Can my club force me to use a fairway mat?

It’s often an exercise in carrot and stick – we’re talking, of course, about encouraging players to use fairway mats in winter.

For those clubs that bring them in to try and preserve the quality of their turf over the cold months, it’s often an order but it can be difficult to impose.

But committees dealing with the odd awkward member, or those who just flat out refuse to come to heel, can wheel out a rules weapon to devastating effect.

Model Local Rule E-12 can enforce the compulsory use of fairway mats.

What happens if I won’t use a fairway mat?

The general penalty (two strokes or loss of hole in match play) is the sanction each time that is breached as players are judged to be playing from a wrong place.

The Local Rule isn’t recommended for use outside the fairway in the general area and isn’t authorised to restrict the use of putters in specific areas.

And it also, helpfully, outlines what players should do when they are using a mat and the ball won’t stay on it.

The Local Rule states the mat “must be placed” on top of the spot where the ball came to rest, and if the ball when placed rolls off the mat, the player must try to place it a second time.

If it still won’t stay put, the mat is moved to the nearest spot – no closer to the hole – where the “ball will come to rest on the mat when placed”.

If the ball on the mat is accidentally moved before a stroke is made, there’s no penalty and it must be placed again on the mat. If a tee is used to secure the mat, “the ball must not be placed on the tee”.

So rather than sending out another desperate email pleading with players not to rip up the precious turf, and to use fairway mats, clubs can now take direct action in competitions.

Now have your say

Has your club brought in this Local Rule for a golf fairway mats? What do you think of it? Let me know with a comment on X.

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