Empty hazard...

[spidey]

Hit my ball into a lateral hazard. Due to the drought, there's no water in it. I didn't see it exactly, but it was clearly in the hazard. When I walk up to the hazard, I see a ball down in the bottom of the hazard. It's in muck that's unplayable, in fact I can only reach the ball if I bend over and retrieve it with my club, which I do.

As I walk up and out of the hazard, I notice that the ball isn't mine, and my actual ball is inside the margin of the hazard, and it's playable.

What have I done, and what are my options. I didn't make any declarations to my playing partners before taking any actions, and it's a stroke play event.

What I did was take a 2 stroke penalty for grounding my club in the hazard, then played the correct ball out of the hazard.

grrrrrrrrrr

[Gary Hill]

Under Exception 1 to Rule 13-4, a player is not subject to penalty for touching the ground in retrieving a ball.

There was no penalty unless you grounded the club while playing your original ball.

[spidey]

Wish I'd known... drag.

I will remember this. If this is an exception, and I want to prove it... how do I get a copy of it, and other exceptions that aren't in the RCGA copy of the rules that I have?

spidey

[Gary Hill]

There are 3 prohibitions in Rule 13-4: Ball in Hazard

(I am paraphrasing here)

The player shall not:

a. Test the condition of the hazard.
b. Touch the ground in the hazard.
c. Touch a loose impediment in a hazard.

On the next line it lists two exceptions:

1. Touching the hazard while falling, removing an obstruction, measuring, or retrieving a ball.

2. After playing a stroke in a bunker, raking the sand if your ball is still in the same bunker.

There are no undocumented exceptions.

It is on page 41 of the current (Jan 2000-Dec 2003) Rule book.