Red, White and Yellow Stakes

If you've played a few courses, you'll probably have noticed a few multi-colored stakes on some of their holes. These are usually wooden stakes, located around lakes, near to fences or other parts of a hole some way to the left or the right of the fairway. This is what the stakes are highlighting.

Red Stakes

The red stakes will be located alongside lateral water, such as a meandering stream, which may be running along the side of a hole. If your ball lands in one of these, then you've probably lost it if the stream is full of water. During the summer months streams might not be full of water, and you may still be able to find your ball to play out. However, if not then you'll have to drop you ball within a couple of club lengths behind one of the red stakes nearest to the point where you ball fell in the water.

White Stakes

White stakes are something else, and highlight those points of a golf course which are out of bounds. If you find that your ball has landed beyond a series of white stakes, possibly 25 yards apart, then it's gone out of bounds. In which case you'll have to pick your ball up, if you can find it, and go back to the approximate spot where you made the previous out-of-bound shot to drop ball. As a tip, you might want to leave a tee-marker at the original spot before searching for the ball if it may have gone out-of-bounds. Add an extra number to your scorecard and proceed.

Yellow Stakes 

Thirdly, there are also yellow stakes which will most likely be located around golf course lakes or smaller ponds. They're pretty similar to the red stakes, except that the lake or pond is not lateral. As such, if your ball lands in the water here you'll just have to drop the ball a little behind one of the yellow stakes closest to where you ball landed in the water. And of course, add a penalty stroke as well.

So, when on the course you should drop replacement balls close to these stakes if your ball goes in the water. Drop the balls a little behind them, no nearer to the hole where the ball originally landed. Or alternatively, return to the point where you made the original shot if the ball is out-of-bounds.