Walls, fences, railings, stakes, lines – golf courses can choose to mark their boundaries in so many ways.
Some of those we’ve mentioned above are obvious, but what if you’ve got a mix? What if you’ve got white stakes and a white line at the same time?
This is what happened to our emailer: “I teed off and could see my ball had gone towards out of bounds markers so I took another in case the first ball was out of bounds.
“When I got to my ball it was between a badly marked line and the white post. The white line was about one foot on the course side of the OOB post.
“Does the line (OOB for me) or the post (still on course for me) take preference – was I out of bounds or not?”
Given how often I seem to find out of bounds, you’d think I’d be an expert on this one. So when you’ve got a line and posts at the same time, which takes priority? Let’s take a look…
Golf out of bounds rule: Is it stakes or lines that count?
Boundary edges can be defined by boundary objects, such as stakes or lines. Usually, a club will specify how they treat out of bounds in their Local Rules.
I picked up a dozen different scorecards when writing this piece and all of them made it very clear which was which and even on what holes.
But here’s how it generally works in the Rules. When the boundary is defined by a line on the ground, as the definition of Out of Bounds says, stakes can be used to “show where the boundary edge is located”.
Those stakes do not represent the boundary edge, the line does.
There must be enough confusion about this for clubs to get a further helping hand in the Committee Procedures found at the back of the Official Guide to the Rules of Golf.
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In a section on course marking and talking about the use of paint lines, it adds a committee can “also place stakes to make the boundary visible from a distance”.
The guidance continues: “It should be made clear that the painted line defines the boundary while the stakes are placed to show players the boundary is there.”
Just one more time. “The stakes do not define the boundary”.
Don’t go getting any ideas about moving those stakes if you find your lie, or swing, is impeded by them. They may not actually be the boundary, but they are still boundary objects and you’re not allowed free relief from them unless your club employs a Local Rule.
It’s Model Local Rule A-6 and it allows clubs to treat those stakes as movable or immovable obstructions and asks that they are marked differently than other boundary stakes on the course.
In my swift rummage through a draw of scorecards, I quickly found one notable club that did just this. Western Gailes has white stakes with black tops showing out of bounds “in or beyond the trench to the right of the 18th hole”.
They treat those stakes as movable obstructions.
Got a question for our expert?
Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
What do you think about this golf out of bounds rule? Let me you what you think, and send me your own rules questions, by emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or by leaving us a comment on X.
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