[KacypeJeope]

Your tee shot ends up resting in a tree root - you make a stroke and fail to move the ball so you decide to deem it unplayable. Are you allowed to return to the tee?

[mas-dkt-sive]

Your tee shot ends up resting in a tree root - you make a stroke and fail to move the ball so you decide to deem it unplayable. Are you allowed to return to the tee?

No. You can only return to where you last played from, which would be nestled in the tree root. You could declare an unplayable condition and take a drop accordingly, but you still incur the stroke you took trying to move the ball from the original position and a penalty stroke for the unplayable. You should have taken the unplayable before you made the stroke trying to get it out.

[forextradinginfo]

Slightly different scenario. The same lie after the tee shot but this time the ball lies in tree roots within the margin of a water hazard. Upon the attempt to play your second stroke at the ball from within the water hazard you fail to move the ball. Can you return to the tee for your next stroke?

[KacypeJeope]

You can't deem your ball unplayable in a water hazard. I'm not sure what you do next. Do you have to drop within the hazard?

[minowz]

So the second shot was played from within the hazard? Is it red or yellow stakes? If it is red you have eliminated a couple of options. The only one you have left is two club lengths from where it entered the hazard no nearer the hole (with a penalty stroke). You may not return to the tee once you have made another stroke from the course.

[forextradinginfo]

You can't deem your ball unplayable in a water hazard. I'm not sure what you do next. Do you have to drop within the hazard?

So the second shot was played from within the hazard? Is it red or yellow stakes? If it is red you have eliminated a couple of options. The only one you have left is two club lengths from where it entered the hazard no nearer the hole (with a penalty stroke). You may not return to the tee once you have made another stroke from the course.

The above questions are irrelevant to the question I asked. But I'll answer them anyway.

Diane: Your ball CAN be unplayable in a water hazard, but you follow the procedures offered under Rule 26 instead of Rule 28.

amollerud: I know all of the options under Rule 26-1. All I asked was can he return to the tee after whiffing his second stroke at the ball when it's in the hazard. Just assume that options b and c will not work, because the way that the hazard is marked leaves no playable drop. That is why you tried to play the ball from a nearly impossible position in the first place.

[minowz]

Gotcha. Once a player makes a swing "stroke" on the second shot the option to return to the tee is gone. Sounds like this hazard should have a designated drop area. "no playable drop" seems pretty brutal. I take it there were marking to prevent hitting a provisional shot from the tee? Just trying to get a total picture of the situation.

[forextradinginfo]

Gotcha. Once a player makes a swing "stroke" on the second shot the option to return to the tee is gone. Sounds like this hazard should have a designated drop area. "no playable drop" seems pretty brutal. I take it there were marking to prevent hitting a provisional shot from the tee? Just trying to get a total picture of the situation.

That's why the first option under Rule 26-1 is stroke and distance. There's no guarantee that you will have any other option. Most courses do not have designated drop areas for that reason... you always have the option to replay from the same place.


Just a hint.... read ALL of Rule 26.