Yellow stakes and red stakes

Played a round at Ponderosa (in Johor, Malaysia in case you’re interested) few days ago because we were given to understand that Seniors on Tuesdays pay only 90 Ringgit (the RM$ ie Malaysian dollah, lah). But not so. That promotion over, the counter receptionist said. Now how often have we heard that before?

Anyway, since there, we paid the RM120 green fee (shared buggy and RM20 lunch voucher included) which was a good 33% above what I was prepared to pay. We were 4 – Foo, Charlee, his wife Flo, and I. As usual I ended up having to pay some ‘bet’ ringgit.

We always learn something (about the game, rules, playing partners, etc) when playing golf. Actually Charlee said that in Jusco when we were browsing its famasi (or was it in Tesco, we dropped into both); and not about golf but about something else ... . .. was it about tongkat ali pills? can’t remember.

Back to what’s on my mind for this post. We were all pretty blur regarding the finer details of water hazard, lateral water hazard, the options for them, dan lain lain lagi. I was taught in school half a century ago that that means ‘etc, etc’. Is it?

So someone has to get it clarified, the Rule(s) ie. I was tasked since Foo’s very busy working every day and Charlee’s very busy practising golf every other day (yup he took my ringgit that day as he went par, par, par first three holes).

OK, so here goes. I am quite sure about the following statements.

Yellow stakes and red stakes mark water hazards and lateral water hazards respectively. Interestingly, red stakes also mark the jungle at the Desaru Golf and Country Club’s course. A water hazard is usually in front of you as you play to the green and you have to crack one over the air. Sorry, can’t resist that, ha ha, gotcha! ‘air’ in bahasa Melayu, lah, means water. A lateral WH on the other hand is water to your side as you play to the green for example, a canal or huge drain like those at Laguna NG&CC (actually only one canal but a few holes run parallel to it) and you do not have to hit over the LWH to carry on to the green. You may choose to hit over the LWH though, if you elect the 4th option.

What to do after all the @#!??*%$@# following the splash and sniggering water ripples? If they were yellow stakes (ie WH), you may wade in and hit the ball out (and give away the British Open title), or go back to the spot where you last hit the ball and hit your next shot (drop a ball if through the green, or tee one if off the tee box), or imagine a line between the hole and the point where ball crossed water edge and drop a ball anywhere as far back as you like on an extension of this line away from the hole.

If they were red stakes (ie LWH), you may hit the ball in the water, hit it off the point where you last hit the ball, hit it off the line extension (as described in last para), or two club lengths from water edge or two club lengths from water edge on the other side of the LWH. This last option ie the two club lengths option on this or that side of the water edge is only for LWH.

To speed up play, and because many social golfers refuse to play by the Rules, many clubs provide a demarcated Drop Zone before the yellow stakes and near to the buggy track of course for you to hit your next. I couldn’t find anything about drop zone in the Royal & Ancient or the USGA Rules of Golf, so DZ is probably not legal. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the pros at a DZ on tv golf.

Ah! One more thing about water hazards. As in a bunker (which is the other type of hazard), one may not touch the water with the club, which is equivalent to that rule against grounding the club in a bunker.
I shall continue to play by them as described above until corrected by some kind golfers.

If you wish to check it (or confuse) yourselves further, click here for the Royal & Ancient golf rules website, and here for the USGA golf rules website. They are the two temples of golf which all golfers and hackers must visit to settle their differences.

Or make it easier for yourselves; click here for the rules made simple, and here for about.com’s usga golf rules explained.