Have you ever been told that you’re not allowed to remove a white stake from the course? And that you are not even allowed to touch white stakes? I have… many times. When I conduct rules seminars and ask, “Are you allowed to remove a white stake?” almost everyone yells, “NO!” without the slightest bit of doubt.

Well, guess what. They’re wrong. Let me tell you why.

In general, we don’t want golfers moving things on the course. Play the course as it is and the ball as it lies; these are fundamental and sound principles. But if we dig a bit deeper into the rules, there is a certain rule stating that you are not allowed to improve the course by removing something that is fixed. And since white stakes are considered fixed, the conclusion must then be that you are not allowed to remove white stakes. Well, no, not quite.

The prohibition only encounters certain areas (I call them “forbidden areas”). This is an area where you in general are considered to gain an advantage when you improve it. These areas are:

1. Your intended stance
2. Your intended swing
3. The lie/position of the ball
4. The area where you are going to drop or place a ball
5. The line of play (including a reasonable extension of the line on the other side of the hole)

Therefore, if you are improving such an area, you are penalized. If you are improving another area, however, you are not penalized. Let me give you a few examples. These examples are about a par-4 hole where you (a right-handed player) have made your drive from the teeing ground and your the ball is lying near out of bounds (yet still in bounds) on the left side.

1. Your ball ends one inch from a white stake. You are not allowed to remove the white stake, since you would thereby improve a “forbidden area.”
2. Your ball ends three feet from a white stake, perpendicular to the course (compared to the direction to the hole). There is no penalty to remove the white stake, as it is not in a forbidden area.
3. Dog leg left (out of bounds), which you will fly the ball over over. There is a white stake in your line of play, 30 yards ahead of your ball. You have 150 yards to the hole. The stake is in a forbidden area, but since your potential advantage is so small, you will not get penalized to remove the stake.*

*Example 3: A certain Decision states, that there is no penalty if the improvement does not give the player a potential advantage, i.e. the improvement is so small that it really makes no difference for the player.

You might say that this Decision is not logic. Well to that I must say, that the rules are not always logic.

Examples

1. Why are you penalized to remove a piece of loose grass in a water hazard in the backswing to your stroke in the water hazard but not to remove a piece of growing grass?
2. Why are you allowed to place a club on the fairway to align your feet in the correct direction…. but not allowed to do the same with an alignment stick bought from your local pro shop?
3. Why are you (in the 2019 rules) allowed to strike the sand in anger before a stroke in the bunker… but not allowed to touch sand in the bunker in a practice swing?
4. Why is there a “no-penalty-if-the-advantage-is-very-small-rule” when it comes to improving forbidden areas… but not a similar rule when it comes to removing leaves from a bunker (where there is penalty no matter improvement or not)?

The answer is… the rules says so. Learn the rules; don’t try to find the logic in them! Back to the question: “Are you allowed to remove a white stake?” The answer in many situations is “yes.” The next time you get this question try to yell “YES!!” as loud as you can.

Although life normally does not give any guarantees, I can guarantee you one thing — you will be unpopular, very unpopular. And I can guarantee that you will get into a verbal discussion with most people when you remove a white stake on the golf course. If you do, try asking them which Rule they would penalize you under. If they still insist, refer to the below mentioned rules.

Rules of Golf relevant to this matter: Rule 13-2, Definition of “out of bounds” and Decision 13-2/0.5.