The post These are your options if you can’t get away from a penalty area appeared first on Golf.

The post These are your options if you can’t get away from a penalty area appeared first on Golf.

If you are in a penalty area and can’t seem to get out, fear not — you have an abundance of options.

The post These are your options if you can’t get away from a penalty area appeared first on Golf.

The post What are the relief options when your ball is in a penalty area? appeared first on Golf.

The post What are the relief options when your ball is in a penalty area? appeared first on Golf.

No matter how skilled a golfer you are, hitting into a hazard — penalty area — is inevitable. Even PGA Tour pros find themselves hitting their balls into these less-than-desirable places from time to time. The comparisons between the average pro and the average Joe stop there, however.

When pros find a penalty area, they either know the rule well enough to take a drop on their own, or they call on a rules official to clarify their options. But it’s important to know these rules as a recreational golfer, and you won’t always have an official to call on when you’re not sure. In this edition of Rules School, we break down the relief options you have when you find a penalty area.

Your relief options vary when you hit into a penalty area, depending on the color of the hazard, but both come with one-stroke penalties. This is covered under Rule 17.1d.

Yellow

Stroke-and-distance: The player may play from the spot of his or her previous shot.

Back-on-the-line: The player may take relief within one club length of an imaginary line from the pin through where the ball crossed into the penalty area, as far back as you wish.

Red

The first two options are available, in addition to a third option.

Lateral: Drop within two club lengths of where the ball last crossed into the penalty area.

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The post Rules School: Did you hit your ball in a penalty area? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules School: Did you hit your ball in a penalty area? appeared first on Golf.

You have a few options for where to take relief based on the color of the penalty area.

The post Rules School: Did you hit your ball in a penalty area? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Where do you drop a ball that carries a penalty area, but ricochets backward into it? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Where do you drop a ball that carries a penalty area, but ricochets backward into it? appeared first on Golf.

The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

This actually happened. Imagine a stream in the middle of the dogleg and down the fairway’s inside curve. A player hits his shot and easily carries the water, but the ball conks a tree on the side of the fairway and ricochets backward into the water without touching the ground. No one knew where the drop should be — on the side of the water closer to the green because the tree is there, or behind the stream because it never touched the ground before going in the water? —Dennis Thomas, via email

Rules Guy believes you, Dennis. Indeed, he often gets variations on this query. The first thing is, you have to identify where the ball last entered the penalty area.

Rules

Here’s something that might surprise a few folks not familiar with the Definition of a Penalty Area: The edge of a penalty area goes verti­cally, i.e., up and down. So where the ball entered the penalty area can be, and in this case is, very dif­ferent from where the ball entered the water itself — it entered in the air. That’s the point you use as a reference to take relief.

Now, you didn’t say whether this was a red or yellow penalty area. If it’s yellow, the options (stroke-and-distance or back-on-the-line relief) require you to drop on the fairway side; if it’s red, you get the same options plus lateral relief, which would potentially allow for a drop on the green side if you can get relief from the point where the ball last entered with two club lengths or less, no closer to the hole.

Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.

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