Rule 17 · Relief with a penalty
Rule 17: Penalty areas
Official title: Penalty Areas
Penalty areas are bodies of water and other areas the Committee marks in red or yellow. Before 2019 they were called water hazards. You play the ball as it lies, or take relief outside for one penalty stroke.
17.1 Your options
Your ball is in it as soon as it touches the area. If you play it, since 2019 no special rules apply: you may ground your club and remove loose impediments. Otherwise you have two options for one penalty stroke: stroke and distance or back on the line. Red adds lateral relief, within two club-lengths of the spot where the ball last crossed the edge. If you do not find the ball, it must be known or virtually certain that it is in the penalty area.
Rules questions on this
- Can I play my ball from a penalty area?
- How many penalty strokes does a penalty area cost?
- Can I make a practice swing and touch the ground in a penalty area?
- Can I ground my club in a penalty area?
- Ball not found, maybe in the water: can I take penalty area relief?
11 more questions
- Can I take lateral relief from a yellow penalty area?
- Back-on-the-line relief: how far back can I go?
- Lateral relief from a red penalty area: where do you measure from?
- Ball on a bridge over a penalty area: what is the ruling?
- Estimated the crossing point wrongly: must I correct it?
- Ball rolls back into the stream: where do I take lateral relief?
- Ball lost in a penalty area or ground under repair: which relief?
- Ball touching the red line: is it in the penalty area?
- Back-on-the-line drop: must the ball stay on the line?
- Lateral relief: can I drop on the other side of the ditch?
- No play zone inside a penalty area: what is the ruling?
17.2 After a stroke from the penalty area
If your ball ends up in a penalty area again, or is then lost, out of bounds or unplayable, you have extra options: for example, you may also go back to where your last stroke from outside the penalty area was made.
17.3 No other relief
If your ball is in a penalty area, there is no relief there from abnormal course conditions, for an embedded ball or for an unplayable ball. You only have the options in this Rule. A dangerous animal condition is the exception.
Rules question on this
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