The 4th is another tactical hole but perhaps its main feature is the green – hit it onto the left half with the hole on the right (or vice versa) and a 3 putt might be a good result. As driving distances have grown with modern technology you need to hit a fade or hug the trees on the right hand side which brings the Out of Bounds and the ditch on this side very much into play.
THE DEFINITION OF OUT OF BOUNDS ON THIS HOLE HAS NOW BEEN CHANGED SO THAT THE BOUNDARY IS DEFINED BY THE STREAM AND NOT BY A SET OF POSTS.
This was done to try and make it easier to understand
THE REST OF THIS POST IS NOW NOT RELEVANT FOR THIS HOLE AT BROKENHURST
(most golfers would have played the yellow ball in the example in the video)
The Out of Bounds line here is defined by white stakes, and whenever stakes are used in this manner “the boundary edge is defined by the line between the course-side points of the stakes at ground level”. For this reason the out-of-bounds line does not follow the natural edge of the ditch – you can be Out of Bounds but not in the ditch and in another area in the ditch but still within bounds. See the video for a couple of illustrations.
A similar situation exists on the right of the 2nd hole, but it is more commonly experienced at the corner of the dogleg here on the fourth.
If you find your ball in the ditch but in bounds then you have all the options for a Red Penalty Area from Rule 17.1d :
- lateral relief – 2 club lengths from point of entry
- back-on-the-line – 1 club length from reference point
- stroke and distance
- Please note that you can not play your provisional ball!
Golf Rules Guru 
Item….4th hole at Brockenhurst for OB & RPA. during the video after you have turned the camera view you STATE ” If you find your ball ” this statement should say 95% KVC that your ball is in the RPA……..cheers……..michael
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Thanks for your comment. You are absolutely correct that you can take penalty area relief if it is “known or virtually certain” that your ball is in a penalty area. However in this particular situation with the out of bounds running within the ditch even if it is 100% certain that your ball went in to the ditch your would have to find it to establish that it is not out of bounds.
We have actually changed the out of bounds definition on this hole so that anything in the stream bed is now out of bounds, and changed the white out of bounds posts to be white with black tops which indicate there is an out of bounds close by which is defined by a physical feature (the stream).
I’ll edit the original post now in case anyone is playing at Brokenhurst and gets confused.
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Thankyou you for your clarification concerning the close OB and I agree that it would have to be found to ensure it is in the RPA. ALSO, I thankyou for your quick responses to these questions , most forums either take a long time to respond or don’t respond at all…………..I love to learn and as a( level 2 ) I sometimes double guess myself when out on the field………………..cheers…….michael
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