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This came up on Sunday and I am not sure where I could have dropped. I hit over a green and trickled over the cart path just into a lateral water hazard. I was in the tall grass just behind the red painted boundary. I could not play the ball from where it lied without falling down a 6' embankment into a stream as there is less than a foot of earth between the cart path and drop off. Any two clublength drop puts me either closer to the hole or on the cart path and dropping on the other side of the hazard puts me out of bounds. This was Sunday afternoon on a public course so I did not want to have to drive back over the bridge back to the tee box with the group behind us already standing there. Do I have any other options? With the cart path affecting my ability to drop 2 club lengths no closer to the hole does that give me any other options? The nearest point of relief no closer to the hole and not on the cart path was about 25 yards to the right of where my ball ended up where the cart path turns away from the stream.

I have a drawing of the hole and my balls location but don't know how to attach it. Thanks in advance.

I just double checked the rules, and it appears that you have no option here but to go back to the original spot, or drop on the cart path (I'm pretty sure you can drop on a cart path if you want, but won't get relief from it after dropping). For a lateral water hazard, here are the rules:

a. Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5); or

b. Drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the water hazard the ball may be dropped; or

c. As additional options available only if the ball last crossed the margin of a lateral water hazard, drop a ball outside the water hazard within two club-lengths of and not nearer the hole than (i) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or (ii) a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole.

You may not use the unplayable lie rule when in a water hazard.

But for pace of play reasons on a busy day, I would have no qualms with dropping the ball within 2 club lengths of the point of entry, even if a little closer to the hole. Assuming of course it isn't a tournament. And this is in keeping with the spirit of the USGA. They recommend that beginning golfers use the lateral water hazard rules for a ball out of bounds IF taking stroke + distance will hold up the pace of play.

I see nothing in the rules that prevent you from dropping on the cart path. But I also see nothing that prevents you from then taking relief from the cart path. (In situations where getting relief from one condition would put you in another condition, you take relief one step at a time until you have full relief). Once you have taken relief from the water hazard and are on the cart path, the immovable obstruction rules come into play. Under those rules, there is no limit to how far away the nearest point of complete relief is, as long as it is not nearer the hole, and not in a hazard or on the putting green. From that nearest point of relief, you may drop within one club length.

So unless I'm missing something, you could've dropped on the cart path to get relief from the lateral hazard (one stroke penalty ), then got relief from the cart path even if it was 25 yds away (no penalty).

- Bill

Absolutely. You take your 2 clublengths from the lateral water hazard under Rule 26-1c. If that puts you on the cart path, you still have to drop the ball. If the ball comes to rest in a place where the obstruction interferes with your stance or the area of your intended swing, then you take relief under Rule 24-2. That relief point must not be in a hazard, or nearer to the hole, so you don't have to worry about bouncing back and forth between the obstruction and the hazard.

If the ball rolls (or bounces ) more than 2 clublengths, or ends up closer to the hole than the nearest point of relief, or rolls back into the hazard, then you redrop. If the same thing happens again on the redrop, you place the ball where it first hit the cart path on that drop.

In any event, if after taking correct penalty relief from the hazard the cart path still interferes with your next stroke, you get relief from it.