Tough shots and golf seem to go together like strawberries and cream. The ball that’s right behind the tree. The one that’s stuck hard against the face of a bunker. The shot that’s swerved perilously close to a boundary fence.
We’ve all been there and we’ve all looked at weird and wonderful ways of trying to avoid taking unplayable ball relief or, worse, going back under stroke-and-distance.
But how far can you go? That’s at the heart of this week’s emailed poser.
“During a round a player was under a bush. The only way they could play the ball was to use the grip end like a snooker cue. Is this allowed under the Rules?”
Full marks for ingenuity, but is it legal? What lengths can you take to get yourself out of a tricky situation? Let’s take a swing at this golf stroke rule…
Golf stroke rule: Why snooker-style shots will see you fall ‘foul’
Whenever you hit a shot, you must “fairly” strike at the ball with the head of a club. Not the grip, not the shaft, the head.
Rule 10.1a says this can be “any part of the head of the club”, ensuring there is only “momentary contact” between the club and the ball.
So grip-end shots are out. But what if you used the head of the club to try and metaphorically pot the ball?
Rule 10.1a also says you can’t push, scrape or scoop the ball and a clarification adds further meaning to the rule.
It uses the example of a player holing a short putt by hitting the ball with the bottom of the clubhead “using a motion similar to that used in making a shot in billiards”.
This is a push, and it’s not allowed.
Don’t do it unless you want to wreck your scorecard. In match play, the penalty is loss of hole. In stroke play, the shot counts and the player gets two penalty strokes. Ouch.
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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 this golf stroke rule? Let me know by leaving a comment below, email me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or get in touch on X.
