CASUAL WATER

[golfdonkey]

Can anyone tell me what to do in the following situation (faced at a recent Stableford). If water surfaces around your feet when you take your stance you are allowed to take relief under the "casual water" rule. How far does the relief extend? I couldn't find a place to drop within 20 yards!
On a separate point I think the rules are very unfair when it comes to casual water in bunkers. Why should you be penalised a stroke if you can't find anywhere to drop your ball in the hazard?

 

[muttleee]

Re your first point, if you have to go 20 yards then 20 yards you go! The rules say you play from the nearest point of relief but they don't prescribe a limit to that. On a similar note, if your ball is on the fairway but the nearest point of relief is in the rough then hard luck...you have to drop in the rough.

It may seem unfair to be penalised a shot when dropping outside a bunker with casual water in it but would it be fair to escape the bunker with no penalty? They're meant to be hazards, ya know... ;-)

 

[golfdonkey]

Thanks for that. I've always thought "casual water" was a funny term. I prefer "particularly laid back water".

 

[furyk_or_unique]

Muttlee, ref your point of casual water in bunkers, I remember once playing in a deluge which quickly flooded many of the bunkers on the course. Some of them were pretty deep and on one hole it seemed pretty certain that my ball was lying at the bottom of one such temporary lake, but the water was too deep and murky to know for sure. What courses of action would have been open to me that day??

 

[John_Findlay]

I think your answer would be governed by rule 12-2. Casual water is an abnormal ground condition and if you accidentally move it during your search then there is no penalty. I think you would be free to rake around for it then take relief as necessary under rule 25. That would certainly make sense to me