At Desert Storm in Phoenix most all of us carry a desert club for those odd errant shots that might find the rock and gravel that is the desert. I play ping i5 so they are virtually indestructible and hit them from anywhere , off rocks etc. Some guys hit their forgings in there as well .
up here if in a competitive event , play it no matter what it sits on or in ...if I have a shot. Ive hit a number of shots off a cart path or bd surface if the nearest relief area isnt going to provide me with a good option . This happened yesterday in a tourney where my nearest relief from the cart path was in knee high fescue with a steep slope.
In a casual round , and I feel I can injure myself or badly damage my club, just take an unplayable and penalty.
so there are lots of options.