If you play at a course with a lot of water, you’ll be more than familiar with penalty areas.
But penalty areas aren’t just rivers, lakes and streams.
According to The R&A, penalty areas are “bodies of water or other areas defined by the Committee where a ball is often lost or unable to be played.”
The term “penalty areas” is relatively new, and was introduced in 2019 to replace “water hazards”. This change in terminology was done to:
- Expand hazards to include areas that don’t contain water
- Speed up pace of play
- Make it safer when your ball lands somewhere where it’s hard to find or play
Red vs yellow penalty areas
Penalty areas are defined as either red or yellow, and that determines what relief options you have if you hit your ball in a penalty area.
If you land in a yellow penalty area (marked with yellow lines or yellow stakes), you have two options to take relief. Or three if you land in a red penalty area (marked with red lines or red stakes).
If the penalty area hasn’t been marked out, you should treat it as red.
How to take a drop from penalty areas
As we’ve already mentioned, the relief options you have when you land in a penalty area depend on whether it’s marked as red or yellow.
You can take relief even if you can’t find your ball in the hazard.
In a yellow penalty area, for one penalty shot you can:
- Play it again from where you hit the original shot.
- Identify where the ball entered the penalty area – this is your point of entry. Go as far back as you like on a straight line with the hole and point of entry and drop your ball.
In a red penalty area, for one penalty shot you can:
- Play it again from where you hit the original shot.
- Identify where the ball entered the penalty area – this is your point of entry. Go as far back as you like on a straight line with the hole and point of entry and drop your ball.
- Estimate the point where the ball last crossed the penalty area. Drop the ball two club lengths (no nearer the hole) from that point.
Playing your ball in penalty area
Under Rule 17, your ball is in a penalty area when “any part of it lies on or touches the ground or anything else inside the edge of the penalty area, or is above the edge or any other part of the penalty area.”
But you don’t have to take relief if you hit the ball into a playing area. You can play it as lies.
And that’s where the biggest differences are between penalty areas and former water hazards.
If you play it as it lies from a penalty area, the same rules apply as if you were playing the ball from the fairway or the rough. That means you can:
- Remove loose impediments – like dried grass or stones.
- Take a practice swing and hit the ground in a penalty area.
- Ground your club before you hit your shot.
- Stand in a penalty area to play your ball, even after you’ve taken relief.