Why play a ball in a water hazard?

[B-Con]

Is there a local rule where if your ball goes near a gator but not in a hazard you can re-play your shot or something?

Play the ball as it lies, darn it!

Although... that looks to me like the perfect candidate for an unplayable lie.

[Fourputt]

This is ALL about where the drop will be vs where the shot out of the water is relative to the green. It's a Lateral Hazard...

As long as you advance it

out of the hazard, then yes you can then declare it unplayable. The key point is that it must no longer lie in a water hazard. I can only think of a single situation where that would be preferable over just taking the drop from the hazard in the first place, and that's if the drop would be so far back or in such a position that you might be likely to hit the ball back into the hazard.

[Mrd19abhs]

Well Im a few days late, but here are just a small selection of my fellow reptiles on the golf course lol

So I know the first one is @ heritage Isle on the 18th cause i was in the cart about to leave you as your were trying to inch closer and closer and i believe the second one is @ diamond hil on the 2nd. but where are picture three and four from?

[Clambake]

Looks like a movable obstruction to me. Just grab the little guy by the tail, drag him out of the way, and play the ball as it lies!

[B-Con]

Looks like a movable obstruction to me. Just grab the little guy by the tail, drag him out of the way, and play the ball as it lies!

I think they need a new classification of obstruction: the "Technically Movable but Preferably Not" Obstruction.

[kpaulhus]

So I know the first one is @ heritage Isle on the 18th cause i was in the cart about to leave you as your were trying to inch closer and closer and i believe the second one is @ diamond hil on the 2nd. but where are picture three and four from?

2,3 , and 4 are at Diamond Hill

[Befree2t]

I need help with a rule. My ball landed on the far banking of a ravine marked with yellow stakes. I wanted to hit a provisional just in case I could not find the ball and play it from within the hazard. I was told that you cannot hit a provisional ball when your ball lands in a hazard. True??

[zeg]

I need help with a rule. My ball landed on the far banking of a ravine marked with yellow stakes. I wanted to hit a provisional just in case I could not find the ball and play it from within the hazard. I was told that you cannot hit a provisional ball when your ball lands in a hazard. True??

Yes. If you know or are virtually certain that your ball is in a hazard, you must play by the water hazard rule. You are only entitled to a provisional when you "honestly and reasonably" believe your ball may be lost outside a hazard (I use quotes because these terms don't appear in the rules, but that's essentially the test that you need to apply). If there is a reasonable belief that your ball may be lost outside the hazard, you may play the provisional.

In your case, unless there's reason to believe your ball will be lost outside the hazard (e.g., thick underbrush very near the far side of the bank where the ball came down), you are probably not entitled to a provisional. See the Decisions for 27-2a for more details, in particular 27-2a/3.

[tigerwoo14]

I got the ball into the water hazard which is dry. The ball landed in a hole among some rocks. The lie around the ball is better than out of the hazard. Am I allowed to take a drop of two club length and play from the hazard? My flightmate said the ball had to be played outside the hazard. Please advise.

[Lofty Lefty]

One of the best shots of my life was out of a water hazard. Ball was sitting ok on top of some flattened reed like flora. The green was totally obscured by trees. I took 9i pure, over the trees and to about 4 feet. Made the putt for birdie.

Another guy in the group was also in the hazard, not far from my ball. He tried playing out of it and messed it up...

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by tigerwoo14

I got the ball into the water hazard which is dry. The ball landed in a hole among some rocks. The lie around the ball is better than out of the hazard. Am I allowed to take a drop of two club length and play from the hazard? My flightmate said the ball had to be played outside the hazard. Please advise.

Your mate was right.  If you take relief for a ball in a hazard, then you must drop outside of the hazard, the ball must come to rest outside of the hazard and not closer to the hole than the point where it last crossed into the hazard.  Where the ball lies within the hazard is irrelevant to determining your point of relief.

[namkrats]

I was in south carolina in february and Im from Canada so i had never seen a gator and you wouldn't believe how quickly i played my shot. The gator was probably thirty feet away but i didn't care.

[TourSpoon]

It was never the gators that bothered me unless they are sunbathing on the shore, it is the water mocassins (cottonmouth).  I had my ball land a few feet from one and I walked up on it.  I gave him a wide berth and called dangerous animal rule.  I have played out of many hazards before, but only once or twice with the ball partially submerged.  Playing off the bank is no big deal and if you can advance your ball to a decent position without too much trouble you should play it.

[tigerwoo14]

Hi Thanks for reply. I should mention that I didnt mind a penalty drop but would like to play in the hazard. Playing outside the hazard is not fair to me. My question is why cannot play in the hazard with a penalty drop?

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by tigerwoo14

Hi Thanks for reply. I should mention that I didnt mind a penalty drop but would like to play in the hazard. Playing outside the hazard is not fair to me. My question is why cannot play in the hazard with a penalty drop?

Because that's what the rule says.  If you are going to take relief from a hazard, then you must take it outside of the hazard.  That's it.  No other option if your ball lies in the hazard.

Sometimes the only answer is because it's what the rule says.  Why can you clean your ball when it's on the green, but not in the fairway?  Because that's the rule.

[B-Con]

Because that's what the rule says. If you are going to take relief from a hazard, then you must take it outside of the hazard. That's it. No other option if your ball lies in the hazard. Sometimes the only answer is because it's what the rule says. Why can you clean your ball when it's on the green, but not in the fairway? Because that's the rule. :doh:

But there's a reason the rule exists, they didn't make this decision nor the ball cleaning one arbitrarily. I think that's what he's asking about. [quote name="tigerwoo14" url="/t/39581/why-play-a-ball-in-a-water-hazard/18#post_664952"] Hi Thanks for reply. I should mention that I didnt mind a penalty drop but would like to play in the hazard. Playing outside the hazard is not fair to me. My question is why cannot play in the hazard with a penalty drop? [/quote] The ideas behind bunkers and hazards aren't arbitrary, they embody simple "danger zone" concepts found in all types of games: [list] [*] bunker - The "you should avoid here" enforced by the "slow down" concept, in golf meaning you usually want to avoid bunkers but your only penalty is increased difficulty of your shot. -- You are supposed to be able to get out, but if you land in of these zones, you are penalized with a harder shot. [*] hazard - The "you're not allowed here" enforced by the "you lost a point" concept, here meaning you pretty much never want to intentionally put your ball in a hazard but when you do so your penalty is to penalize your score and continue playing from near the "danger zone". -- You aren't really supposed to be able to get out, but in practice sometimes you can due to the practicalities of hazards not perfectly matching the actual water boundaries (and sometimes the water's completely MIA). [/list] These are simple ideas, games have always had this kind of different types of "danger zone" in them. Grease spots in racing games, "go back to start", etc. There are two types of places, places you "shouldn't" go and places you "can't go". They're usually enforced by "it gets harder" and "you lose points" type penalties. So thinking about the principle of the hazard, if you actually have the luxury of playing your ball in a hazard, all bets are off. You shouldn't be in there and, in theory, you probably should be taking a penalty, but a fundamental principle in golf is that you are allowed to play your ball if you can, so if you can get away with playing from it from the hazard then you're allowed to. But in doing so, any inconvenience you encounter is a part of the penalty for being in the hazard to begin with. The fact that you're even hitting from there is actually a bit of luck on your part. That's why you don't get relief. So your viewpoint that "playing outside the hazard is not fair" is what's wrong, because the concept of the rules is that "playing outside the hazard" is actually the goal. Being able to play it from inside the hazard at all is bonus luck. Your hazard didn't eat your ball up, but the same principle of golf is still at work.

[Fourputt]

It's more a case of the original intent of the rule - when you were in a water hazard, you were in water.  In years past, courses didn't have the nice markings we have now to define water hazards and lateral water hazards.  You were either in water in the hazard, or if your ball wasn't in water, then you weren't in the hazard.  If you were in water, you had either the poor choice of playing the ball as it lay, or taking relief and adding a penalty stroke for the privilege of getting out of the hazard.  Since you were taking a penalty, you were entitled to compete relief from the hazard, and you were subsequently required to take relief outside of the hazard.  It was generally felt that it would be stupid to take the penalty and then drop the ball back in the water.   That thinking has been carried over to today's game, even though we now have many water hazards which have playable areas which are within the marked margin of the hazard, but outside of the water itself.

[BuckeyeNut]

Originally Posted by soloredd

Saw some old highlights of players hitting their ball out of a water hazard (like a lake or stream). Is taking a drop really that big of a deal? In almost all cases, the player either whiffed, hit it out only to see it roll back in the water, or some other bad result.

Because sometimes taking a drop isn't the best option.........

This water shot won the Players for Bill............