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September 2007 - Hazards
Anyone who criticizes a golf course is like a person invited to a house for dinner who, on leaving, tells the host that the food was lousy. - Gary Player.
Unlike other outdoor sports such as football, tennis, hockey etc., golf is not conducted on regular playing fields on which conditions are duplicated wherever that particular sport is played. Land occupied by golf courses can vary considerably, often reflecting a particular country's climate, terrain and vegetation.
Areas, the like of which would be unthinkable at venues hosting other sports but which are a major consideration to all golfers, are what the Rules refer to as hazards (see Definitions page 27).
Hazards are the defence mechanism of a golf course and should provide a challenge to the player without being purely punitive.
Water Hazards can be as large as oceans or small, like a stream or a creek, but equally treacherous for the golfer. Bunkers are another type of hazard and they also vary greatly in size and shape.
Special Rules apply when a ball is in any hazard (bunker or water hazard). A player is prohibited from testing the condition of the hazard or similar hazard, he must not touch the ground in the hazard or water in the water hazard with a club or otherwise and loose impediments lying in or touching the hazard cannot be touched or moved. (Rule 13-4).
However, there are some exceptions listed on pages 64 and 65 of the Rule Book. Provided nothing is done that constitutes testing the condition of the hazard or improves the lie of the ball, there is no penalty if the player touches the ground in any hazard or water in a water hazard:
· As a result of or to prevent falling
· In removing an obstruction
· In measuring
· In retrieving, lifting, placing or replacing a ball under any Rule
· By placing his clubs in a hazard
· In smoothing sand or soil in a hazard after making a stroke from the hazard
The note on page 65 tells us that we can touch the following at any time in a hazard, including at address or with the backswing:
· Any obstruction
· Any construction declared by the Committee to be an integral part of the course
· Any grass, bush, tree or other growing thing
Other Rules also apply to hazards. Some to one type of hazard only. For instance:
- Free relief from an immovable obstruction is permitted within a bunker but is denied under Rule 24 from within a water hazard.
- Free relief from an abnormal ground condition (GUR, casual water etc.) is permitted within a bunker but is denied under Rule 25 from within a water hazard.
When a ball cannot be played from within a water hazard and the player elects to drop:
- behind the hazard (or within two club-lengths of a lateral water hazard margin); or,
- at the place where the original ball was played (stroke and distance);
the penalty of one stroke is the equivalent of the recovery stroke which the player might otherwise have played.
In conclusion, a study of Rule 28 (Ball Unplayable) shows that the basic relief options, procedure and penalty prescribed for a ball that is unplayable elsewhere than in a water hazard are the same as those prescribed under Rule 26 (Water Hazards).
However, because it is not always possible to find or positively identify a ball lying within a water hazard, the first sentence of Rule 28 precludes a player from declaring his ball 'unplayable' when it is in a water hazard. A ball in a water hazard must be played as it lies or the player must proceed under Rule 26 (Water Hazards) and add a penalty stroke to his score.
Should the ball lie in the other type of hazard - a bunker - the player is permitted to declare his ball unplayable and proceed under Rule 28 (Ball Unplayable) also with the addition of a penalty stroke to the score (it should be noted that the only option that allows the player to drop out of the bunker is under option (a) of Rule 28 - under options (b) and (c) the ball must still be dropped within the bunker).
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