You lot have been putting your thinking caps on. This week’s poser is about putting practice – but it comes with with a twist. Check out this email…
“You come back to the clubhouse and find there is a delay at the 10th tee. You decide to have a putt and a chip on or around the practice putting green. Would this be allowable?”
So what’s the score, so to speak? Let’s check out the rules on practising during a round…
Putting practice rules: Can I practise my putting during a round?
Rule 5.5b, which covers practice strokes after completing a hole, is curiously written at first glance. It makes a big fuss of telling you that you must not make a practice stroke after completing a hole before immediately revealing two ways where you can do just that.
An exception to the rule allows you to practise putting or chipping on or near “the teeing area of the next hole” and “the putting green of the hole just completed and any practice green”.
See that last bit? Any practice green? Yep, I was surprised as well. But if you’ve got a practice putting green right on the cusp of the 1st and 10th tees, for example, it seems it’s perfectly acceptable to crack on and try and hole that tricky one you’ve just missed.
Now, as many of you regular rules readers would expect, there are caveats. The first is you can’t unreasonably delay play by doing it. Spending a few minutes trying to iron out that kink in your stroke would be looked on unfavourably by the club hierarchy. We’re talking about a couple of attempts and off you go.
Secondly, and you’ll more likely see this employed in high profile tournaments than at your home club, some committees aren’t too keen at all on you working on your putting and chipping while a round is ongoing.
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That might be because of pace of play fears but, whatever their reasoning, they can bring in a Local Rule prohibiting it – either from the previous green or “on or near any practice green between the play of two holes.”
So if you’re going to get caught up in such activities, make sure to run through the club’s Local Rules first.
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 make of this rule? Do you think it would be an unreasonable delay of play? Let me you what you think and send me your own rules questions by emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or by leaving us a comment on X.
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