If you hit your ball into a red penalty area and there is a cart path between the red penalty area and the fairway, you have three options for taking relief:
- Take a stroke-and-distance relief from the position you last played from, with a one-stroke penalty. This option is available for both red and yellow penalty areas. To take relief, drop a ball within one club length of the spot where your previous shot was made, not nearer the hole. (Rule 17.1d)
- Take a back-on-the-line relief with a one-stroke penalty. Drop the ball in a relief area based on a reference line going straight back from the hole through the point where your ball last crossed the margin of the hazard.
- Take a lateral relief (red penalty area only) with a one-stroke penalty. This option is only available for red penalty areas. To take lateral relief, drop a ball within a two-club-length relief area, not nearer the hole. The relief area must be equidistant from the point where your ball last crossed the margin of the red penalty area. If the cart path is within the relief area, you must drop the ball on the cart path first. If the ball rolls outside the relief area, which is on the cart path, you take the drop again. If the same thing occurs, you place the ball at the spot where the second dropped ball struck the ground within the relief area on the cart path. There are two options thereafter. You may play the ball as it lies on the cart path or take free relief from the cart path (Abnormal Course Condition), which allows you to drop the ball within one club-length from the reference point (outside the cart path) but not nearer the hole. (Rule 16.1b)
In the second episode of our rule’s series, “And Now You Know!”, Joyce Lam, SGA Rules Official, covers how to take a relief from a cart path that is next to a water hazard. Check out the video!