How much time can I spend clearing leaves off the green?

I love Autumn. The golf course is full of beautiful colours and it’s still warm enough to convince you that winter isn’t about to pounce. What I love less about the season is that trees start losing their leaves and, for golfers, that means trouble.

If your golf course has a penchant for being an environmental refuge then the green can get particularly covered and you can have loads of them blocking your line.

Now, everyone knows that unattached leaves are loose impediments and can you can usually remove them anywhere and in any way under Rule 15.1. There’s also no penalty for accidentally causing the ball to move if you do it while removing loose impediments on the putting green under Rule 13.1d (1).

But how long can you spend doing a bit of sweeping? Is there a time limit if you’re trying to clear a way to the hole? Let’s have a look…

What can I do about leaves on the green?

Can you swish away with abandon? No, you need to make sure that what you’re doing is not unreasonably delaying play. Otherwise, you’d spend all day picking up every tiny little leaf that might affect your putt on the way to the hole.

So what’s an unreasonable delay? For that, we can scan a clarification to Rule 5.6a, which states that it is actions that are ‘within the player’s control and affect other players or delay the competition’.

Brief delays, on the other hand, that are a ‘result of normal events that happen during a round or are outside the player’s control’ are generally considered to be reasonable.

To figure out what is unreasonable, or not, you have to consider the circumstances and that includes ‘whether the player is waiting for other players in the group or the group ahead’.

As you’ll probably have figured out by now, if you use your common sense you’ll stay out of trouble here.

If you’ve got people waiting behind you, or you’re at risk of holding up your own group, don’t spend too long mopping up leaves. A breach of Rule 5.6a comes with a penalty of one stroke for the first time and two shots for a second, or loss of hole in match play. It’s three strikes and out for those who just won’t learn. A third breach means disqualification.

But if you do find yourself a bit strapped for time, don’t think that means you need bear the burden alone.

You are allowed to ask for help in removing loose impediments so don’t be shy in getting those playing partners involved!

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 about these rules about leaves on the green? Let me know by leaving a comment on X.

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