The short answer
- Free relief — temporary water is an abnormal course condition, so the drop costs you nothing.
- Water must be visible before or after you take your stance (without pressing down excessively).
- Dew and frost don't count. Wet, muddy or soft ground doesn't count either.
- No relief if your ball is inside a penalty area — that's Rule 17 territory.
What counts as temporary water?
Temporary water is any temporary accumulation of water on the surface of the ground — puddles from rain, an overflowing irrigation head, or water that has spilled out of a pond — that is not in a penalty area and can be seen before or after you take your stance.
The definition has an important caveat: it is not enough for the ground to be merely wet, muddy or soft, and it is not enough for water to be momentarily visible as you step down. The accumulation has to still be there either before or after the stance is taken, without you pressing down excessively with your feet.
So if you press your foot down and water squelches up between the grass blades, that is not temporary water. If there is a visible film or pool of water next to your ball when you walk up, it is.
The drop procedure, step by step
- Confirm the interference. Your ball must touch or be in the water, or the water must interfere with your stance or your swing.
- Find the nearest point of complete relief. Nearest spot — no nearer the hole — where the water interferes with nothing: not the lie, not the stance, not the swing.
- Measure one club-length from that point. That is your relief area. It must be the same part of the course (general area stays in the general area).
- Drop from knee height and let the ball come to rest inside the relief area. Roll out? Re-drop. Roll out again? Place it where it first touched the ground on the second drop.
The measurement starts from the nearest point of complete relief, not from where your ball sat in the puddle.
What does NOT count as temporary water
| Situation | Relief? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Puddle visible at your ball | Yes — free | Temporary water, Rule 16.1b |
| Ground merely wet, muddy or soft | No | Not an accumulation of water |
| Dew or frost on the grass | No | Explicitly excluded from the definition |
| Water you squeezed up by pressing down hard | No | Must be visible without excessive pressing |
| Water inside a penalty area (pond, stream, red/yellow stakes) | No free relief | Rule 17 only |
| Snow or natural ice | Your choice | Treat as a loose impediment or temporary water |
Temporary water in a bunker
If your ball is in a bunker and there is temporary water around it, you have two options:
- Free relief inside the bunker. Find the nearest point of complete relief in the bunker and drop within one club-length of it. If there is no such point, use the point of maximum available relief in the bunker as your reference point.
- Penalty relief outside the bunker. Take back-on-the-line relief outside the bunker for one penalty stroke.
You cannot take free relief out of a bunker. "I don't want to hit off wet sand" is not a free drop.
On the putting green
On the green you get free relief by placing — not dropping — at the nearest point of complete relief. And uniquely, if temporary water on the green sits on your line of play, you get relief for that too. Line-of-play relief only exists on the putting green; everywhere else, an obstruction between your ball and the hole is not interference by itself.
The spillover rule
When a pond rises after heavy rain and creeps past the stake line into the general area, that overflow is not part of the penalty area. It is temporary water, and you get free relief from it. Check where the margin is actually defined before you assume you're stuck.
Frequently asked questions
Is casual water a free drop?
What is the difference between casual water and temporary water?
Do you get relief from temporary water in a bunker?
Does wet ground count as temporary water?
Is dew or frost temporary water?
A quick rules reference for your round
Save Strokes: Golf Rules Quick Reference is a PDF covering 20 rules situations, with a printable bag card and a phone card.