Entering Water Hazard Behind 7th Green from 16th Tee
Posted on: 4 February
Entering Water Hazard behind 7th green from 16th tee
A ball played from the 16th tee which is struck toward the hazard behind the 7th green and cannot be found could be in the water hazard. However, it cannot be assumed to be in the hazard simply because it might be in the hazard.
In order to take relief and drop a ball under the water hazard Rule, it must be ‘known or virtually certain’ that the ball is in the hazard. It would be known that the ball is in the hazard if someone saw it land in and stay in the hazard. If your ball could be in the hazard and no one in your group saw it enter the hazard, you could ask players in the vicinity from another group whether anyone saw a ball enter the hazard. If the answer is yes, then you can drop a ball under the water hazard Rule.
Note that, although the hazard is a lateral water hazard (defined by red stakes), you are not limited to dropping within two club-lengths of where the ball last crossed the hazard margin; you can drop behind the hazard, keeping the point where the ball last crossed the hazard margin directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the hazard the ball is dropped. (This option may not be the best on the 16th hole, but when playing the 3rd, for example, it could allow you to drop on a flat lie in the fairway rather than on a slope in the rough under the two club-lengths option).
As mentioned above, apart from knowing that your ball is in a water hazard, you can also drop under the water hazard Rule if it is virtually certain that your ball is in there. Unlike ‘knowledge’, ‘virtual certainty’ implies that there is some small degree of doubt about the actual location of a ball that has not been found. ‘Virtual certainty’ also means that, when all readily available information is considered, it would be justified to conclude that there is nowhere the ball could be except in the water hazard. The factors to be considered include topography, turf conditions, grass heights, visibility and the proximity of trees and bushes.
In order to have virtual certainty that a tee shot from the 16th tee landed in the pond behind the 7th green, you would need to establish that the ball was struck towards the hazard and also struck far and high enough to clear the trees in front of the hazard. The grass would also have to be mown to a height that would allow a ball to be found easily so that it would be justified to conclude that the ball is in the hazard.
If such knowledge or virtual certainty does not exist and your ball is not found, your only option is to return to the tee and play another ball under stroke and distance; i.e. you would be playing your third stroke from the tee.
Approved by GMC
04/02/2015