Blue stakes

[louise_a]

We have some blue stakes at the back of the first green, the is a line of conifers with the greenkeepers buildings directly behind the stakes, there is also a dropping area that you must use if your ball goes beyond the blue stakes.

What I dont know is, is it a free drop or a penalty drop. I did assume it was a penalty drop and infact in a match last week told my opponent it was and she didn't question me. However, yesterday in the mixed comp, my partner overran the green and the ball came to rest behind the blue stakes and he said it was a free drop, again our playing partners did not dispute this.

I cant see anything in the rules about blue stakes and there is nothing about them in the local rules on the back of the card.


So is it a free drop or not?

 

[3offTheTee]

There is usually as sign and it is classed as GUR with a free drop

 

[bozza]

Far as i'm aware it's usually plantation areas with young trees etc they want to protect that have blue stakes around and it is free drop.

 

[Twire]

A lot of our pathways our deemed part of the course, but a few that are not, are marked with blue lines and it's free relief from these.

 

[Fish]

Interesting, We have a small row of around 4 blue stakes with about 15ft between each one down the right side of our 12th fairway and its just an open tree wooded area the other side of them and see people regularly chipping out from the woods.

Looked in our rules & local rules and no mention of Blue Stakes, so I wonder why their blue and only their?

 

[birdieman]

Have seen piles of grass cuttings marked with blue stakes - free drop I believe.

 

[Liverbirdie]

Interesting, We have a small row of around 4 blue stakes with about 15ft between each one down the right side of our 12th fairway and its just an open tree wooded area the other side of them and see people regularly chipping out from the woods.

Looked in our rules & local rules and no mention of Blue Stakes, so I wonder why their blue and only their?

Hello Fish,

You may have one less now, it's the only way that you can kill Luis Suarez.

Sorry, Louise - just a joke,don't want to hijack your post, any replys, will be good to have in the OOB post. :thup:

 

[Colin L]

Blue stakes are commonly used to indicate Ground under Repair but do not, unlike red and yellow stakes, appear in the Rules. Without a local rule, they have no status. The committee should have put into place a local rule to the effect that ground under repair is marked by the blue stakes.

 

[louise_a]

Thanks for the replies and PMs, I have also enquired at the club this morning and yes you are all right, t is a free drop. Looks like I got away with it in the match play.

 

[duncan mackie]

Thanks for the replies and PMs, I have also enquired at the club this morning and yes you are all right, t is a free drop. Looks like I got away with it in the match play.

one of the clues is the requirement for compulsory relief

the only time that this can be implemented by a club is for free relief.

The only time it can be implemented for a penalty is outwith the clubs control where an area is designated as Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) by the appropriate authority - these areas may be defined as ground under repair, a water hazard, a lateral water hazard or out of bounds at the discretion of the Committee (although the water hazards have to meet the definitions of water hazards).

 

[Lanark_Golfer]

I have played on courses with area's marked with blue stakes and the local rule actually forbids you to enter the area to retrieve your ball, you have to take free relief from the point of entry???

 

[Colin L]

I have played on courses with area's marked with blue stakes and the local rule actually forbids you to enter the area to retrieve your ball, you have to take free relief from the point of entry???

These might be areas the Committee particularly want to protect or environmentally sensitive areas, that is, areas that some outside authority such as a Government agency forbids access to. See Appendix I Part B 2a and 2b. and also Duncan's post above.

 

[sev112]

It means there are poisenous snakes therein ...

 

[williamalex1]

I have played on courses with area's marked with blue stakes and the local rule actually forbids you to enter the area to retrieve your ball, you have to take free relief from the point of entry???

Hollandbush gc use to have black staked area from which you had to drop out at point of entry no penalty, even though you didn't find your ball .

 

[daymond]

We have a bridal path around the course whose limit is marked with blue posts. The local rule is that the area within is an integral part of the course so no relief! It's grim when the ball lies in hoof marks.

 

[Colin L]

That's an odd one. What's the surface of the Bridal path?

 

[daymond]

Grass. It's also used by the groundsmen's vehicles and can be all but unplayable

 

[Colin L]

Thanks. All the more curious. A grass path is an integral part of the course anyway and doesn't need a local rule to make it so. It would on the other hand, need a local rule to make it ground under repair. As to the blue stakes, I just don't understand why they are there.

By the way, it is open to the committee to allow relief from hoof prints in an area used regularly by horses.

 

[williamalex1]

Thanks. All the more curious. A grass path is an integral part of the course anyway and doesn't need a local rule to make it so. It would on the other hand, need a local rule to make it ground under repair. As to the blue stakes, I just don't understand why they are there.

By the way, it is open to the committee to allow relief from hoof prints in an area used regularly by horses.

To keep the horses between the stakes and of the course .

 

[Colin L]

Now I understand why the blue stakes are there - to mark out the path for riders to follow. Seems odd however to use blue ones which commonly mark out GUR and then have to spell out that the area is an integral part of the course. Green posts, brown posts , pink posts, tartan posts, psychedelic posts - anything other than blue, white, red or yellow would do the job for the horsie folk without confusing the golfing ones, I'd have thought.

Thanks for mentioning it, Alex. Intriguing!