What constitutes fairly taking a golf stance? If you have ever played a round of golf, this has happened to you. Let’s set the scene…
“A player’s ball rolled through the fairway, through the first cut, and stopped almost under a relatively small fir tree,” the email I received explained.
“The ball wasn’t under the branches but to hit the ball the player had to back into the tree bending it over to take a stance.
“The question is: Is it OK to back into the tree or bush bending it over – and not breaking it – or should they have taken it as unplayable and dropped appropriately?”
Fairly staking a golf stance
Rule 8.1b deals with what you’re allowed to do when you’re taking actions that improve conditions affecting the stroke. There are nearly a dozen actions that are permissible, but we’re going to set our beady eyes down on number six.
It says that a player can fairly take a stance by taking “reasonable actions to get to the ball and take a stance”.
Does that allow you to bend the branches of a tree or bush? Well, it does if it’s the only reasonable way of getting to the ball.
There is a but, though. You have to use the least intrusive course of action to deal with the particular situation.
Don’t go bending and breaking branches if you can get to the ball in an easier fashion. You’ll be rewarded with the general penalty (two shots or loss of hole in match play) for that bit of senseless vandalism.
And don’t take liberties, either, when it comes to how you set up to the shot. You are not entitled to a “normal stance or swing”.
If you’re still a touch worried, there are some clarifications on this rule that spell out what you can and can’t do in a little more detail.
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The first clarification that should help to set your mind at rest.
You can, for example, back into a branch if that is the “only way to take a stance for the selected stroke”. That’s the case even if “this moves the branch… out of the way or causes it to bend or break”.
You can also bend a branch with your hands to “get under a tree to play a ball when that is the only way to get under the tree to take a stance”,
But, another clarification, warns that deliberately moving, bending, or breaking branches simply to get them out of the way of a backswing or stroke will bring a penalty, as will hooking a branch onto another, or using a hand to bend a branch “that obscures the view of the ball after taking the stance”.
If you could have taken your stance without doing so, “bending an interfering branch in taking a stance” will also bring pain and a penalty.
Got a question for our expert?
Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
What do you think of these rules about fairly taking a golf stance? Let me know by leaving a comment on X.
