Sue’s Rules with Answer for Our Friends in Ely, Nevada and White Pine Golf Club

Welcome back to another Sue’s Rules, with Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame rules official Sue May. She is also a top Southern Nevada Golf Association and United States Golf Association rules official. She writes this week about a question from our friends in Ely, Nevada, and White Pine Golf Club.

From Sue: This situation happened to my friend, Linda, in Ely and twice at the recent SNGA Reflection Bay Amateur.

Question: A player hits a ball into the Red Penalty Area. The player tries to hit the ball from the RPA and it stays in there. After trying 3 more times to hit the ball out of the RPA it becomes unplayable. Now What?

Sue’s Ruling: We know a player can’t take an Unplayable Lie in a Penalty Area so the Rules of Golf accommodate that by letting you bring your ball out of the RPA costing you one penalty stroke.

The player now has all the same options they had when the ball originally entered the RPA. Those would be back-on-line relief, 2 club-lengths from the line no closer to the hole or stroke-and- distance dropping in the Penalty Area where you made your last stroke from.

There is an extra option which would be playing a ball from where the last stroke was made from outside the RPA.