Get your head around the new Rules of Golf terms
When is casual water not, well, casual water? When it’s been called something else in the new 2019 Rules of Golf. Steve Carroll explains all the jargon
If you’ve only just got to know your lateral hazards from your abnormal ground conditions, then I’m afraid it’s time to go back to school. There’s a whole host of new terms in town – and we’re all expected to know them now the rules are in play.
The changes to the rules, which have dominated discussion over the past 18 months, are the most significant in a generation.
The whole review has been designed to make them easier for us to understand and follow.
Part of that has meant changing some of the confusing jargon that blighted getting a good knowledge for many players.
So let’s go through what’s replacing the old and explain some of the alterations in Rules of Golf jargon…
How to understand the new Rules of Golf jargon
Old: Through the green
New: General area
Through the green was always a confusing one for newcomers. After all, what really was ‘through the green’? General area now refers to any part of the course that isn’t a teeing area, penalty area, bunker, or green.
Old: Teeing ground
New: Teeing area
Rather self-explanatory this one, although the new term of teeing area does more adequately convey that there are limits to its size.
A teeing area is a rectangle, two club-lengths deep, where “the front edge is defined by the line between the forward-most points of two tee markers set by the committee”.
The side edges are “defined by the lines back from the outside points of the tee-markers”.
Old: Play prohibited
New: No play zone
This is simply a part of the course where the committee don’t want you hacking out from.
No play zones could be areas that preserve sites of historical interest, protect wildlife, or where play is prevented to protect others from danger.
Whatever it is, no play zone seems a much more satisfactory way of pointing it out on the course.
Old: Abnormal ground condition
New: Abnormal course condition
This change makes sense. It is a condition of the course, after all.
An abnormal course condition refers to either an animal hole, ground under repair, an immovable obstruction or temporary water.
Old: Casual water
New: Temporary Water
No longer will you have to think about water standing idly around on street corners.
There was nothing ever casual about it. It always has been, as the new term states, ‘temporary’.
Old: Outside agency
New: Outside influence
Outside influence refers to the things that can affect what happens to a player’s ball or equipment or to the course. That can include people, animals and artificial objects.
Old: Lateral hazard
New: Red penalty area
Get out of the habit of saying your ball has gone into a hazard. It’s now a penalty area and, as before, there are red and yellow areas.
A red penalty area gives the player an extra lateral relief option in addition to those available for yellow areas.
Old: Nearest point of relief
New: Nearest point of complete relief
The added word ‘complete’ makes things a bit clearer for anyone who might have been confused about how to take relief, particularly when it came to things like temporary water.
Now, there is no doubt. Find the nearest spot where you can take complete relief from an abnormal course condition, dangerous animal condition, a wrong green, or a no play zone.
Remember that it can’t be nearer the hole and it doesn’t guarantee that you will get a good lie.
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.
Have you got your head around this Rules of Golf jargon? Let me know by leaving a comment on X.
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; Caley 01T irons 4-PW; TaylorMade Hi-Toe wedges, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
