How to Count Drops in Golf

Taking a penalty drop in golf can feel surprisingly stressful, not just because you’ve hit a bad shot, but because the rules can seem overwhelming in the moment. This guide will walk you through exactly how penalty drops work, how many strokes to add for each situation, and how to perform the drop correctly. We'll simplify the rules so you can stop questioning yourself and get back to playing with confidence.

The Golden Rule of Penalty Drops: One Stroke and Knowing Your Options

Forget the dusty old rulebooks filled with confusing language. For the vast majority of relief situations you'll encounter, from water hazards to an unplayable lie in a bush, the process is built around a few core concepts and almost always carries a one-stroke penalty. The goal isn’t to punish you excessively, but to provide a fair way to get your ball back into a playable position.

Before we break down specific scenarios, let's understand the two key ingredients of any drop:

• Reference Point: This is the specific spot on the course from which your relief is measured. It could be where your ball last crossed into a penalty area or where your ball lies in an unplayable position. It’s your starting point.
• Relief Area: This is the area on the course where you must drop your ball. It’s always measured from your Reference Point, typically spanning one or two club-lengths. Think of it as your designated dropping zone.

Once you’ve taken a penalty, you generally have a few different relief options. Knowing which ones are available to you in any given situation is what separates a confident player from a confused one.

How to Physically Take a Drop (The Right Way)

The rules for the physical act of dropping are straightforward and designed for fairness. You simply stand upright and drop the ball from knee height, letting it fall straight down. You don't toss it, roll it, or spin it, just let gravity do the work.

So, what happens after it lands?

• If the ball comes to rest inside your relief area, it’s in play. Pick up your club and get ready for your next shot.
• If the ball bounces or rolls and comes to rest outside your relief area, you must re-drop. No penalty.
• If you re-drop it a second time and it once again rolls outside the relief area, you then get to place the ball on the spot where it first hit the ground on that second drop.

Putting It Into Practice: Navigating Penalty Areas

Penalty areas (what we all used to call "hazards") are parts of the course marked with either yellow or red stakes or lines. They exist to challenge us, but the rules give us fair ways to recover when our shots go astray. Hitting into either type of penalty area almost always results in a one-stroke penalty.

Yellow Penalty Areas: The Two Core Choices

A Yellow Penalty Area is typically a body of water, like a pond, that sits directly between you and the flag. If your ball splashes down here, you add one stroke to your score and have two relief options:

1. Stroke and Distance: This option is always available to you, no matter the situation. You simply go back to the spot you just hit from, take a one-stroke penalty, and hit the shot again. So, if you hit your tee shot into a yellow penalty area, you’d be hitting your third shot from the tee box. It can feel like a walk of shame, but it’s often the smartest play if your other options are poor.
2. Back-on-the-Line Relief: This lets you keep your distance to the hole. Imagine a straight line starting from the flagstick, going through the point where your ball last crossed the edge of the yellow penalty area, and extending backwards as far as you want. You can take a drop anywhere on that line. Your relief area would then be one club-length from the spot you chose to drop on that line.

Example: You’re playing a par-3, and your tee shot (stroke 1) comes up short and rolls into a yellow-staked pond in front of the green. You cannot drop on the side of the pond. You must either re-tee (now hitting stroke 3) or use the Back-on-the-Line option to drop behind the pond (also hitting stroke 3).

Red Penalty Areas: The Extra Option That Changes Everything

A Red Penalty Area is often a watercourse, ditch, or harsh patch of terrain that runs alongside the fairway or green. These are marked with red because the rules are slightly more forgiving and give you an extra, and often more helpful, option. For a one-stroke penalty, you get all the choices of a yellow penalty area PLUS one more:

1. Stroke and Distance
2. Back-on-the-Line Relief
3. The Game-Changer: Lateral Relief: This is the one you’ll use most often with red stakes. First, you identify the reference point where your ball last crossed into the red penalty area. From that spot, you can measure two club-lengths (no nearer the hole) and drop your ball within that relief area.

Example: You slice your second shot on a par-5 into a creek marked with red stakes running along the right side of the fairway. Instead of having to re-hit your shot from way back, you can use the lateral-relief option. You find the spot it crossed the red line, take two club-lengths into the fairway, take your one-stroke penalty, and you're in perfect position for your fourth shot. It’s what keeps the game moving.

The Player's Choice: Declaring a Ball Unplayable

Sometimes your ball isn't in a penalty area, out of bounds, or lost, but it’s simply impossible to hit. Maybe it's buried at the base of a tree, in the middle of a thick gorse bush, or wedged against a fence. This is where you can use the "Unplayable Ball" rule, which is essentially your get-out-of-jail card. You can declare your ball unplayable at any spot on the course except when it is in a penalty area. The cost is, again, just one penalty stroke, and your options are very similar to red-penalty-area relief:

• Stroke and Distance: Go back to where you last played from and hit again. Often the best choice if you're in deep trouble.
• Back-on-the-Line Relief: Identify the spot where your ball lies, then walk back on a line that keeps that spot between you and the pin. Drop within one club-length of a point on that line.
• Lateral Relief: From the spot where your ball lies, measure two club-lengths (no nearer the hole) and create your relief area to drop in.

The Bunker Exception

There's one important tweak to this rule when you are in a bunker. If you declare your ball unplayable in a bunker, you have the same three options, but for both Back-on-the-Line and Lateral relief, you must drop within the same bunker. But there is a fourth escape-hatch: for a two-stroke penalty, you can take Back-on-the-Line relief *outside* the bunker. It's a costly option, but It can save a total card-wrecker of a hole.

Lost Ball or Out of Bounds: "Stroke and Distance" is Your Only Move*

This is the one that really stings. If your ball is Out of Bounds (marked by white stakes) or you simply can’t find it within the 3-minute search time, the penalty is fundamentally different. This is a stroke-and-distance penalty. Period.

Here’s how it works and where the common ajority of all golfers feels confused: You add one penalty stroke and must return to the spot of your previous stroke and play from there. So, if you hit your tee shot OB, that’s your first stroke. The penalty is one more stroke. You are now playing your third stroke from the tee. This is often feels like a two-stroke hit because instead of hitting your second shot from the fairway, you're hitting your third shot from all the way back at the tee.

*The Pace-of-Play Local Rule

Because going back to the tee wreaks havoc on pace-of-play, a Model Local Rule was introduced (often called E-5). Many courses have adopted it to speed things up for recreational play. You MUST check the local rules on the scorecard or with the pro-shop to know if it's in effect.

This rule gives you an another option: estimate where your ball went Out of Bounds or was lost. Go to the nearest edge of the fairway no closer to the hole. You can then take a drop here for a two-stroke penalty. For a slicer of a drive off the tee, this means you’d be hitting your fourth shot from just off the fairway, which is much better than having to trudge back for a provisional.

Putting It All Together: A Simple Scorecard Summary

Let's map this onto the scorecard to make it crystal clear:

• Par 4, Tee Shot in Red Penalty Area: Shot 1 is in the hazard. You use lateral relief. You are now lying 2 (1 shot + 1 penalty). You hit your 3rd shot.
• Par 4, Second Shot Unplayable: Your tee shot (1) is good. Your second shot (2) goes into a large, dense bush. You declare it unplayable and take a lateral drop. You are now lying 3 (2 shots + 1 penalty). You are hitting your 4th shot.
• Par 5, Tee Shot OB (Traditional Rule): Your drive (1) sails out of bounds. You re-tee. You are now lying 2 (1 shot + 1 penalty). You are hitting your 3rd shot from the tee.
• Par 5, Tee Shot OB (Using Local Rule): Your drive (1) sails out of bounds. You use the pace-of-play local rule and drop up near the fairway. You are now lying 3 (1 shot + 2 penalties). You are hitting your 4th shot.

Final Thoughts

Understanding penalty drops basically comes down to knowing whether your situation costs one stroke (penalty areas and unplayable lies) or demands a stroke-and-distance penalty (lost/OB). Knowing your options for each keeps the game fair, the pace moving, and your mind free from stressful guesswork.

While this guide gives you the foundation, we know that applying the rules clearly during a round, especially when you’re under pressure, is another challenge entirely. That’s why we built Caddie AI to act as your immediate, on-course rules expert. When you’re facing a complex lie or can’t remember if it's one or two club-lengths, you can just ask your phone for a simple, clear answer in seconds. We wanted to take the doubt out of these moments so you can make a confident decision, take your drop correctly, and get back to what matters: hitting your next great golf shot.