Following changes to the rules in the way courses can now be setup we have made the area behind the 9th green a penalty area as now marked out with red stakes. This will mean that should you hit your ball in this area you can proceed as before by playing it or dropping under penalty but also if you are sure your ball is in the penalty area, the ball does not now have to be found. We made this decision to help speed up play and to avoid players having to spend time looking for their ball and then potentially going back to replay the last shot.
It will still be better to hit the green in the first place! 🙂