Sure, you’ve been playing golf for awhile, right? You think you know the rules — or at least how you and your crew play every Saturday morning. But do you really? Time to find out, with a simple primer on what is absolutely no one’s favorite topic:
Hazard stakes.
Q: What do the different colored stakes on a golf course mean?
A: The different colored stakes on a golf course indicate different areas of the course where you may not be able to play your ball from. The three most common colors of stakes are white, red, and yellow.
White stakes indicate out of bounds. If your ball comes to rest in an area marked by white stakes, you must take stroke and distance relief. This means that you must go back to the spot where you last hit your ball and add one penalty stroke. Alternatively, you may also use the recently added Local Rule, which allows you to take to the edge of the fairway no closer to the hole, along with two penalty strokes.
Red stakes indicate lateral hazards. If your ball comes to rest in an area marked by red stakes, you have four options for relief:
1. Play the ball as it lies – no penalty
2. Stroke and distance – go back to the spot you last played from-
one penalty stroke
3. Drop a ball within two club lengths of where it last crossed the
margin of the penalty area – one penalty stroke
4. Back on the line relief- drop a ball on the extension of the line keeping the point that it last crossed the margin of the penalty area and the hole in line. Ball must come to rest within one club
length of that spot – one penalty stroke
Yellow stakes indicate water hazards. If your ball comes to rest in an area marked by yellow stakes, you have three options for relief:
1. Play the ball as it lies – no penalty
2. Stroke and distance – go back to the spot you last played from –
one penalty stroke
3. Back on the line relief – same as above – one penalty stroke
Well? How’d you do? We thought so. But when it comes to stakes, the best rule is to just keep it between the pipes! Good luck and hit ’em straight.
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