2006 #3 When is Your Ball Out of Bounds at Beech?

THE SCENE:
You are on the 7th tee at Beech Mountain. You pull out your driver and hit a ball high. It slices to the right where it bounces on the cart path. The ball lands beyond the white out-of-bounds stake, but then it bounces back. It is lying on the grass between the cart path and the white stake. In addition to the white stakes there are white circles and the letters OB painted on the cart path.

What would you do?
A.  Since your ball is inside the white out-of-bounds stake you can play it as it lies. No penalty.
B.  The letters and circles on the cart path mean that everything beyond the cart path is out of bounds. So you have to take a penalty stroke and play another shot from the tee. After that shot, you will be lying 3.

B is correct.
On both hole #3 and hole #7 you will see “OB” and solid white circles painted on the cart path. Ideally the white wooden stakes would be driven into the cart path or into the ground right beside it. But that is impossible. So, instead, we have these drawings on the cart path. The drawings mean “everything beyond the cart path is OB”. The reason the OB line is so close to the path is because everything beyond the path is private property.

So, your ball is out of bounds and you must take a penalty of stroke and distance.

Open your Rules of Golf book and look at 

Rule 27-1:
 b. Ball Out of Bounds
If a ball is out of bounds, the player must play a ball, under penalty of one stroke, as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5).

REMEMBER: At Beech Mountain, if your ball lies beyond the cart path on the portion of either hole #3 or hole #7 where you see “OB” painted on the cart path, your ball is out of bounds.