hazard with a one stroke penalty. Or you can go to the opposite side of the hazard, equidistant to the hole, and drop a ball within two club lengths of that point with a one stroke penalty.

As you can see, many of the options in these five situations are the same. If you remember this summary, you can save yourself form getting disqualified or from a competitor gaining an advantage on you.

Out of bounds: Must hit again or play provisional ball.

Lost: Must hit again or play provisional ball.

Unplayable: Can hit again.

Drop keeping point between you and hole.

Drop within two club lengths.

Yellow water hazard: Play it as it lies.

Can hit again.

Drop keeping point between you and hole.

Red water hazard: Play it as it lies.

Can hit again.

Drop keeping point between you and hole.

Drop within two club lengths.

Opposite margin equidistant, within two club lengths.