Golf Tips: Dangerous Situations

Knowing the rules of golf can help you save strokes, and perhaps help keep you from getting stung by angry bees or bitten by a rattlesnake or an alligator. Decision 1-4/10 covers dangerous situations. I ran into this situation about a week ago.  A playing partner of mine hit his ball into some very deep rough.  So deep that it made the U.S. Open rough look like a putting green.  After nearly giving up, we found his ball.  It was very buried.  As he addressed the ball he jumped back and yelled out that he'd been stung on the ankle by a hornet.  His ball lay just a foot from a hornet's nest and they weren't too happy about his treading in the area.  About 50 hornets were circling the area. After the bees calmed down a bit we concluded that under Decision 1-4/10 there should be a drop away from the dangerous situation without penalty.  It is not reasonable to ask a player to hit a shot which puts him in danger and and furthermore, it is not reasonable to penalize the player for dropping away from the dangerous situation. In this case, the player was able to drop no nearer the hole into a much better lie.  It was still thick and difficult, but better.  Rather than making a double bogey or worse from the original lie, he made a solid bogey.  Knowing the rules in his case not only saved him a stroke, but saved him from getting stung by 50 angry hornets. Below is the full USGA text on Decision 1-4/10, which coincidentally mentions bees. 1-4/10  Dangerous Situation; Rattlesnake or Bees Interfere with Play Q. A player's ball comes to rest in a situation dangerous to the player, e.g., near a live rattlesnake or a bees' nest. Does the player have any options in addition to playing the ball as it lies or, if applicable, proceeding under Rule 26 or 28? A. Yes. It is unreasonable to expect the player to play from such a dangerous situation and unfair to require the player to incur a penalty under Rule 26 (Water Hazards) or Rule 28 (Ball Unplayable). If the ball lay through the green, the player may, without penalty, drop a ball within one club-length of and not nearer the hole than the nearest spot not nearer the hole that is not dangerous and is not in a hazard and not on a putting green. If the ball lay in a hazard, the player may drop a ball, without penalty, within one club-length of and not nearer the hole than the nearest spot not nearer the hole that is not dangerous. If possible, the ball must be dropped in the same hazard and, if not possible, in a similar nearby hazard, but in either case not nearer the hole. If it is not possible for the player to drop the ball in a hazard, he may drop it, under penalty of one stroke, outside the hazard, keeping the point where the original ball lay between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped. If the ball lay on the putting green, the player may, without penalty, place a ball at the nearest spot not nearer the hole that is not dangerous and that is not in a hazard. If it is clearly unreasonable for the player to make a stroke because of interference by anything other than the dangerous situation or if the situation would be dangerous only through the use of an unnecessarily abnormal stance, swing, or direction of play, he may not take relief as prescribed above, but he is not precluded from proceeding under Rule 26 or 28 if applicable.