Rule 17.1 · Video, 55 seconds
Ball in a red penalty area: your 4 options
If your ball is in a red penalty area, formerly a lateral water hazard, you have four options. The first one is free, the other three cost one penalty stroke.
The four options
- Play it as it lies. If the ball is playable, simply play it, without penalty.
- Back to where you played from. With one penalty stroke you play again from the spot of your last stroke, see stroke and distance.
- Back on the line. With one penalty stroke you drop on the line from the hole through the crossing point, as far back as you like, see back-on-the-line relief.
- To the side. With one penalty stroke you drop within two club-lengths of the crossing point, no nearer the hole. This lateral relief is only available for red.
The crossing point is where your ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area. Options 2 and 3 are measured from there. You drop from knee height.
Allowed and not allowed
In a penalty area you may ground your club, remove loose leaves and pull out red stakes. If your ball moves while you remove leaves, though, it costs one penalty stroke. White boundary stakes must never be pulled out.
There is no free relief in a penalty area, not from obstructions, ground under repair or for an embedded ball. And you cannot declare your ball unplayable there.
You do not need to find your ball: if it is virtually certain that it is in the penalty area, you take relief from the estimated crossing point.