Some golfers believe the Rules of Golf to be really complicated. Too complicated. It’s true that any sport played over a 100-acre patch of land has its quirks.
There are dozens of subsections and clarifications that add to the main 25 playing rules that form the big book.
But they’re largely not the ones catching you out in competitions. No, the ones that cause the real grief – and are the most unwittingly broken rules – are pretty straightforward.
So let’s get into the big five Rules of Golf mistakes I see club players make out on the course. Get on the right path with this quintet and you’ll find playing events a much calmer experience.
Rules of Golf mistakes: The 5 big errors that are easily fixed
Lifting a ball to identify it without marking first
Easily the number one rule I see broken on a golf course – and by players who have been competing at a high enough level to know better.
You’re allowed to identify your ball to check it is yours. You don’t have to tell your playing partners you are doing this.
What you have to do, however, is mark the ball first before you lift or rotate it. If you just bowl in there and pick it up without marking it first, you’re going to pick up a one-shot penalty.
You can’t clean your ball any more than necessary to be able to identify it. And you must replace the ball on its original spot.
5 Rules of Golf mistakes: It’s three minutes to find a golf ball
That’s three minutes. Not five – that hasn’t been the case since the start of 2019 – and it’s certainly not whatever time that suits you until you find the ball.
But this is just part of the dispute. How do you sort it out if you think another player has taken too long to search for a ball?
You may be convinced the sands of time had run out, but if you’re unable to prove it how can you expect a competition committee to make a judgement?
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Start a stopwatch, or a timer on your phone, when a search begins. Then everyone is clear on when time has run out and you’ll have evidence if you decide to make a complaint.
Known or virtually certain in penalty areas
To take penalty area relief, you have to know – or be virtually certain – your ball is in that penalty area.
That means you’ve seen the ball enter it, saw a splash, or your playing partners, or other golfers on the course, saw that ball enter the penalty area.
Virtually certain means that it’s at least 95 per cent likely the event in question happened. If your ball could be lost in long grass, or trees, or anything outside of the penalty area then it isn’t virtually certain.
It’s important you grasp that point because it means you can’t wander up and take lateral relief if it’s a red penalty area.
If you haven’t played a provisional – which you can do if you think your ball MIGHT only be lost in a penalty area (you can’t if it’s known or virtually certain) – then stroke and distance relief is your only option.
Five Rules of Golf mistakes: Dropping it wherever you like
Hey, we’re back on penalty areas again. That’s because they cause some of you lots of problems. If you’ve hit the ball into a pond, for example, and you decide you’re going to take back-on-the-line relief, you can’t just drop it wherever you like in front of that pond.
How many times have you seen someone smack it in a stream and then just wander down and drop a ball right in front?
You must use the last estimated point where the ball crossed the penalty area and then go back keeping that spot in line with the flagstick.
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Depending on the pin position, that can be a long way away from just chucking one down and leaving a flop over the water.
You can’t decide rules are between yourselves
You’ll all have heard this one. A group got themselves in a quandary on the course and, rather than check out the rules (you can do this one your phone with the R&A Rules App), or give the club a quick ring, they clubbed together and decided what the rules probably say.
The problem with that approach in a stroke play competition is that those same rules specifically forbid them doing that.
While players are encouraged to help each other when applying rules, they’ve got no right to decide a rules issue by agreement.
Worse than that for them, it’s not binding. Players don’t have to agree to it, and neither do your competition committee.
They should always raise any issues with that committee before returning their scorecard. And if they are genuinely stuck in stroke play, play a second ball.
- A version of this article also appears in the GCMA’s monthly Insights newsletter that is packed with expert opinion on matters relating to golf club management. Sign up to Insights for FREE here.
Now have your say
How many of these Rules of Golf mistakes have you made? Have you learned anything new? Let me know by leaving a comment on X.
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