What happens if your ball bounces out of the water hazard?

The situation

Your shot skims across the surface of a pond, or bounces off a rock inside the penalty area and comes to rest outside the marked boundary — back on the fairway or in the rough.

The rule

Under Rule 17.1, what matters is where the ball comes to rest, not where it entered or passed through. If your ball bounced, skipped, or rolled through a penalty area and came to rest outside the penalty area boundary, it is in play at that spot — no penalty. You play it as it lies. The ball has not entered the penalty area in a way that requires relief because it didn't come to rest inside it. Only a ball that is in the penalty area (touching ground, water, or objects inside the boundary) and stays there requires you to decide whether to play it or take relief.

Real example

Your approach skips across a shallow pond like a stone, clips a bank on the far side, and rolls to rest in rough just outside the red stake line. No penalty — the ball came to rest outside the penalty area. Play your next shot from the rough.

What to do on the course

• Check that the ball has genuinely come to rest outside the penalty area boundary before playing
• If any part of the ball is touching the line or inside the boundary, it's in the penalty area
• If you're unsure whether it bounced out, treat it as being in the penalty area and take relief — or play a provisional
• If it did bounce out and you play it, but later discover it was inside the boundary, you've played from a wrong place — 2-stroke penalty in stroke play

Penalty

No penalty if the ball came to rest outside the penalty area. Play it as it lies.