From 1st January 2019, water hazards are called penalty areas and no longer have to contain water.  They can be marked by yellow or red stakes and the options are as before with one exception.

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If your ball is in a penalty area – marked by yellow stakes, you may:

 

• play the ball as it lies,

 

or under penalty of one stroke:

 

• drop any distance behind the penalty area (keeping the point at which the original ball crossed the margin of the penalty area directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped)

 

  or

 

• replay the shot.

 

In a lateral penalty area – marked by red stakes you may:

 

• follow any of the options above

 

or also under penalty of one stroke:

 

• drop within two club-lengths of the point where the ball last crossed the penalty area

 

  The following option NO LONGER applies:

 

• drop within two club-lengths at a point on the opposite side of the hazard margin equidistant from the hole (from where the ball last crossed the hazard).