Using club to get ball out of ground under repair or casual water

[trackster]

We have had a ton of rain in my hometown this year and the course is suffering for it.  There has been many times that my ball has found casual water (more like a 10 ft by 10 ft newly built pond in the middle of the fairway).  And instead of getting my shoes extremely wet i will just take my club and try to fish it out.

If you declare your ball that it is in casual water or ground under repair or what ever.  Then can you legally just use a club to fish it out.  Or is the club coming into contact with the ball some sort of stroke or something.

[luu5]

Originally Posted by trackster

If you declare your ball that it is in casual water or ground under repair or what ever.  Then can you legally just use a club to fish it out.  Or is the club coming into contact with the ball some sort of stroke or something.

You can fish it out for identification purposes.

For a stroke, you have to first correctly address the ball, and I guess you have not done so when fishing it out.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by trackster

We have had a ton of rain in my hometown this year and the course is suffering for it.  There has been many times that my ball has found casual water (more like a 10 ft by 10 ft newly built pond in the middle of the fairway).  And instead of getting my shoes extremely wet i will just take my club and try to fish it out.

If you declare your ball that it is in casual water or ground under repair or what ever.  Then can you legally just use a club to fish it out.  Or is the club coming into contact with the ball some sort of stroke or something.

You can use whatever you'd like to retrieve the ball. You're not taking a practice stroke at the ball.

However, I'd be careful about one thing: how are you marking the original position of the ball? Are you determining nearest point of relief (NPOR) prior to moving the ball, and marking that range (the NPOR plus a clublength)?