2 Most Common Causes Of Penalty Strokes

Aside from knocking your ball into a hazard or out-of-bounds area, the two ways most commonly found to pile up the penalty strokes are from lost balls and unplayable lies.

When you hit the ball in a wooded area on the side of the fairway, and the location is not considered to be out-of-bounds, you can dig around and try your best to find the ball. In doing so, one of the following three things is bound to happen:

1. You may find the ball and then attempt to hit it onto the fairway.

2. The ball might be located in an unplayable lie, which means that there is no chance to make a shot. You're only two options are to pick up the ball and move over by two club lengths or hit the ball again from where you originally took your last shot. Either way, you pick up a one-stroke penalty.

3. The ball may not be easy enough to find, and can be declared lost. This means that you have to go back to the area where you hit your last shot, shoot over, and take a penalty stroke.