Speaking of rules

[redanman]

Did anyone else question where Annika took her drop on 17 on Sunday?  She hit the ball into the lovely pond  with her ball crossing the hazard short of the green yet she dropped lateral to where the ball hit the water.

Was there a drop area?  

She in my mind should have dropped keeping the point of the ball crossing the hazard line between her and the flagstick, not lateral to where the ball happened to hit the water. I feel that she should have dropped short of the harard (and actually giving herself a bettter angle with more leeway in the the type of shots to hit available to her.

Someone explain this one to me.

[TEPaul]

Correct. The water hazard rule states the drop point is where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard. Where the ball actually hits water has nothing much to do with it. One needs to know if the water hazard was a lateral or not too, and also if there was a drop area for that hazard.

[Jim Sweeney]

Yes, I was perplexed. There are two possibilities that made the drop correct: 1) the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard at a point adjacent to the right side of the green; keeping that point between herself and the hole, she dropped behind the hazard; 2) there was a ball drop.

Because of camera angles, etc., I would not doubt her drop based on the telecast. I assume there was a rules official right there, and there was plenty of evidence about where the ball last crossed.

[TEPaul]

However, if it turns out at this point (on TV analysis) that that drop was wrong it can't make a different. The reason is under the Rules of Golf (at this point) the competition is "closed".