High Stakes

A misinterpretation of the rules cost this North Shore Golf reader dearly

Dear North Shore Golf:
I was playing in a tournament at a local private club last year when I think a mistake in judgment concerning the rules of golf may have cost me a match.
The match was all-square when we arrived at the par-5 18th, which is one of the better finishing holes around. The approach shot is always scary, with bunkers on both sides of the green and a lateral water hazard in front of it. I chunked my third shot from the fairway and my ball barely made it over the water. As I walked up to my ball I was just praying that I would have a chance to play it, rather than taking a drop.
When I got to my ball it was a good news, bad news scenario. The good news was that my ball was in play. The bad news was that it was just inches in front of the red stake marking the water hazard. There was no way I would have been able to go through my normal backswing without hitting the stake with my club.
I asked one of the tournament officials if I could move the stake. He told me that I could not move it without taking a penalty. I went along with his ruling and was forced to play my ball to the left of the green. I ended up with a bogey, my opponent made par, and I lost the match.
Since that day, I’ve run this situation by some friends and I continue to get conflicting answers. Not that it’s going to help me win my match, but should I have been able to move the red stake?  
– P.K. Danvers, Mass.

North Shore Golf asked Chelmsford Country Club head pro John Resnick to give us a ruling:

Dear P.K.

It appears to me that the tournament official was wrong. In this situation the red stake is considered to be a movable obstruction. Rule 24-1 states a player may take relief from a movable obstruction if the ball does not lie in or on the obstruction, which is what happened with your ball. You should have been given two options. First, you could have moved the stake and played your ball as is. Secondly, you could have taken a drop without penalty.

However, if your ball had landed behind the red stake, it would have been considered in the hazard and you would have been forced to either play the ball as is or take a drop with penalty.

Some courses have immovable hazard stakes. For example, it is not unusual for stakes to be cemented into the ground. If that were the case you would have been allowed to take relief without penalty under rule 24-2b, once again, as long as the ball was not in the hazard. This rule, however, does not apply to white stakes, which mark out of bounds. At no time are you allowed to remove an out of bounds stake because it would be a breach of rule 13-2.