Golf Water Hazards

Water hazards 1
All that glisters is not necessarily a water hazard - they can be dry ditches or vast lakes. But whatever form they take there's a certain procedure to follow if you find yourself in one.

The rules are quite specific about what is defined as a water hazard. The term includes sea, lakes, ponds, rivers and ditches. Surface drainage ditches or other open water courses -whether or not containing water -are also included in the definition. Casual water - any temporary patch of water - is not deemed a water hazard, and has its own rule.

The margin of a water hazard extends upwards and downwards, and the margin itself is counted as part of the hazard.

Margins should be clearly defined by yellow stakes or lines, since it's important that you should be able to decide whether you are in or out of the hazard. Lateral water hazards - like a ditch running down the side of a hole - are defined by red stakes or lines.

Your choices
If your ball lies in a water hazard you have to take one of three options.

•     You may play the ball as it lies, without penalty. You may be able to play it if the water hazard is dry -not all hazards contain water all the time. Indeed in parts of Spain and Australia it is the rule rather than the exception to find river beds dry.

•     Your second option, and the one you usually have to take, is to drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point where your original ball crossed the margin directly between the hole and where you drop it. You may go back as far as you like on this line - the penalty is 1 stroke.

•     Your third option is to play again from as near as possible to where your last shot was played, again adding a penalty of 1 stroke. This is proceeding as if you had lost a ball or hit out of bounds. Although you will not normally want to do this, there may be occasions when the previous options are less attractive. If you lose a ball in a water hazard, this does not affect your score. However, there must be reasonable evidence that the ball was lost there and not elsewhere.

Points to watch
If you opt to play your ball from within a water hazard, bear in mind that you must not remove loose impediments or touch the ground with your club before you hit the ball.

It is all too easy to forget this as you try to take a stance when perched awkwardly on the steep bank of a water hazard, but it will cost you the hole in matchplay or 2 strokes in stroke play if you do so.

Although you may not touch the ground, there is no penalty if your club touches any obstruction - or any grass or bush - at address or on your back swing.

Water hazards 2
The rules for lateral water are slightly different from those covering ordinary water hazards, so make sure you're clear about how to recognize a lateral hazard and what to do if your ball lands in one.

A lateral water hazard is one that is located where it is not possible to drop the ball behind it in accordance with the normal rules for water hazards.

If your ball comes to rest or is lost in a lateral water hazard you have the option of playing your ball as it lies from within the hazard if you think that is possible. You must not ground your club or remove loose impediments.

Take a drop
You may also drop another ball where you played your last shot, and proceed under the stroke and distance penalty. So far your choices are the same as when your ball lies in an ordinary water hazard.

Your third option is different. In the case of a lateral water hazard, you may drop your ball within two club lengths of either the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the hazard or a point on the opposite margin of the hazard the same distance from the hole.

Your ball must be dropped and come to rest not nearer the hole than the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the lateral water hazard.

As with all balls lifted and dropped from water hazards, there is a penalty of one shot. When you lift the ball under this rule, you may clean it if you wish to.

How can you be certain that what appears to you to be a lateral water hazard actually is one? Whereas water hazards are marked with yellow stakes or lines, lateral water hazards are marked with red ones.

Which color?
Be careful - some water hazards may be lateral for part of their length and ordinary water hazard for the rest. The colors of the stakes tell you where the change comes in such cases.

Being able to drop your ball on the green side of a lateral water hazard may sometimes have considerable advantages. Remember that when you drop within the two club lengths, the ball may roll up to another two club lengths from where you drop it provided that it finishes not nearer the hole.

Casual water
Most golfers are aware that they can claim relief without penalty from casual water. But there is often uncertainty about what exactly it is and how relief should be taken.

Casual water is any temporary accumulation of water on the course which is visible before or after you takes your stance to hit a shot. It may occur anywhere on the course, except in what is already defined as a water hazard. Dew is not casual water, but you have the choice of treating snow and ice as either casual water or loose impediments.

Your ball does not have to lie in the water for you to claim relief. If the water affects your stance you may take relief even if the ball is lying clear of the pool. Once you are on the green, you are allowed relief if the water is on the line of your putt.

But what about borderline cases? What is classed as casual water? Soft, mushy turf is not casual water, unless water is visible on the surface before or after you take your stance.

That is the key point-water must be visible on the surface of the ground. Often you find that water wells up around the soles of your shoes when you take your stance, even when it wasn't previously visible. If so, you are entitled to relief. But you must take your normal stance - pressing down hard with one foot to make water appear is cheating.

On many courses water overflows from water hazards, particularly during the winter months. Players are sometimes uncertain whether this is casual water or part of the hazard. There should be no difficulty, because the limits of the water hazard are properly defined by yellow or red posts. Any overflow of water which is outside this margin is casual water, and you may take relief without penalty.

How to take relief
For casual water through the green you find the nearest point which is not nearer the hole, gives relief from the water and is not in a hazard or on a green. Then you drop your ball within one club length of this point.

In a bunker you drop the ball at a spot not nearer the hole which gives relief from the water but is still in the bunker. Relief is not always possible from casual water in bunkers. If the free drop gives you nowhere reasonable to play from within the bunker, you may drop outside, under penalty of 1 stroke. You must keep the point where the ball lay directly between you and the hole.

On the green you lift your ball and place it in the nearest position which gives relief and is not nearer the hole or in a hazard. Remember that you must take the nearest position when pools of water lie on the green. Many players move to the line which they think gives the easiest putt, rather than taking the nearest point of relief. You may clean the ball when you lift it.

Bear in mind that you must be on the putting surface to claim relief from casual water which is on your line. If your ball comes to rest just off the green, you must tackle the problem of water between you and the hole without claiming relief.

You may lose a ball in large amounts of casual water. In that case you take relief without penalty, proceeding from the point where your ball passed the margin of the casual water. There must be reasonable evidence that your ball was lost in the water for you to claim relief. Otherwise you treat the ball as lost with the usual penalties.