---
title: "What to Do When Your Golf Ball Is Unplayable"
url: https://www.herewashingtondc.com/2026/11/11/what-to-do-when-your-golf-ball-is-unplayable/
date: 2026-11-11T17:47:03-05:00
modified: 2026-11-11T17:47:03-05:00
author: "HERE City National Desk"
categories: ["Golf", "National"]
site: "HERE Washington DC"
attribution: "HERE Washington DC"
---

# What to Do When Your Golf Ball Is Unplayable

> A ball buried in a bush or sitting in a terrible lie does not have to stay there. Only you may decide the lie is hopeless and take penalty relief under the unplayable-ball rule. The one place this rule does not apply That relief is available all over the course, with one exception: a penalty

*Source: [HERE Washington DC](https://www.herewashingtondc.com/2026/11/11/what-to-do-when-your-golf-ball-is-unplayable/) — November 11, 2026 by HERE City National Desk*

*From the HERE City National Desk*

A ball buried in a bush or sitting in a terrible lie does not have to stay there. Only you may decide the lie is hopeless and take penalty relief under the unplayable-ball rule.

## The one place this rule does not apply

That relief is available all over the course, with one exception: a penalty area. If the ball is in a penalty area, you use the penalty-area rule instead.

## Three choices, one stroke each

In the general area or on the green, you get three choices, and each adds a single penalty stroke:

- Go back and play from where you just hit, using the original ball or another one. You may do this even if the first ball has not turned up.

- Drop behind the original place, keeping that place between the hole and the drop. You may go back as far as you like.

- Drop within two club-lengths of the original place, no nearer the hole.

The last two options require you to know where the original ball was.

## Inside a bunker

Stroke-and-distance still costs one stroke and may be taken from outside the sand. The drop-behind and two-club-length options, taken for one stroke, have to land and stay in the bunker. If you want to drop behind the original place and get outside the bunker, that costs two strokes in all.