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Rule 17.1

Yellow penalty area

Also searched as: yellow stakes, yellow lines, pond in front of the green, water in front

Until 2019: water hazard

A penalty area marked yellow. If your ball is in it, you have three options. Unlike red, there is no lateral relief.

What matters is the point where your ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area, not where it lies in the water. To take relief, it must be known or virtually certain that the ball is in the penalty area. Otherwise it is lost.

Step by step

  1. 1Play it as it lies. No penalty. You may ground your club and remove loose impediments.
  2. 2Stroke and distance. One penalty stroke, play again from where you made your last stroke.
  3. 3Back-on-the-line relief. One penalty stroke. A line from the hole through the point where the ball last crossed the edge, as far back as you like. See back-on-the-line relief.

In the video

Title card ‘Ball in the yellow penalty area?’ above a hole seen from above, with a stream marked yellow north of a bridge and red south of it, the flag and the ball’s path into the stream.
Video page with full explanationAlso on Instagram (opens in a new tab) and TikTok (opens in a new tab).