Red vs. Yellow Penalty Areas: The Key Rules Difference

Red and yellow stakes both mark penalty areas, and the two look similar on a scorecard. The difference that matters is relief: red penalty areas allow an extra drop option that yellow ones do not.

What can you do when your ball is in a penalty area?

A ball in a penalty area can be played as it lies. Since a 2019 rules change, players may ground their club, take practice swings, and move loose impediments inside a penalty area without penalty. Causing the ball to move, or improving the area of the intended stance or swing, costs one stroke.

What relief options come with a red penalty area?

Red penalty areas carry four relief options under the Rules of Golf. Stroke-and-distance relief (Rule 14.6) sends a player back to replay the previous shot under penalty of one stroke; from the tee, that means playing a third shot. Back-on-the-line relief (Rule 14.3) allows a drop, also under penalty, anywhere on a line running through the ball's estimated entry point and the flag. Lateral relief (Rule 17.1) lets a player drop within two club-lengths of that entry point, no closer to the hole, and it is available only from red-staked areas.

What's different about a yellow penalty area?

Yellow penalty areas offer three of those four options. Stroke-and-distance and back-on-the-line relief both apply, but lateral relief under Rule 17.1 does not. That is the one rule separating red from yellow: red adds the two-club-length lateral drop that yellow does not allow.

Red adds one relief option yellow does not: a two-club-length lateral drop under Rule 17.1.

Can you remove a red or yellow stake?

Yes. Red and yellow stakes are classed as movable obstructions, so a player may remove one if it interferes with a stance, swing or the ball's line of play, then must replace it after the stroke. White out-of-bounds stakes cannot be removed; they are fixed boundary objects.