Penalty areas: start with the color.

Red and yellow edges identify penalty areas and affect your relief options.

Plain-language guide · Rule 17.1. Use the current official text and your round’s Local Rules for a ruling.

What to know

You may normally play the ball as it lies, or add one penalty stroke and use an allowed relief option. No-play zones are an exception. If the ball is not found, penalty-area relief requires knowledge or virtual certainty that it is there.

On the course

Identify where the ball last crossed the edge. A guess that a missing ball went into water is not enough.