Alternative To Stroke And Distance Penalty

Josh Kelley

Josh Kelley

SwingU Instructor

Significant issues with pace of play can result from players needing to take stroke-and-distance relief for a ball that is out of bounds or cannot be found when a provisional ball has not been played. The purpose of this Local Rule is to allow a Committee to provide an extra relief option that means that a player may play on without returning to the location of the previous stroke.

This Local Rule is not intended for higher levels of play, such as professional or elite amateur level competitions.

This option allows the player to drop in a large area between the point where the ball is estimated to have come to rest or gone out of bounds and the edge of the fairway that is not nearer the hole

The player gets two penalty strokes when using this relief option, so that the relief is comparable to what could have been achieved if the player had taken stroke-and-distance relief.


Subscribe to the SwingU YouTube channel for more instruction from SwingU’s nationally-rated instruction team!