What’s had the most impact on the game of club golfers this century? Is it the dawn of the Pro V1 era, or the development of clubs that help even the most average players hit it higher and further?
I’m going to throw this into the ring: I believe rangefinders and golf watches have been huge. We used to play a guessing game with yardages. Now we tap on our wrist and we’ve got all the numbers we could ever need.
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But they say that with great power comes great responsibility. Just what can you do with that information? Enter our emailer’s conundrum.
“At our club, as at many, we are allowed to use lasers to assess distance. After I have used my laser I regularly just read out the number to my playing partners, whether they ask for it or not, is that allowed?
“Also, if another player lasers first I will regularly ask them the distance to the save time of me doing it also, is that allowed?”
So, can you be a spokesperson for the group, or should you keep schtum? Let’s see what the Rules say about advice…
Golf club yardage rules: Can you have a free-for-all on yardages?
A lot of you might instinctively feel that this all right and you would be correct. But do you know why?
You won’t get penalised for reading out numbers or for asking other players to reveal the results of their zapping.
The definition of advice says it does not include “public information” and that includes “the location of things on the course” and “the distance from one point to another”.
It might surprise some of you to learn it also includes wind direction. Just don’t start brandishing handkerchiefs or tissue paper.
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A clarification to the definition reveals just how far you can take this public information line. “The penalty area is 5 yards short of the front edge of the green”. That’s not advice.
But adding “so you might want to use enough club to make sure you carry the ball to the middle of the green” is advice. Do you see the difference?
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 golf club yardage rules? Let me know by leaving a comment below, email me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or get in touch on X.
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