Transcripts - Episode 19: Penalty Areas Explained - Red Stakes vs Yellow Stakes

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Now, here’s your host, Corey, with another episode of the Birdie Board podcast.

Welcome back to the Birdie Board podcast. This is episode 19. Wow. So I do about an episode every week. That means I’ve been doing this now for 19 weeks. 20. The next achievement that I’m kind of aiming for is 25 episodes, which I’m really excited about.

I have seen a little bit of a turn in the downloads for the better, that is. In the last three days, we’ve gotten 10 downloads, which might not seem like a lot, but for a new podcast, I think 10 downloads in three days is pretty good. We’re approaching 250 downloads overall across all the episodes. So I’m just going to keep it up.

And I think that speaks pretty well to the podcast, just because it has mostly been during the winter. So probably not a ton of people are into just the golf podcast or just golf in general right now, especially with the football season. I know that in my mind, a lot of times, the end of football season marks the start of my golf season. I think that’s the same for a lot of other people too.

I don’t do that as much anymore because I’m just honestly into golf year-round now, but I know that throughout my life that has been the case. And I think it’s really natural too with just the weather. It’s been freezing in the Northeast, like below 15 degrees. So last week we had a foot of snow. I know most of the country has snow right now. So there’s just not much golf being played.

But like I’ve been doing all along, it’s a great time for learning. Definitely practicing if you have the ability. I talk about that on other podcasts. But I think everyone can spend some time learning. And one of the things that I’ve done in a lot of these episodes is sharing rules.

In this episode, we are going to talk about the penalty area. Now, there’s two main types of penalty areas. It’s yellow stakes and red stakes. Usually yellow stakes are around water hazards or things like that, where red stakes tend to be around boundaries or wooded areas or something like that. It’s not a hard rule, but that tends to be what these penalty areas are.

Note that a white stake does not count as a penalty area. A white stake is out of bounds. It’s treated differently. I’ll cover that in a different episode. In this episode, I’m just talking about penalty areas, which are red stakes and yellow stakes.

So what defines being in a penalty area? Well, it starts with looking at the edge. A ball is in a penalty area as soon as it touches its edge. So if you’re playing at a really nice course, you might actually see red or yellow spray paint around the penalty area on the ground. If your ball is touching any part of that spray paint, then it’s pretty easy.

I don’t think many of us have had scenarios where our ball is right on the line. Or if we are right on the line, a lot of times it’s just in grass and you end up playing it anyway. So it’s something to be aware of, I guess, in those edge cases, like, am I in the penalty area or not?

And really what it does is it lets you decide whether or not you want to enforce any of the penalty rules, which I’ll get into later in this episode. But it’s important to realize what the edge is because that’s really what defines where a penalty area is.

I play a lot of courses though that won’t have that red or yellow spray paint on the ground, and I just have to look at two stakes that are nearby, two red stakes or two yellow stakes, and mentally draw a straight line between them and try to determine the penalty area from that.

So if you’ve hit your ball towards a penalty area and you aren’t exactly sure if it’s actually in the penalty area or not, here’s an example when that would happen. Imagine you’re looking at a lake and there’s a big bush on the side of the lake. Half of the bush is in the lake, half of it’s not. And the penalty area for the yellow stakes goes through this bush. So your ball could be outside the bush, or outside the penalty area in the bush, or inside the penalty area in a bush.

And you hit it towards that bush and you honestly just have no idea whether it’s in or out. I think this is one of those rules that really tests integrity because you technically, according to the rules, do not have the option to consider it in that penalty area. Your only option in that case is to re-hit it from your current spot for a one-stroke penalty.

Now the reason I say it tests integrity is because I think it could be very subjective and opinionated whether or not the possibility of your ball is actually in a penalty area. Obviously, most times it’s just clear cut, it is or it isn’t. But if you hit it in the bush and you’re just not sure, the correct way to approach that is not assume that it’s in the penalty area and also not assume that it’s out of the penalty area, but actually just drop another ball where you currently are and hit another shot with a one-stroke penalty.

It’s important to realize too, you don’t get a provisional ball option in this case. You actually don’t get a provisional ball option in any penalty case that’s used elsewhere. Now, if you’re concerned about pace of play, I would definitely encourage you to do a provisional ball, especially if it’s a casual round. It’s not going to matter that much. Take a provisional ball up to the penalty area, look for your ball. If it’s not there, then go ahead and you can play your provisional ball.

So it’s not a common thing that you should do because I think in most cases you should be able to go up to the penalty area and try to find your ball. Or you know if it’s like a yellow stake, you saw it splash in the water or something like that. We’re all casual golfers here. If you don’t know if you’re going to be able to find your ball in a penalty area, just go ahead and play the provisional and try to get as close to the rules as possible, just to keep that pace of play.

So we’re still reviewing just general penalty area facts and knowledge gaps here. The next thing is to understand what options you have if you are in a penalty area. And you basically have two options. It’s really simple.

So if you’re in a yellow stake area or a red stake area, you have two options. One, you can play your ball without penalty. This is a very common thing you can do in red stake areas. Like I said, with yellow, usually it’s like a water hazard. So unless you can play it out of the water, or it’s right on the edge, it’s usually not an option. But you can play your ball out of either penalty area.

I think that’s something people don’t always realize, especially with yellow, is that they can play out of a yellow penalty area. So this is one of those golf knowledge tidbits that is really useful and could save you strokes in your game, that you can play your ball out of a red or yellow penalty area without penalty.

The other option you have is to take a one-stroke penalty, and that’s it. Now I’m going to go into how to properly take that one-stroke penalty, but we can keep it that simple, where if you’re in a penalty area, you have two things you need to remember. One, you can play it as it lies. Or two, you have the option for a one-stroke penalty, and that’s it.

Now when you go into a penalty area, let’s say you decide you want to take the one-stroke penalty, which might be the best option for you in that case rather than play it, or maybe it is just lost in a yellow stake area. So let’s dive into what the different stakes are and how you can take penalty in those areas.

And we’re going to start with the yellow stake because the red stake is just a superset of the rules for the yellow stake.

So the first thing you can do is go straight back on the extension line from the hole to the entry point where the ball went in the hazard. So if your ball, let’s say you shank it kind of to the left, it crosses the edge of the yellow penalty area into the water. Now you can go over to where it crossed and you can go straight back from there in line with the flag. So go where it crossed, face yourself at the flag, and you can walk straight back from there as far as you want.

Or you can re-hit from your previous spot. Something to keep in mind though is you can’t drop in line with your previous spot. It has to be in line with the flag.

So that’s the rule for your first option. And then the second option is you can just re-hit it from your last spot.

I think a lot of times, unless the angle between you and the flag is just terrible, the better option would be going up to where your ball crossed into the penalty area and dropping it there for the one-stroke penalty instead of dropping it back at your original spot.

And I’m not even going to say it’s because of pace of play. Let’s set that aside for a minute. But strategically, let’s talk about why that might be the better option in a lot of cases. Well, it advances you toward the hole. And with yellow stakes, a lot of times you still can drop your ball in line with staying in line with the flag on fairway or giving yourself a good lie.

Now like I said, if you kind of have a bad angle and your straight-back line is just all rough, or maybe it gets into other hazards or something like that, then you might have a better option to just drop at your old spot. But I think in a lot of cases it would be the better option for you to just drop in line with the flag.

So for yellow stakes, you have two options. One, you can go back on the extension line from the hole to the entry point of where your ball went into the yellow penalty area. Or two, you can re-hit it from your previous spot.

So that takes us to the red stakes now. And the key thing to remember is those two rules that I just talked about are the first two rules for red stakes. So if you understand those, just take them and apply them to the red stake as well.

So for a red stake, your first two options are to drop on the extension line between where your ball crossed in and the flag, or two, you can re-hit it.

Now you get a third option with a red penalty area, which is to drop within two club lengths of where the ball went in. Note that depending on the angle of where your ball is relative to the hole, this could be the same or could be different from the extension line.

So again, to figure out the extension line, look at the hole, look at the flag, turn around 180 degrees, and walk straight that way. That’s the extension line. So that could be at a different angle than if you dropped two club lengths from where you crossed, which could be the opposite direction of the extension line, or more to the left, or more to the right.

So that’s what that rule is. It’s almost more of an advantage to the golfer where they have this other option. Still one-stroke penalty, but something else to consider with this.

Now something to keep in mind is there are sometimes local rules that grant additional dropping options like a drop zone or something like that. So keep your eye out for that on the holes you are on. There’s also sometimes, especially for yellow stakes, it could be a protected area. And in those cases you sometimes are not allowed to take the free drop, or maybe the course rule says you can move the ball without penalty. That’s not super common, but those things are just to be aware of, like sometimes your course will have some specific rules around these penalty areas that you want to be on the lookout for.

So let’s talk about a couple rules now when you’re inside of a penalty area. So the first thing is similar to elsewhere on the course, is trying to identify a ball. Besides being like on the middle of fairway where it’s a little more obvious, you might actually want to consider this rule when you’re in a penalty area because penalty areas aren’t exactly manicured like the rest of the course.

So the thing about identifying the ball, one thing to add is if you’re in a red stake area or something like that, you might see a lot of different golf balls for people who haven’t played their ball out of that area. So identifying your ball is important, and there is by the rules a proper way to do it.

And what you do is you put a marker down where your ball is, or where you think the ball is, pick it up, clean it just enough so you can identify it if you need to see if it’s yours, and then if not, put it back where the marker is and recreate the lie as accurately as possible. It’s the actual mechanics of properly identifying your ball really anywhere on the course. You can apply this anywhere, but it’s really relevant when you’re in a penalty area where there could be a lot of other ball options or it could be muddy or something like that where you do need to see if it actually is your ball.

So if you do decide to play the ball as it lies, you don’t get quite the liberties that you might elsewhere on the course. So you just have to accept the lie as it is. And what that means is you can’t break off anything growing, you can’t move big grass out of the way, you can’t do any of that to make your swing better. If you do any of that it would be a two-stroke penalty in normal tournament rules.

Now there are no grounding penalties, unlike bunkers. So you can ground your club inside of a penalty area. Or if you’re on the edge of water and it’s sandy, technically it’s not sand, it’s a penalty area, usually yellow, but you are allowed to ground your club in those areas.

So let’s talk about kind of an odd one, maybe most relevant for courses in Florida, but if there’s a dangerous situation, I think most commonly this is wildlife. If there’s an alligator or fox or something near your ball, you are allowed to determine the nearest safe spot to drop in the penalty area. That’s key. You have to drop in the penalty area that is not nearer to the hole, but you don’t get a stroke penalty for it.

So this happened to me once before with a fox nearby and it was kind of chilling, but you never know, they could have rabies or something. So I just dropped the ball a little bit farther away in the penalty area and played my next shot without penalty. So it is something that could come up every once in a while.

In a penalty area, if your ball is embedded, it’s just kind of bad luck. That just is what it is. You can’t do anything about it. If it’s not that bad, or maybe the soil is soft or something, you could elect to play it. My advice would probably be to start taking the penalty options depending on the stake color, of course.

But you can either re-hit it, you can drop on the extension line, or if it’s a red stake you can drop two club lengths from the entry point. Probably better than trying to play an embedded ball out of a penalty area.

Like elsewhere in the course, you are allowed to ask for advice about the line of your shot. You just still can’t ask about what club you’d take or anything like that.

You are allowed to move loose impediments, so like things around your ball like twigs, leaves, stones, other natural objects. If your ball does move as a result though, it is a one-stroke penalty, so you will want to be careful. But you are allowed to move some of that stuff out of the way.

If I’m just playing a casual round and there’s tons of rocks or branches or something like that, even under my ball, something along those lines, if I’m playing casually I’ll probably just move all that and then put my ball back exactly where it was without all that stuff there, just so I don’t damage my clubs.

I’m not a pro. I don’t have the ability to buy new clubs every single week. But that’s casual play. I wouldn’t do that if I was ever playing a real tournament.

But it’s something to keep in mind, when I’m going through all these rules, try to play them as closely as possible. It’s great for your score. It’s great for just being able to confidently tell someone how you played at the end of a round. But take the liberties where you can.

I would say some of the liberties I would definitely recommend is if you think your clubs are going to get damaged, make adjustments. If you think you could get hurt in any way, make adjustments. Things like that. I think those are two very key areas, and in casual rounds you should always make adjustments for.

And you can decide whether or not you want to just give yourself a one-stroke penalty. Or like I said, in my situation, I was able to just move the branches and rocks from underneath my ball so I could get a swing, but I was still in the penalty area. So I didn’t assess myself a penalty in that case.

Again, it’s casual golf. Play it how you want to. But these rules are good to understand, especially if you play any actual competition.

So you are allowed to move the stakes out of the way if they’re impeding your shot. And if the stake or the moving of it accidentally moves your ball, maybe it’s like leaning up against it or something like that, you can put your ball back without penalty. So something to know about there.

And then I think the last rule I want to go over is if your ball is inside of a penalty area on an immovable object, so something like a bridge or a pipe or something like that, or puddles or animal holes, something just abnormal course conditions, the ball still has to be played as it lies, but you still have the option of whatever penalty area options it gives you. So again, red or yellow stakes.

And I think the last rule, I have a little rule book I like to go through with you guys. Actually, I have a couple more here I want to go over.

You can’t declare a ball unplayable in a penalty area. You have to follow the rules that that penalty area offers you.

And then these are actually the last three rules I want to go over because this has definitely happened to a lot of people. What happens if you hit your shot, let’s say you decide to play it as it lies, and it doesn’t end up well, and maybe it stays inside the penalty area or you hit it out of bounds? So what do you do in those cases?

Well, you have the same options available to you, but with a little twist. In both of those cases, you can go back to the last shot that you had outside of the penalty area. Now it’s still additional penalty strokes.

So for example, if you play it as it lies, you hit it, and it doesn’t leave the penalty area, well that stroke still counts. So if you want to move on the extension line or back to your previous shot, you would take that one stroke that you hit plus the one penalty, and then you would hit your next stroke there. So it could be a series of three strokes right there.

Chances are, if you struggled getting it out one time, you might want to evaluate that option. It might save you more strokes in the end. But who knows, maybe you didn’t get out of the penalty area, but you’re right on the edge and you can just go ahead and chip it up on the green or something like that.

I know it’s happened to me a ton of times where I try to get out of a penalty area and it didn’t get out. I think the most surprising rule to me I didn’t realize is the last shot that you had outside of the penalty area is where the stake rules apply, and all those options are open to me.

So it’s really good to understand those rules to help you know how to strategize on the course.

So those were the penalty area rules. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and thanks for listening to the Birdie Board podcast.