Every now and then my inbox chimes with a query that makes my eyes open wide and consider the interesting scenarios that can arise during 18 simple holes of golf. Like this one in the heat of pairs battle…
“During a pairs match, we got halfway round and it was getting colder and colder. My partner said he was just going to pop to his car (we were now opposite the car park) and get a ‘warmer golf jersey to wear’ from the boot.
“It would not have delayed the match as he was parked next to the next hole tees. A member of the opposition pair then commented, ‘you can… but you’ll forfeit the match as you can’t add to your equipment during a match’.
“Is this correct? Does clothing count as ‘equipment’?”
Well. Is it a forfeit, or can you stop and grab whatever you like from your car? As always, let’s open our rule books…
Is picking up clothing an unreasonable delay of play?
If you pick up the jersey, it’s equipment. The definition says it’s “anything used, worn, held or carried by the player or the player’s caddie”.
Can you add equipment? We know there are rules about clubs. Let’s say you started the round with 12. Are you allowed to add clubs during the round up to the 14-club limit? Yes, you are. Rule 4.1b (1) explicitly says you can. The caveat is you can’t unreasonably delay play.
We can apply that principle to this situation as I can’t find anything in the book that says, ‘you didn’t begin the round with this clothing so you can’t add it’.
Let’s then move to Rule 5.6a. Is it unreasonable to pop back to your car to put on a sweater, a coat, or whatever you want?
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As you might have guessed, it rather depends on the time it takes to do it. A lot of these types of rulings come down to interpretation. Does what you’re doing feel justifiable?
A Clarification to Rule 5.6a – considering what’s reasonable or unreasonable – says unreasonable delays are those “that are within the player’s control and affect other players or delay the competition.
“Brief delays that are as a result of normal events that happen during a round or are outside the player’s control are generally treated as ‘reasonable’.”
Examples of what is unreasonable, so the Clarification says, would be going back to the tee from a green to get a lost club or ball hunting for well over the three-minute time period.
But our situation? Given where the car was parked, and as long as the player wasn’t spending ages hunting for the jersey, I’m not sure I’d be rushing in to declare it as an unreasonable delay.
I’d be a hypocrite for a start, as I’ve actually done this myself with a pair of shoes that were crippling my feet and just had to be changed at halfway.
Now, if the vehicle was right on the other side of the car park and it necessitated a couple of minutes of walking to and from the teeing area, that may well be a different story. As I said earlier, it can come down to a judgement call.
What’s the penalty for unreasonable delay of play? It’s one penalty stroke for the first breach, the general penalty for the second (two strokes or loss of hole in match play) and disqualification after the third.
Some of you subsequently got in touch to ask whether the very act of leaving the course and therefore stopping play would be the problem.
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Rule 5.7a says during a round a player must not stop play except when it’s suspended by the committee, because of lightning, or if it’s agreed in match play.
But it also states: “Leaving the course is not, by itself, stopping play”. We’re back to what is considered an unreasonable delay once again.
If you wanted a bit more reassurance, a further Clarification to this rule lays out examples of delays that could result in disqualification. The bar is set at “the player walks off the course in frustration with no intent to return”.
One other thing to remind you about is how the rules are applied during match play games. Contrary to what happens in stroke play, players in a match play game can agree how to decide a rules issue.
That outcome is conclusive “even if it turns out to have been wrong under the Rules, so long as the players did not agree to ignore any Rule or penalty they knew applied”, says Rule 20.1b.
But if there is not agreement or doubt about the Rules are applied, then players can request a ruling.
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 by emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or by leaving us a comment on X.
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