Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Out of Bounds Rule

I’ve noticed a lot of confusion, during casual rounds of golf, about the  Out of Bounds / Lost Ball rule.  It seems clear to me per rule 27 of The Rules of Golf that if you hit a ball out of bounds, or lose a ball, you must take a one stroke penalty and then play another shot from where the ball was last played.  Obviously, you don’t want to walk all the way back to the tee during a Sunday round if you forgot to hit a provisional ball.  But I believe the key point is that it is not proper to just take a drop at the place where a ball goes out of bounds, like you would for a ball going into a water hazard.  This is like giving yourself a free advance of 200 yards, if I am interpreting the rule correctly.