Water Hazards – Rules & Procedures

 The rules and procedures regarding water hazards (yellow stakes and/or lines) and lateral water hazards (red stakes and/or lines) seem to create confusion for many players.

If your ball lands in a Water Hazard (yellow), you have three options:

1. You can try to play it from the hazard, if possible.  Remember that you may not ground your club.
2. You can go back to the spot from where you hit the ball into the water, add a one stroke penalty, drop a ball on that spot and play from there.
3. You may drop a ball under penalty of one stroke, behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the ball last crossed the hazard line directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped.  You may go as far back on this line as you like as long you do not go out of bounds.

*Something to remember with this rule is that you do not drop a ball on the line of flight that the ball took to enter the water hazard. You drop on the line from the flagstick, through the spot where it crossed the hazard, and straight back from there.  The term “line of flight” does not exist in the rules of golf.

Water hazards, or sections of water hazards, may be marked with red stakes or lines because it would be impossible or impractical to drop behind the water hazard as in option #3 above.  These are called Lateral Water Hazards (Red).

If your ball lands in a lateral water hazard, you have the three water hazard options above, plus two additional options.  They are:

1. You may drop a ball within two club-lengths of where it last crossed the hazard line, not nearer the hole.
2. You may drop a ball within two club-lengths of a point on the opposite side of the lateral water hazard which is the same distance from the hole.  *(This option seldom comes into play, and is not used often, but it is available and could save you strokes if you know how to apply it.)

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General notes on water hazards:

1. They may be marked with stakes, lines or both.  Stakes identify a hazard and show the basic margins, and lines define the specific margins of the hazard.
2. If only stakes are used, the hazard is defined by the natural boundaries of the hazard, not necessarily the line between the two stakes. 
   1. For example, if your ball is clearly in a water hazard, but when you line up the stakes, it is outside the line, you are still in the water hazard.  Ideally, all water hazards would be lined all the time, but this is very time consuming and uses a lot of paint.
3. You may not ground your club when your ball lies in a water hazard.  If there is grass growing in the hazard, your club may touch the grass, but it is considered grounded if the grass is supporting the weight of the club.  If you ground your club in a hazard, add two strokes.
4. You may not remove any loose impediments (leaves, twigs, stones, etc.) from the hazard when your ball lies in a water hazard, but you may remove movable obstructions (i.e. a soda can, cigarette butt, plastic, etc.).  There is no relief from an immovable obstruction in a hazard (i.e. a bridge within a hazard).

Examples: 

Hole #5 from the men’s tees is marked with yellow stakes from the teeing ground area, and red stakes from the right side and far end of the hazard.  The land to the left of the hazard is out of bounds.

            If your tee ball crosses the red stakes on the right side or far side (as in goes across and then rolls back in), you may proceed under the lateral water hazard rule and drop within two club-lengths from where it crossed the line.

            If your tee ball does not cross the red stakes, you must proceed under the yellow water hazard rule and drop behind the hazard on the teeing area, or re-tee.

            A ball played from Hole #4 that crosses the red stakes on hole #5, may be dropped within two club-lengths of where it crossed the hazard line, no nearer the hole, under penalty of one stroke.

             The lake on Hole #14 is marked as a yellow water hazard (it changes to red as you get closer to hole # 10 on the right side), which means if you choose to take a drop, you must drop on the line from the flagstick back through where the ball crossed the hazard line, or from where you played the previous shot.  See #2 & #3 under the yellow water hazard rule above.

The hazard on the left side of #14 is marked Red for a Lateral Hazard.  You have the 3 water hazard options, plus the additional 2 options for a lateral hazard.  The option used most often is to drop within two club-lengths of where the ball last crossed the hazard line.

*Note that the wooden bridge on #14 is not marked to be within the red hazard, which makes it an immovable obstruction.  You would get a free drop if your ball is on or under the bridge, or if the bridge interferes with your stance or swing.  You would find your nearest point of relief from the bridge (that is not in the hazard) and drop a ball within one club-length of that spot.

I hope this clears up some confusion.  See me if you have any questions or comments.