A ball in a water hazard costs one stroke and the drop — that’s the whole transaction under the rules. Take the penalty, take the drop, move on. But watch golfers actually standing at the edge of a pond, and most don’t move on. They calculate, they consider wading in, they remember that ball was “basically new.”
Frank’s tee shot finds the pond on 11. He doesn’t reach for another ball — he reaches for a stick. Ten minutes, one soaked shoe, and a warning from his playing partner about snapping turtles later, he emerges holding a ball that may or may not be his. The penalty stroke he was trying to avoid is exactly the same either way. The ten minutes and the wet shoe are pure bonus.
The one-stroke penalty was never the expensive part. The ten minutes spent looking for a way around it was.
