Know Your Rules: Water Hazards on Hole 1

You may have noticed that the 1st hole at Santa Maria features a little bit of water. Let’s say the unimaginable happens and your ball goes for a swim; how clear are you on what your options are for the next shot? This month’s ‘Know Your Rules’ will look into this and help you make the best decision possible.

As you can see on the map the first 3 hazards are all marked with yellow stakes which indicates in the rules of golf that they are water hazards. You always have the option of playing it, if you remembered to bring your swimsuit, although in some cases the committee can prohibit this if it is an environmentally sensitive area (or they don’t want to see you in your Speedos). These lakes are rather deep though so let’s look at what options remain. Rule 26-1 says that you have 2 options:

a) you can replay the tee shot with a penalty of 1 shot or

b) you can drop a ball for a penalty of 1 shot keeping the point where the ball last crossed into the hazard and the hole/flagstick in line and move back as far as you wish on that line

Option B is probably not going to be practical in this situation as a drive into lakes 1 and 2 would result in dropping back on the teeing area again in the best case and advancing very little. So in most cases it would be best to take option A and replay the drive from a tee peg.

Going in hazard number 4 is a little more complicated. A lateral water hazard (red) generally runs to the side of a hole and because option B is usually not possible the rules give you another:

c) you can drop for a penalty of one shot within 2 club lengths of where the ball crossed into the hazard, but not nearer to the hole

The problem we have on hole 1 is that this hazard is mostly lateral and it is shared with the 18th hole. However, a part of it requires you to cross over the hazard with a drive to the fairway. So if your drive takes this line but doesn’t make it over to the fairway it is deemed to have crossed the yellow stakes. You can use option A, B or use the drop zone provided just before the hazard (green line).

If your ball did cross over but later crossed into the red lateral part you can use the additional option C (purple line). If you are unsure, always use the drop zone to avoid dispute.

Also, a point worth knowing, is that in the case that your ball enters the red lateral hazard from the 18th side, the rules allow you to drop on either side of the hazard as long as it is not closer to the hole (orange line). Therefore you can drop back on the 1st hole, not that a shot that bad deserves it but there is nothing wrong with using the rules to your advantage; the trick is knowing them.

If you have any questions regarding this or any other rule, don’t hesitate to ask me. Here you can find the link to Rule 26 on the R&A website.

http://www.randa.org/Rules-of-Golf/MainRules/26-Water-Hazards-Including-Lateral-Water-Hazards/SubRules/1-Relief-for-Ball-in-Water-Hazard