Hazard area lost ball

[jammag]

I was playing in a foursomes match on Sunday and had a situation that I wasn’t sure on.

The opposition team hit their ball into a yellow staked penalty and decided they can play it from inside the penalty area. However when the opponent played the ball he buried it and never to be seen again.

My question is from this point where do they need to drop the ball?

They said they will drop it from the same point they played the shot inside the hazard. I said I thought they could move it back out of the hazard on the line of the flag no nearer the hole. As they wasn’t sure they decided to drop it inside the penalty area.

We won that hole anyway so it didn’t make much difference to the game but I cannot find anything in the rules about it.

Thanks
Jamie

 

[duncan mackie]

The rule reference you are looking for is regression - 17.2 covers it

Basically for their penalty stroke they can regress, go back one step, and use one of the options that were previously available to them.

They were correct, whether you were would depend on where it entered in relation to where it lay; your wording suggests you were considering the latter.

 

[Colin L]

If a ball is still in a penalty area after a stroke made in the penalty area there are these options [Rule 17.2]:

1. Play it as it lies without penalty
2. Play from where you made your previous stroke (ie still in the penalty area) with a 1 stroke penalty
3. Take relief outside the penalty area [Rule 17.1d] using the point where your ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area with a 1 stroke penalty.
4. Play from where you made your last stroke outside the penalty area with a 1 stroke penalty.

 

[jammag]

Thank you for the replies. This was the way I was thinking.