Women & Golf’s rules expert Sheila Waltham explains all about what happens when your ball ends up in a dried-up penalty area.
By Sheila Waltham
If a ball lands in a dried-up penalty area, is it still deemed to be a penalty area?
By definition, a Penalty Area (PA) is any body of water on the course (marked or not), even if it does not contain water. Under the Penalty Area rule (Rule 17) you can play the ball as it lies without penalty or take relief outside the PA under penalty of one stroke.
Since the Rules changed in 2019, playing a ball from a PA is much less restrictive. You can ground your club, take practice swings and remove loose impediments. The one element that didn’t change is providing free relief from immovable obstructions within the PA eg pipes, drain covers, steps etc.
What do you do If you are unfortunate enough to find your ball in a PA and cannot play it as it lies against a pipe?
- No free relief is offered under the Rules for an immovable obstruction when your ball lies in a PA (Rule 16.1a(2)).
- You are not allowed to declare a ball that lies in a PA as unplayable (Rule 19-1).
Therefore, your only option is to proceed under the PA Rule, under penalty of 1 stroke.
Red or yellow penalty area
Your options depend on whether the PA is defined as red or yellow. There are 2 options for a Yellow and 3 options for a Red PA:
Both Red & Yellow PAs:
- proceed under stroke & distance, or
- drop a ball (original or a substituted ball) back on a straight line between the flagstick, and where the ball last crossed the edge of the PA, or
Red PA ONLY:
drop a ball (original or a substituted ball) within 2 club lengths of where the ball last crossed the edge of the PA.
When the Rules changed in 2019, the option for a ball lying in a Red PA no longer allows the player to take opposite side relief. This is only now available if specified in a club’s local rules.
About the author
Sheila Waltham has been a qualified rules official for over 15 years and joined the England Golf Tournament Panel of Referees in 2019. A keen golfer since 1995, Sheila’s interest in the Rules was born out of the realisation that a lot of the information she received as a novice golfer was incorrect. So, she took matters into her own hands!
Become a whizz on the rules and check out our previous Ask the Ref features, like this one: What happens if my golf ball ends up in a puddle?
