Can you stand behind a player in your group and watch them putt?
You know you can’t be on an extension of the line behind a partner, but what if it’s an opponent or another player in stroke play?
The restricted area. It might sound like something out of Area 51 but it should be familiar to most of us who play in competitions.
It stops a caddie “deliberately standing on or close to an extension of the line of play behind the ball”.
You’ll find it in Rule 10.2b (4) and it’s expanded upon in fourball and foursomes play – with a specific addition in Rules 22 and 23 saying a player can’t take those actions “while their partner is making a stroke to gain information for their (the player’s) next stroke.
But do those rules also apply to your opponents in a match play game, or anyone else who happens to be in your group if it was stroke play?
Golf rules: Standing behind player putting
You might want to sit down. Hard as it is to believe, given what happens to team-mates and partners who do it, there is nothing in the Rules of Golf to stop a fellow competitor in stroke play, or an opponent in match play, standing wherever they like.
Yes, that means they can be right behind you tracking the exact line of your putt all the way to the hole.
The Rules we’ve looked at here: 10.2b (4), Rule 22.6, and Rule 23.8 only apply to caddies and players standing behind a partner. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and read them for yourselves.
So do you just have to grin and bear it, even though you might also consider it a massive etiquette no-no?
Rule 1.2a, which looks at standards of player conduct, expects all players to “play in the spirit of the game” and one of the examples given is not distracting the play of another player.
Even then there is no penalty under the Rules for failing to act in this way.
If it was proving to be an issue at your club, they could try and tackle it through their Code of Conduct.
It could probably legislate for “being disrespectful of other players” but only insofar as penalising a distracting player for refusing to move when asked.
There is nothing, though, that actually stops them from standing there in the first place.
Got a question for our Rules of Golf expert?
Despite the simplification of the Rules of Golf at the beginning of 2019, 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 rules standing behind player putting? Would you be happy if a member of your group stood behind you while you putted? Let me know with a tweet.
Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
